3 8 V O L U M E 8 , D O C U M E N T 2 8 7 a
foolish. You also said so in your letter. What would you say if someone explained
a mechanical phenomenon by converted heat, but set it equivalent to 10.7 · 4.2 ·
107?
[9]
The best thing about Gerber supposedly is that he derives the forces incor-
rectly from his already adventurous
potential.[10]
I owe this to Sommerfeld, who
heard it from Seliger. Flamm’s paper is quite nice. The light paths are always geo-
desic
lines.[11]
There are pretty static and metrically isotropic solutions to the gravitational
equations. I calculated them together with a fellow Russian tribal
comrade.[12]
At
infinity the ’s degenerate in such a way that the vel. of light becomes infinite
and the inertia zero. Such a world necessarily has naturally measured infinitely
large mass. It is apparently not possible for an entire universe of finite mass to exist,
in this sense, even if you abandon the isotropic requirement. I cannot answer many
of your questions, because I haven’t analyzed them either.
The gravitational energy does not become negative—at least to first approxima-
tion. It is hard to say whether it is “merely a counting chip.” The concept is just as
valid as that of kinetic energy in classical
mechanics.[13]
I’ll send you the wave pa-
per; it’s quite
pretty.[14]
I hope, by the time you receive this letter, not just Anna but you too have the flu
behind
you.[15]
I am sweating profusely over a popular book I am writing about the
theories of
rel.[16]
The first part about the special theory is already finished.
My brain is in quite an ebb, which isn’t at all unpleasant, though. Someone in
Munich has apparently found a quite fabulous way to prove the bending of light
rays from existing observations. About that another time!
Warm greetings to both of you, yours,
Albert.
Vol. 8, 287a. To Heinrich Zangger
[Berlin,] Monday, 8 January
[1917][1]
Dear friend Zangger!
That’s quite a calamity about the money. I just found out from my bank that they
still could not issue my check made out to you in the amount of
1500,[2]
because
they have not been able to obtain the consent to send out the
money.[3]
This can lead
to quite considerable difficulties in future. No dams exist that could withstand such
a difference of economic levels in the long run. This period must be splendid for a
theoretical political economist, likewise for a social psychologist, who would have
liked to have cast all things human aside. I am terribly eager to set out to see you
again on the island of the relatively uninvolved who are weathering this storm un-
der the cheerful motto “more luck than wits.” I am living here somewhat like a drop
g
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