DOCS.
298,
299 FEBRUARY
1917 285
298. To
Paul Ehrenfest
[Berlin,]
14 February 1917
Dear
Ehrenfest,
Very,
very
unfortunately,
I can’t
come
this
time,
as
much
as
I
would
like to
be
present
at
your
celebration[1]
and to
see
all of
you again.
For
I
am
quite
infirm from
a
liver
condition,[2]
which
imposes upon
me a
very
quiet lifestyle
and
the strictest
diet
& regimen.
This
protracted
thing
was
the
cause
of
my
constant
sickly appearance.[3]
Tell Lorentz and de
Sitter
directly,
so
that
they
do
not
plague
me
in
vain with
letters.
De Sitter’s condition
concerns me;
please
write
me
about
it
in
a
bit
more
detail.
I
hope
it
does not
involve
a
tuberculous
infection.[4]
I
am
sending you my
new paper.[5]
My
solution
may appear
adventurous
to
you,
but
for
the
moment
it
seems
to
me
to
be
the
most
natural
one.
From the measured
stellar
densities,
a
universe radius
of
the
order
of
magnitude 107 light years results,
thus
unfortunately
being
very large against
the
distances
of
observable
stars.[6]
The
odd
thing is
that
now a
quasi-absolute
time and
a
preferred
coordinate
system
do
reappear
in
the
end,
while
fully complying
with all
the
requirements
of
relativity.
Please show
the
paper
also
to
Lorentz
and de Sitter. Has Lorentz received
the
letter
by Waldeyer?[7]
Warm
greetings
also
to
your
family,
yours,
Einstein.
299. To Walter Dällenbach
[Berlin,
after
15 February
1917][1]
Dear
Dällenbach,
Your observations
are,
in
my
view,
to
a
high
degree
legitimate.[2] Strictly
speaking, even
the
concept
of
the
ds2,s
evaporates
into
an
empty
abstraction,
in
that
ds2
cannot be construed
strictly
as a
measurement
result,
not
even
in
the
absence of
electromagnetic
fields. You
have indicated the
reasons
for
this
entirely
correctly.
Even
so,
in
a
reasonable didactic
exposition
of
the
theory,
ds2 will
be
treated
as
though
it
were
strictly
measurable. The
issue
here
runs
analogously
to
that
in electrical
science,
where
the
definitions
for
e
and
f
are
given,
even
though
these definitions do not hold out
against
strict
criticism.
A
logically
more
satisfactory description
is
obtainable
(a
posteriori) by
relat-
ing
the
theory’s
more
complex
individual solutions
to
observed facts.
A
standard
could then be correlated
with
a
certain
type
of
atomic
system
that
could not
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