48.
"Marian von Smoluchowski"
[Einstein
1917g]
Published
14
December
1917
In: Die
Naturwissenschaften 5
(1917):
737-738.
DOC. 47 JACOBI’S THEOREM
575
Published in
Königlich Preußische
Akademie der
Wissenschaften (Berlin). Sitzungsberichte
(1917):
606-608. Submitted 22 November
1917, published
29 November
1917.
[1]Einstein
lectured
on
the
topic
of this
paper
at
the
meeting
of
27
April
1917
of the Deut-
sche
Physikalische
Gesellschaft
(see
Deutsche
Physikalische Gesellschaft. Verhandlungen
19
(1917): 77).
He
was
already
concerned with the Hamilton-Jacobi
theory
in
the fall of
1916 (see
Einstein
to
Constantin
Carathéodory,
6
September 1916,
and Constantin
Carathéodory
to
Ein-
stein, 16
December
1916).
See also Einstein 1917d
(Doc. 45)
for Einstein’s
use
of Jacobi’s the-
orem
in the
context
of
quantum theory.
[2]In
the letter
to
Carathéodory
cited
in
the
previous
note,
Einstein criticizes the
proof
given
in
Appell
1904,
a
well-known mechanics
textbook,
which
is in
his
personal library.
