Einstein's Miraculous Year: Five Papers That Changed the Face of Physics

By Albert Einstein

Book Overview

Five extraordinary papers by Albert Einstein that transformed physics, edited and introduced by John Stachel and with a foreword by Nobel laureate Roger Penrose

After 1905, Einstein's miraculous year, physics would never be the same again. In those twelve months, Einstein shattered many cherished scientific beliefs with five extraordinary papers that would establish him as the world's leading physicist. This book brings those papers together in an accessible format. The best-known papers are the two that founded special relativity: On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies and Does the Inertia of a Body Depend on Its Energy Content? In the former, Einstein showed that absolute time had to be replaced by a new absolute: the speed of light. In the second, he asserted the equivalence of mass and energy, which would lead to the famous formula E = mc2
.
The book also includes On a Heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light, in which Einstein challenged the wave theory of light, suggesting that light could also be regarded as a collection of particles. This helped to open the door to a whole new world--that of quantum physics. For ideas in this paper, he won the Nobel Prize in 1921.

The fourth paper also led to a Nobel Prize, although for another scientist, Jean Perrin. On the Movement of Small Particles Suspended in Stationary Liquids Required by the Molecular-Kinetic Theory of Heat concerns the Brownian motion of such particles. With profound insight, Einstein blended ideas from kinetic theory and classical hydrodynamics to derive an equation for the mean free path of such particles as a function of the time, which Perrin confirmed experimentally. The fifth paper, A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions, was Einstein's doctoral dissertation, and remains among his most cited articles. It shows how to calculate Avogadro's number and the size of molecules.

These papers, presented in a modern English translation, are essential reading for any physicist, mathematician, or astrophysicist. Far more than just a collection of scientific articles, this book presents work that is among the high points of human achievement and marks a watershed in the history of science.

Coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the miraculous year, this new paperback edition includes an introduction by John Stachel, which focuses on the personal aspects of Einstein's youth that facilitated and led up to the miraculous year.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691122288
• ISBN13: 9780691122281
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A reader reaction to the collection of 1905 papers

Einstein's Miraculous Year: Five Papers That Changed the Face of Physics What a pleasure to read the original papers on Special Relatvity with eactly the content provided by Einstein. In our physics classes we we studied this original material in conjunction with later material added by Lorentz and Minkowski.. The original material is fascinating in its simplicity. The rest of the book is other work done by Einstein in 1905, incuding hs dissertation onthe size of molecules, Brownian Motion, and the quantum hypothesis. We find out things we have never heard in John Stachel's interesting introductions to the papers. For example, the only comment that his thesis advisor had on Einstein's dissertation was that it was too short. Einstein then added a single sentence and the paper was accepted. If any grad student ever deserved a PhD, he must surely be Einstein. This book is an invaluable reference to anyone studying the history of modern physics.

Special Relativity Doesn't Work(written by Jim Spinosa)

Einstein's Miraculous Year is edited by John Stachel. The genius of Einstein is presented with clarity in these translations. Surprisingly, I find the special relativity theory presented in his paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" unconvincing. If we don't accept Einstein's definition of time,special relativity is invalidated. His definition on page 126 is deliberately inadequate and only proper for a system at absolute rest. On page 129, he tacitly acknowledges this, when he describes the time it takes for a light ray to make a round-trip journey in a moving system. The formulas in the middle of page 132 attempt to reconcile his inadequate definition with the behavior of a light ray in a moving system. Scrutiny reveals the formulas are hoaxes. A calculus textbook such as Calculus and its Applications with its chapter on partial derivatives,which explains "total differential", is helpful. Ambiguously,on page 130,Einstein states, "Let there be two coordinate systems, i.e. two systems of three mutually perpendicular rigid material lines originating from one point. Let the X-axes of the two systems coincide...." If the two coordinate systems are made of rigid material lines, it is impossible for the X-axes to coincide.

E = mc²

This book is a compilation of five important papers including Albert Einstein's dissertation, all published in Annalen der Physik the year 1905. The papers are; (1) "A new determination of molecular dimensions". Which is Einstein's dissertation. (2) On the motion of Small particles Suspended in Liquids at Rest Required by the Molecular-Kinetic Theory of Heat. This is what is referred to as Brownian Motion. (3) On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies. This is what is referred to as the special theory of relativity. This paper is to some degree a synthesis of work done by H.A. Lorentz and Henri Poincare, which is common in science (and Lorentz is given his fair due). (4) Does the Inertia of a Body Depend on Its Energy Content? This is essentially E = mc² and is an extension of the aforementioned paper. (5) On a heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light. This is his paper on the photo electric effect and the quantum hypothesis. This is what Einstein got his Nobel price for. However, both (2) and (3) above are often considered to be Nobel Prize work. The way I see it, these papers are of great historical value and it is awesome to be able to read the originals. However, I do not recommend this book as a good introduction to any of this material. As an engineering physics student I encountered most of the content of these papers in a more complete and clearer format. For example, the special theory of relativity is explained better in many text books on physics. Remember these papers are research papers not educational texts. That does not mean that I endorse the many non-mathematical popularizations of the topic that often end up misleading the reader. I should add, however, that in many texts on the special theory of relativity its foundation in electrodynamics is lost or downplayed, so reading the original will remind the student where it really came from. I was surprised to see how the formula K0 - K1 = Lv²/ (2V²) was derived. This formula states the change in the kinetic energy of a body emitting radiation with energy L/2 in each direction. An implicit approximation (K = mv²/2, classic kinetic energy) was cancelled out by a MacLaurin/Taylor expansion and a corresponding approximation (when dropping terms). This is not wrong, and the proof is still valid, but it seems unnecessary to use approximations from classical mechanics when it is just as easy to make do without them. In any case from this formula it is concluded that when a body that emits the energy L in the form of radiation, then its mass decreases by L/V², or E = mc² ("V" is "c" plus classic formula above). However, the formula E = mc² can be easily derived directly from the special theory of relativity without any approximation, which he did at a later date. You integrate E = F S (where S is distance) using the relativistic formulas for force and mass. In any case the paper proves the genial insight that "that the mass of a body is a measure

A Treasure

Translations of these five revolutionary papers, written in Einstein's annus mirabilis of 1905, have been widely available from other sources. However, it is a delight to have them compiled in this handsome, low cost edition. And the thoughful foreward by Roger Penrose and the interesting historical introductions and annotations by John Stachel make this text invaluable. As for the papers themselves, they still serve as pedagogically excellent introductions to the fields they created. And they provide stunning insight into the workings of one of the most amazing intellects the world has ever seen. This book should be part of any science library worthy of the name.

Finally, the real thing; not just inaccurate verbal metaphor

I am a nonscientist, general reader, but have read many popular accounts of special relativity. I have always felt shortchanged, though, just at the point where things get most interesting. I think that is because the real physics does lie in the equations, and verbal metaphors fall short. For me, here, for the first time, I see where the science is: just beyond the metaphors. Although I do not follow all the math by any means, so it is partly like listening to a foreign language, I recognized enough of the concepts to get a glimmer: and it is stunning. Here is Einstein himself, deriving E=mc2 in paper 4; so briefly, so lucidly (although another reader from California seems to have missed it). Paper 3 on special relativity is, even to this nonscientist, dazzling.