DOC.
3
INAUGURAL LECTURE
17
established
general
laws.
Instead,
he
must
rather remain in
a
state
of
helplessness
vis–
ä–vis
the individual
results of
empirical
research until
principles
reveal themselves
to
him
so
that he
can
make them the basis
of
deductive
developments.
Presently, theory
is in
just
that
position
with
respect
to
the laws of heat
radiation
and molecular movement at low
temperatures.
Just fifteen
years ago, nobody
doubted
that
Galilei-Newtonian
mechanics and the
Maxwellian
theory
of
the
electromag-
netic field
as a
basis
of
molecular
movements
would lead
to
a
correct
description
of
the
electrical,
optical,
and thermal
properties
of
matter.
Just then
Planck
showed that
the establishment
of
a
law
of
heat radiation consistent with
experience, required
a
method
of
calculation whose
incompatibility
with the
principles
of classical
[p.
741]
mechanics
was becoming ever
more apparent.
With this method
of
calculation
Planck
introduced
to
physics
the so-called
quantum-hypothesis,
which has since
found
outstanding
confirmation. With this
quantum hypothesis
he
toppled
classical
mechanics for those situations where
we
have
sufficiently
small
masses
with
sufficiently
small velocities and
sufficiently large
accelerations-so
that
today
we
can
accept
the laws
of
motion established
by
Galilei
and
Newton
only
as
limit-laws.
But, despite
the
most strenuous
efforts
of
theoreticians,
we
have not succeeded in
replacing
the
principles
of mechanics with those that
are
adequate
for
Planck's
law
of heat radiation
or
the
quantum hypothesis.
As
incontrovertibly as
it has been
proven
that heat derives from molecular
movement,
we
still must concede
today
that the
basic laws
of
this movement confront
us
in
a
similar
manner as
the
planetary
movements confronted the
pre-Newtonian astronomers.
I
just
pointed
out
a
set of facts for whose theoretical treatment
we
lack
the
principles.
But it
can happen as
well that
clearly
formulated
principles
lead
to
conclusions that
are completely
or
almost
completely
outside the domain of facts that
are presently
accessible
to
our experience.
In this
case,
protracted experimental
research
may
be
needed in order to find out whether
or
not
the theoretical
principles
correspond
to
reality.
Such
a case
offers itself with the
theory
of
relativity.
An
analysis
of
the
temporal
and
spatial
base
concepts
has shown that the theorem
of
a
constant
light velocity
in
vacuum,
which follows from the
optics
of
moving
matter,
does
not
at all force
us
toward
a theory
of
a
light-ether
at
rest. Instead,
it has
been
possible
to
establish
a general
theory
that takes
cognizance
of the fact that the
translatory
motion of the earth is
never
noticeable in the
experiments
conducted
on
earth.
Thereby we use
the
relativity principle,
which
states:
laws of
nature
do
not
change
their
form
when
one changes
from the
original
(admissible)
coordinate
system
to
a
new one
that is
in
uniform
translatory
motion
relative
to
the former. This
theory
found
noteworthy
confirmation
in
experience
and has led to
a simplification
of the
theoretical
description
of whole
complexes
of facts that
were already
connected.
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