DOC.
6
PONDEROMOTIVE
FORCES
257
Lecture delivered to
the
Societe Suisse de Physique
(Schweizerische
Naturforschende
Gesellschaft),
Basel,
6
September
1910.
Published
in Archives des sciences
physiques et
naturelles
30
(1910):
323-324. Published
15
July
1910.
[1]"mathematique"
should
be
"magnetique."
[2]See,
e.g.,
Abraham
1905,
p. 319,
which
is
cited
in
Einstein
and
Laub
1908b
(Vol. 2,
Doc.
52),
p.
545,
as an
example
of the standard
view.
[3]The
expression
[iH]
(where
the
square
brackets denote the
vector
product)
for the
force
density on
a
current
element of
magnetizable
material
was
first
proposed by
Einstein and Jakob
Laub
in
Einstein
and
Laub
1908b
(Vol.
2,
Doc.
52).
Einstein had
already
used the
thought
experiment
described in the
following
in
a
successful
attempt
to convince Sommerfeld of this
expression, calling
it
an
"extremely
amusing
and
simple
special
case"
("überaus lustigen
und
einfachen
Spezialfall");
see
Einstein
to
Jakob
Laub, 27
August 1910,
and also Einstein
to
Jakob
Laub, 4
November
1910,
for another
comment
on
this
example.
For
a
discussion of Einstein's
and Laub's
work,
as
well
as
of its
reception
and of
subsequent developments, see
Vol.
2,
the
editorial
note,
"Einstein and Laub
on
the
Electrodynamics
of
Moving Media," pp. 503-507, in
particular pp.
506-507.
[4]The
principle
of the
equality
of action and reaction had
played
a key
role also
in
the
argument
given
in
Einstein and Laub
1908b
(Vol.
2,
Doc.
52);
see
in
particular
p.
547.
[5]The
present paper is
discussed,
e.g.,
in Gans
1911,
where
it
is
claimed
that, while
both
expressions
(1)
and
(2)
are
correct
for
special
cases,
neither of them
is
valid
in
general.
Einstein
later
expressed a
similar
view;
see
Einstein
to
Jakob
Laub,
10 August
1911.
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