300 DOC. 42 SPECIAL AND
GENERAL RELATIVITY
SIXTEEN
Experience
and
the
Special
Theory
of
Relativity
[24]
To
what
extent is
the
special theory
of
relativity sup-
ported
by experience?
This
question
is not
easily
an-
swered
for
the
reason
already
mentioned in connection
with the fundamental
experiment
of Fizeau.
The
special
the-
ory
of
relativity
has
crystallised out
from
the Maxwell-Lorentz
theory
of
electromagnetic phenomena.
Thus
all
facts
of
expe-
rience which
support
the
electromagnetic theory
also
support
the
theory
of
relativity.
As
being
of
particular importance,
I
mention here the fact
that
the
theory
of
relativity
enables
us
to
predict
the effects
produced
on
the
light reaching
us
from the
fixed
stars.
These
results
are
obtained
in
an
exceedingly simple
manner,
and the effects
indicated,
which
are
due
to
the relative
motion
of
the earth with reference
to
those fixed
stars,
are
found
to
be
in accord
with
experience.
We refer
to
the
yearly
movement
of the
apparent position
of the fixed
stars resulting
from the motion of
the
earth round the
sun
(aberration),
and
to
the
influence
of the
radial
components
of
the relative motions
of the fixed
stars
with
respect
to
the earth
on
the
colour
of
the
light reaching
us
from
them.
The
latter effect manifests itself
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