2006-11-12 21:20 Longxiang Pavilion | Level 10
The miracle
Einstein created an unprecedented miracle in the history of science. He wrote six papers this year. In the six months from March to September, he used his spare time after working eight hours a day at the Patent Office to make four epoch-making contributions in three fields. He published Four important papers were published on the quantum theory of light, molecular size determination,
theory and special relativity.
In March, Einstein sent the paper he believed to be correct to the editorial office of the German "Annals of Physics". He shyly said to the editor: "I would be very happy if you could find space in your annual report to publish this paper for me." The paper he was "embarrassed" to send was called "About Light" A Speculative View of Generation and Transformation”.
This paper extends the quantum concept proposed by Planck
to the propagation of light in space and proposes the light quantum hypothesis. It is believed that: for time averages, light behaves as fluctuations; for instantaneous values, light behaves as particles. This is the first time in history that the unity of wave nature and particle nature of microscopic objects is revealed, that is, wave-particle duality.
At the end of this article, he easily explained
the unexplainable
using the concept of light quantum, and deduced that the maximum energy of photoelectrons is the same as the frequency of incident light relationship between. This relationship was experimentally confirmed by Millikan 10 years later. In 1921, Einstein won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his "discovery of the laws".
This is just the beginning,
·Einstein went hand in hand in the three fields of light, heat, and electrical physics,
. In April 1905, Einstein completed "A New Method for Determining the Size of Molecules" and in May he completed "The Movement of Suspended Particles in Hydrostatic Liquids Required by the Molecular Kinetic Theory of Heat". These are two papers about
's research. Einstein's purpose at that time was to determine the actual size of molecules by observing the irregular motion of suspended particles produced by the fluctuation phenomenon of molecular motion, so as to solve the atomic problem that has been debated in the scientific and philosophical circles for more than half a century. Does the problem exist?
Three years later, French physicist Perrin confirmed Einstein's theoretical predictions with sophisticated experiments. Thus
proved the objective existence of atoms and molecules, which made Ostwald, the most determined opponent of atomism in Germany
and the founder of energyism, come to
>
Proactively announced: "The atomic hypothesis has become a scientific theory with a solid foundation."
In June 1905, Einstein completed the long paper "On the Theory of Moving Bodies" that pioneered physics
, and fully proposed the special theory of relativity . This is the result of Einstein's 10 years of brewing and exploration. It has largely solved the crisis of classical physics that emerged at the end of the 19th century, changed the concept of time and space, and revealed the relationship between matter and energy. Equivalence has created a new world of physics and is the greatest revolution in the field of modern physics.
The special theory of relativity can not only explain all the phenomena that
can explain, but also explain some physical phenomena that
cannot explain, and predicts many new phenomena. effect. The most important conclusion of the special theory of relativity is that the principle of conservation of mass has lost its independence. It is integrated with the law of conservation of energy. Mass and energy can be converted into each other. Others include the more commonly mentioned clocks that slow down and shrink, the speed of light remains unchanged,
's rest mass is zero, etc. Classical mechanics has become a limiting case of relativistic mechanics when moving at low speeds. In this way, mechanics and electromagnetism are unified on the basis of kinematics.
In September 1905, Einstein wrote a short article "Is the inertia of an object related to the energy it contains?" ", as a corollary of the theory of relativity. The equivalence of mass and energy is the theoretical basis of
and
, and also opened the way for the release and utilization of
realized in the 1940s.
In this short period of six months, Einstein's breakthrough achievements in science can be said to be "ground-breaking and unprecedented."
Even if he gave up the study of physics, even if he only completed any of the above three aspects of achievements, Einstein would have left an extremely important mark in the history of the development of physics. Einstein cleared away the "dark clouds in the clear sky of physics" and ushered in a more brilliant future in physics
The exploration of general relativity
After the establishment of special relativity, Einstein Einstein was not satisfied and tried to extend the application scope of the principle of relativity to non-inertial systems. He found a breakthrough from the ancient experimental fact that all objects in the world had the same acceleration, and proposed the equivalence principle in 1907. In this year, his university teacher and famous writer proposed a representation of the special theory of relativity, which provided useful mathematics for the further development of the theory of relativity. Tool, but it is a pity that Einstein did not realize its value at the time.
Einstein considered the discovery of the equivalence principle to be the happiest thought in his life, but his subsequent work was very difficult and took a lot of detours.
He analyzed a rigid rotating disk and realized that
Medium Euclidean geometry was not strictly valid. At the same time, it was also discovered that the Lorenz change is not universal, and the equivalence principle is only valid for infinitesimal areas... At this time, Einstein already had the idea of ??general relativity, but he still lacked the necessary tools to establish it. Einstein returned to his alma mater to work. With the help of Grossmann, his classmate and professor of mathematics at his alma mater, he found the mathematical tools to establish the general theory of relativity in Riemannian geometry and tensor analysis. After a year of hard cooperation, they published the important paper "Outline of General Relativity and Theory of Gravity" in 1913, proposing the metric field theory of gravity. This is the first time that gravity and metrics have been combined to give Riemannian geometry real physical meaning.
However, the equation they obtained at that time was only covariant for linear transformations and did not have the covariance under any
conditions required by the principle of general relativity. . This is because Einstein was not familiar with tensor operations at the time and mistakenly believed that as long as he adhered to the law of conservation, he had to limit his choices. In order to maintain causality, he had to give up the requirement of universal covariance.