Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-g78kv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-02T08:05:36.251Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Einstein and Lorentz: More than Just Good Colleagues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

A. J. Kox
Affiliation:
Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of AmsterdamThe Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Boston University

Abstract

A discussion of the circumstances of the friendship between Einstein and Lorentz using published and unpublished sources provides material for a close analysis of their relationship. In this analysis the concept of distance, both in a physical and a psychological sense, plays a central and clarifying role. It is concluded that for Einstein the distance between him and Lorentz was essential for the relationship to become as rich and intense as it was.

Type
The Early Professional Context
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

De Haas-Lorentz, G. L., ed. 1957. H. A. Lorentz: Impressions of His Life and Work. Amsterdam: North Holland.Google Scholar
Einstein, A. [1909]1989a. “Zum gegenwartigen Stand des Strahlungsproblems.” Physikalische Zeitschr 10: 185–93. Reprinted in Einstein 1989, 542–50.Google Scholar
Einstein, A. [19091989a. “Über die Entwickelung unserer Anschauungen über das Weseri und die Konstitution der Strahlung.” Verhandlungen der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesel/schaft 11: 482–500. Reprinted in Physikalische Zeitschr 10(1909):817–25 and in Einstein 1989, 564–82.Google Scholar
Einstein, A. 1934. Mein Weltbild. Amsterdam: Querido.Google Scholar
Einstein, A. 1953. H. A. Lorentz a/s Schopfer und Personlichkeit. Publication no. 91, Museum-Boerhaave, Leiden.Google Scholar
Einstein, A. 1989. The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein. Vol. 2, The Swiss Years: Writings, 1900–1909, edited by Stachel, J. et al. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Illy, J. 1989. “Einstein Teaches Lorentz, Lorentz Teaches Einstein: Their Collaboration in General Relativity, 1913–1920.” Archive for History of Exact Sciences 39: 147–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, M. J. 1970. Paul Ehrenfest. Vol. 1, The Making of a Theoretical Physicist. Amsterdam: North Holland.Google Scholar
Kox, A. J. 1988. “Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, the Ether, and the General Theory of Relativity.” Archive for History of Exact Sciences 38: 67–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lorentz, H. A. 1909a. “Le partage de l'énergie entre la matiére pondérable et l'éther.” Revue générale des sciences pures et appliquées 20: 14–26.Google Scholar
Lorentz, H. A. 1909b. The Theory of Electrons. Leipzig: Teubner.Google Scholar
McCormmach, R. 1970. “Einstein, Lorentz, and the Electron Theory.” Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 2: 4187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCormmach, R. 1973. “Lorentz, Hendrik Antoon.” Dictionary of Scientic Biography, edited by Gillispie, C. C., vol. 8, 487500. New York: Scribner.Google Scholar
Nathan, O., and Norden, H.. 1960. Einstein on Peace. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Nersessian, N. 1986. “Why Wasn't Lorentz Einstein? An Examination of the Scientific Method of H. A. Lorentz.” Centaurus 29: 205–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pais, A. 1982. “Subtle Is the Lord…” The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar