DOCS.
190,
191
FEBRUARY
1916 193
190. To Hermann Struve
[Berlin,]
13 February
1916
Highly
esteemed
Colleague,
Many
thanks
for
the
Astron. Nachrichten
issue,
which I
am
returning
here-
with.
Seeliger’s
article
told
me
nothing new.[1]
Of
great
interest
was
Ludendorff’s,
from which
I
learned how
incomplete
the
available observational
data
still
are.[2]
But the
good
news
is
that
one
gets
the
impression
that data
leading
to
a
definite
decision
are
bound
to
come
in
bit
by
bit.
The
following
can
be asked
in
connection with Ludendorff’s
article:
Do weaker stars of
the
same
spectral
class have
on average a
smaller
mass
as
well?
This
could
be answered in
the
case
of
binary
stars whose
mass
quantities
can
be
obtained
through
averaging.
Should
there
turn
out to be
a
significant
correlation,
then
Ludendorff’s
approach
could
prove very
valuable in
the
future.
As
long
as
the
average
error
exceeds
the
determined redshift
(p.
79,
first
col-
umn),
the
result remains
completely
uncertain, at
least
if
“w[ith]
e[rror]”
for
the
result indicates
the
dreaded
error,
not those
attached
to
the
individual determi-
nations
of
stellar
velocity,
which
seems
to
be
the
case.
In
any
case,
I
see
that
Freundlich’s result
is
by
no means
secure,
not
even
qualitatively.[3]
However,
credit should be
given
to
Freundlich for
having
been
the
first to
point
out
a
practicable way
to
test
the
question.-
I
thank
you very
much
for
your amiability during
my
visit
with
you.
I
am
very
glad
to
see
that
our good
personal
relations do not suffer from
our
differences of
opinion
in
certain
scientific
questions.[4]
I
am
also
glad
that
now
there
appears
to be
a
possibility
to
solve
the
unpleasant
Freundlich
situation
in
a
satisfactory
manner.[5]
With best
regards, yours
very truly,
A.
Einstein.
191.
To Otto Stern
[Berlin,
15 February
1916]
Dear Mr.
Stern,
This
time
you
have shot wide
of the
mark, as you
will
recognize
from
the
following comparison.
On
a
solid
horizontal base
lies
a
pencil
(1st
state).
It
can
also
stand
(2nd
state). Energy
difference E for
both
states
(owing
to
gravity) very
substantial.
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