D O C . 4 4 T H E T H E O R Y O F R E L AT I V I T Y 1 0 3 Published in Reclam Praktisches Wissen, 1927, pp. 5–8. Dated by date of submission, see Abs. 112. [1] This thought experiment and accompanying figure were first presented in Einstein 1917a (Vol. 6, Doc. 42), sec. 9. [2] See Michelson and Morley 1887. Einstein seems to implicitly refer here to the Lorentz-FitzGerald contraction hypothesis. [3] This thought experiment, used to demonstrate an early version of the equivalence principle, also appears in Einstein 1917a (Vol. 6, Doc. 42), sec. 20. [4] Ernst Mach. For Mach’s criticism of Newtonian mechanics, particularly the Newtonian notions of absolute space and time, see Mach 1897, chap. 2, sec. VI. For a critical discussion of Mach’s approach in this regard, see Stein 1977, sec. V. [5] For a discussion of the eclipse experiments that first made the observations that Einstein refers to here, see Vol. 7, Introduction, sec. III. The deflection of light was also confirmed by similar eclipse observations in 1922, this time carried out by a team from the Lick observatory their results are reported in Davidson 1922. [6] Hermann Minkowski. [7] Quote from the opening paragraph of Minkowski 1909. [8] For analyses of Einstein recognizing that Gaussian coordinates were required in the theory of general relativity, see Stachel 2007 and Renn and Sauer 2007 in Janssen et. al 2007. [9] For further elaboration on Einstein’s understanding of the relationship between geometry and physics in the context of general relativity, see Einstein 1928e (Doc. 152).
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