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By Tom Crosby Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity and E=mc². His simple-looking equation linked time and space as well as ene
Text(正文):
By Tom Crosby
Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity and E=mc². His simple-looking equation linked time and space as well as energy, mass and the speed of light.
Albert Einstein himself explained his E=mc² equation in which energy is equal to mass multiplied by the square of the velocity of light where a very small amount of mass may be converted into a very large amount of energy.
Brad Lemley, a contributing editor to Discover, a science magazine, In an article for Discover titled "A Tangled Life," he looked into the simplicity the famed scientist sought to bring to the mysteries surrounding time, light and space:
"It was his simplicity that led him to a lot of the insights that he came to rather than thinking (about) a lot of deep, abstract mathematical concepts. He still had this great ability to take the simplest experience and turn that into physical knowledge.
"For example, it occurred to him when you fell off a roof while you are falling you are weightless. Well, this doesn't matter to you or me. We tend to think of the consequences of hitting the ground. But Einstein had the ability to understand that because you are weightless that has profound implications for the nature of gravity. When you are under gravity's sway at that particular moment, you are in fact inside of a warp in space time rather than rather than in the grip of a field if that means anything to you. It meant something to Einstein."
Simplicity may have been the key that unlocked a door and allowed Gillett Griffin into the life of Albert Einstein. "I think that the reason he liked me was that I was simple," says Mr. Griffin. "He could relax and know that nothing would go any further and I was not testing him at every corner."
In 1954, an invitation to dinner at the Einstein home in Princeton, New Jersey, and a toy brought Gillett Griffin into the life and family of Albert Einstein. The dinner party included Professor Einstein's stepdaughter, Margot, his housekeeper and another woman.
"And then mid-way through dessert he apologized. Said he had to get to work. Said he had a lot of things on his mind. And so I thanked him profusely. As he was leaving the room I turned to the ladies and said, 'Let me help with the dishes,'" says Mr. Griffin. "Einstein turned around and said, 'Ach, in Europe the men never do the dishes.' And I prevailed anyway. They let me dry.
"When the dishes were all done I thought I had better leave, and I was getting ready to leave and thanking everybody. And Elaine Dukos said, 'Did the professor show you his bird?' And I said no and she called upstairs. The typewriter was banging away upstairs. She said, 'Professor, you need to show Griffin your bird.' The typewriter stopped," continues Mr. Griffin.
"He came shuffling down the backstairs with a twinkle in his eye, beckoned with his head, went to a sort of baroque cabinet, pulled out a plastic dickey bird with suction cups and wound it up (and) stuck it on the mirror. Instead of watching the dickey bird going up the mirror, he watched my face. When the dickey bird hit the frame at the top, it fell into his hand. He said, 'Did you like it?' I said, 'I loved it.' Eventually I got three different telephone calls from the three ladies saying, 'consider yourself part of the family.' So how's that?" laughs Mr. Griffin. |
