3 1 6 D O C U M E N T 3 3 0 D E C E M B E R 1 9 2 8 329. “Fundamental Concepts of Physics and Their Most Recent Changes” [Einstein 1928t] Published 9 December 1928 In: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 9 December 1928, Supplement 7: 1–4. [See documentary edition for English text.] 330. To Chaim Herman Müntz [Berlin,] 10 December 1928 Dear Mr. Müntz, Everything in your calculations seems to be in order, especially also in the last communication.[1] Your results make it particularly appealing to take the ansatz for the centrally symmetric case from the beginning in such a way that the vanish. Now, it is important to have a closer look at the electromagnetic equations. An especially important point is whether they take the form as in the older theory, or in addition to these terms, some others remain that can be interpreted as current densities. In the first approximation, there are naturally no such terms. If indeed no “current densities” in this sense are present, then it is certain that in this theory there are no singularity-free electric bodies, even if one dropped the as- sumption of central symmetry.— In any case, we are on the right path with the theory of distant parallelism. Best regards, your A. Einstein In the meantime, I myself have seen that the electromagnetic equation must take the form while the supplementary terms vanish owing to the other field equations.[2] g 14 , g 24, g 34 x 0 = x ----- 0 =
Previous Page Next Page