Einstein and the Quantum (46 page)

Read Einstein and the Quantum Online

Authors: A. Douglas Stone

BOOK: Einstein and the Quantum
3.72Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

13
spooky action at a distance
: Einstein to Schrödinger, 19 June 1935, in Walter Isaacson,
Einstein: His Life and Universe
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), 454.

13
an act of desperation
: Hermann,
Genesis of Quantum Theory
, 23.

13
I considered the [quantum hypothesis]
: Planck to Woods, ibid., 24.

CHAPTER 2. THE IMPUDENT SWABIAN

Page

15
neurasthenic exhaustion
: Albrecht Folsing,
Albert Einstein: A Biography
, trans. and abrid. Ewald Osers (New York: Penguin Press, 1998), 30.

15
assured them most resolutely
: Ibid., 32.

15
prodigy
: Ibid., 36.

16
Weber lectured on heat
: Einstein to Mileva Maric, 16 February 1898,
CPAE
, vol. 1, doc. 39, p. 123.

17
[Weber's] lectures were outstanding
: Carl Seelig,
Albert Einstein: A Documentary Biography
, trans. Mervyn Savill (London: Staples Press, 1956), 29.

17
Einstein's hopes of learning
: Ibid.

17
This is the first lecture on mathematical
: Folsing,
Albert Einstein
, 58.

17
[Einstein] would never get anywhere
: Ibid., 27.

17
It is pretty much the same
: Seelig,
Albert Einstein
, 19.

18
A cold wind of skepticism
: Ibid., 14.

18
holy zeal
: Folsing,
Albert Einstein
, 61.

18
Herr Weber … Herr Professor
: Seelig,
Albert Einstein
, 30.

18
there is no lack of eagerness
: Ibid., 40.

19
You're a very clever boy
: Ibid., 30.

19
regulation paper
: Ibid.

20
tremendous surprise
: Ibid., 28.

CHAPTER 3. THE GYPSY LIFE

Page

21
Was a model student
: Seelig,
Albert Einstein
, 34.

21
vagabond existence
: Folsing,
Albert Einstein
, 52–53.

21
his impulsive and upright nature
: Seelig,
Albert Einstein
, 38.

22
you must go all the way
: Ibid., 39.

22
What the one teaches is not right
: Ibid., 40.

22
I never saw a trace
: Ibid., 43.

23
Einstein is 5 ft 9
: Seelig,
Albert Einstein
, 58.

23
He had the kind of male beauty
: Folsing,
Albert Einstein
, 44.

24
It's now been quite a while
: Einstein to Maja Einstein, 1898,
CPAE
, vol. 1, doc. 38, p. 123.

24
I am a cheerful fellow
: Einstein to Alfred Stern, 3 May, 1901,
CPAE
, vol. 1, doc. 104, p. 168.

24
My broodings about radiation
: Einstein to Mileva Maric, after 28 November 1989,
CPAE
, vol. 1, doc. 43, p. 126.

25
If only you would be again
: Einstein to Mileva Maric, 10 August 1899,
CPAE
, vol. 1, doc. 52, p. 131.

25
Mama and Papa are very phlegmatic
: Einstein to Mileva Maric, 9 August 1900,
CPAE
, vol. 1, doc. 71, p. 144.

25
You too don't like the philistine
: Einstein to Mileva Maric, 3 October 1900,
CPAE
, vol. 1, doc. 79, p. 152.

25
One must shun
: Einstein to Mileva Maric, 9 August 1900,
CPAE
, vol. 1, doc. 71, p. 144.

25
Neither of us have gotten a job
: Einstein to Helene Kaufler, 11 October 1900,
CPAE
, vol. 1, doc. 81, p. 153.

CHAPTER 4. TWO PILLARS OF WISDOM

Page

26
The man loved mysterious Nature
: Harry Woolf, ed., quoted by Freeman Dyson,
Some Strangeness in Proportion: Einstein Centennial
(Reading: Addison-Wesley, 1980), 376.

26
About Max Planck's studies
: Einstein to Mileva Maric, 4 April 1901,
CPAE
, vol. 1, doc. 96, p. 162.

26
soon I will have honored
: Ibid., 163.

27
Maybe his newest theory
: Einstein to Mileva Maric, 10 April 1901,
CPAE
, vol. 1, doc. 97, p. 163.

27
To find facts which would attest
: Albert Einstein, “Autobiographical Notes,” in Schilpp, ed.,
Albert Einstein
, 46.

29
In the beginning—if such a thing
: Seelig,
Albert Einstein
, 32.

29
We may regard the present
: David Lindley,
Uncertainty: Einstein, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science
(New York: Doubleday, 2007), 22.

31
what's the go o' that
: Ivan Tolstoy,
James Clerk Maxwell
(Edinburgh: Canongate, 1981), 14.

31
He was the one acknowledged genius
: Ibid., 55.

31
Happy is the man
: Ibid., 63.

32
I was sent for to London
: Ibid., 153.

33
was it God that wrote
: Ibid., 126.

34
From the long view
: Richard Feynman,
The Feynman Lectures on Physics
, vol. 2 (Reading: Addison-Wesley, 1964), 1–6.

34
I have also a paper afloat
: Tolstoy,
Maxwell
, 126.

34
I have been thinking
: Ibid., 169.

34
[the purely mechanical world …]
: Pais,
Subtle Is the Lord
, 319.

35
Imagine his feelings when
: Ibid.

35
to few men in the world
: Tolstoy,
Maxwell
, 2.

35
No one has ever seen
: J. C. Maxwell,
The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell
, ed. W. D. Niven, vol. 2 (Dover, NY: Dover Publications, 1965), 376–377; Address to Royal Society, April 1873,
Nature
, September 1873; James Clerk Maxwell, “Molecules,” Victorian Web,
http://www.victorianweb.org/science/maxwell/molecules.html
, accessed July 20, 2008.

CHAPTER 5. THE PERFECT INSTRUMENTS OF THE CREATOR

Page

36
The Boltzmann is magnificent
: Einstein to Maric, September 1900,
CPAE
, vol. 1, doc. 75, p. 149.

36
By the study of Boltzmann
: Maxwell to P. G. Tait, August 1873, in Pais,
Subtle Is the Lord
, 66.

36
Boltzmann … is not easy
: Seelig,
Albert Einstein
, 104.

37
An atom is a body
: Maxwell,
Scientific Papers
, 376–377; Address to Royal Society, April 1873; Maxwell, “Molecules,” 1.

37
Our business this evening
: Ibid., 2.

38
The most important consequence
: Ibid., 3.

39
If all these molecules were flying
: Ibid., 4.

39
Lucretius … tells us
: Ibid., 7.

40
The modern atomists have
: Ibid.

40
The equations of dynamics
: Ibid., 8.

42
Natural causes, as we know
: Ibid., 9.

CHAPTER 6. MORE HEAT THAN LIGHT

Page

44
I have again made the acquaintance
: Einstein to Jost Winteler, 8 July 1901, in Folsing,
Albert Einstein
, 86.

44
the Valiant Swabian is not afraid
: Einstein to Mileva Maric, 15 April 1901,
CPAE
, vol. 1, doc. 101, p. 166.

45
As for science, I have a few
: Einstein to Marcel Grossman, 14 April 1901,
CPAE
, vol. 1, doc. 100, p. 165.

46
my worthless first two papers
: Einstein to Johannes Stark, 7 December 1907,
CPAE
, vol. 2, doc. 66, p. 46.

46
A letter from Marcelius
: Einstein to Mileva Maric, 12 December 1901,
CPAE
, vol. 1, doc. 127, p. 186.

47
out of consideration for
: Isaacson,
Einstein
, 72.

47
The situation with the private lessons
: Einstein to Mileva Maric, November 1901,
CPAE
, vol. 1, doc. 136, p. 181.

47
It is true … that it is very nice
: Einstein to Mileva Maric, 17 February 1902,
CPAE
, vol. 1, doc. 137, p. 193.

47
testifying to great poverty
: Folsing,
Albert Einstein
, 97.

47
annoying business of starving
: Einstein to Mileva Maric, May 1901,
CPAE
, vol. 1, doc. 110, p. 173.

48
leads a very pleasant
: Einstein to Michele Besso, 22 January 1903,
CPAE
, vol. 2, doc. 5, p. 7.

49
the resemblance is downright
: Folsing,
Albert Einstein
, 110.

49
not have published those papers
: Ibid., 109.

50
[Hendrik] Lorentz, I never met
: Pais,
Subtle Is the Lord
, 73.

CHAPTER 7. DIFFICULT COUNTING

Page

55
The Second Law of Thermodynamics has
: Maxwell to Rayleigh, in James Gerald Crowther,
Scientific Types
(New York: Dufour, 1970), 67.

55
lively beings incapable of doing work
: Tolstoy,
Maxwell
, 136.

55
to show that the Second Law
: Ibid., 137.

56
I derive an expression for the entropy
: Albert Einstein, “On the General Molecular Theory of Heat” [original article no. 5 in References], reprinted in
CPAE
, vol. 2, doc. 5, p. 68.

59
an act of desperation
: Hermann,
Genesis of Quantum Theory
, 23.

59
We consider, however
: Planck, “On the Theory of the Energy Distribution Law,” 84.

61
Dividing E by ε
: Ibid.

CHAPTER 8. THOSE FABULOUS MOLECULES

Page

63
those happy Bernese years
: Ann. M. Hentschel and Gerd Grasshoff,
Albert Einstein: Those Happy Bernese Years
(Bern: Staempfli, 2005), title page.

63
struck by the extraordinary brilliance
: Isaacson,
Einstein
, 80.

63
laughed so much
: Roger Highfield and Paul Carter,
The Private Lives of Albert Einstein
(London: Faber & Faber, 1993), 102.

65
To the immortal Olympia Academy
: Einstein to Solovine and Habicht, 3 April 1953, in Banesh Hoffmann with the collaboration of Helen Dukas,
Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel
(New York: Viking Press, 1972), 244.

66
completely useless
…
an awful schlemiel
…
[Besso] has
: Isaacson,
Albert Einstein
, 62.

66
could not have found a better
: Seelig,
Albert Einstein
, 71.

66
Dear Habicht, such a solemn air
: Einstein to Habicht, 18 or 25 May 1905,
CPAE
, vol. 5, doc. 27, p. 20.

CHAPTER 9. TRIPPING THE LIGHT HEURISTIC

Page

70
The wave [Maxwell] theory
: Albert Einstein, “On a Heuristic Point of View concerning the Production and Transformation of Light” [original article no. 6 in References], reprinted in
CPAE
, vol. 2, doc. 14, p. 86.

70
the most revolutionary sentence
: Folsing,
Albert Einstein
, 143.

72
within a few hours
(quoted in footnote): Ibid., 71.

73
On my side, I have been
: Besso to Einstein, 17 January 1928,
Einstein Besso Correspondance
,
1903–1955
, trans. Pierre Speziali (Paris: Hermann, 1972), 225.

73
Planck's formula for ρ(ν)
: Einstein, “On a Heuristic Point of View,” 90.

76
Morbid dread of mistakes
(quoted in footnote): Crowther,
Scientific Types
, 58.

77
it makes no difference
: Ibid., 98.

79
As far as I can see
: Einstein, “On a Heuristic Point of View,” 101.

CHAPTER 10. ENTERTAINING THE CONTRADICTION

Page

80
I do not seek the meaning
: Planck to Einstein, 6 July 1907,
CPAE
, vol. 5, doc. 47, p. 31.

80
It is a real pity
: Lorentz to Einstein, 6 May 1909,
CPAE
, vol. 5, doc. 153, p. 107.

83
Take electricity out
: Folsing,
Albert Einstein
, 159.

84
But such a thing does not seem to exist
: Ibid., 165.

84
The introduction of a ‘light ether'
: Einstein, “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” [original article no. 7 in References], reprinted in
CPAE
, vol. 2, doc. 23, p. 141.

85
one can obtain a satisfactory theory
: Einstein, “On the Development of Our Views concerning the Nature and Constitution of Radiation” [original article no. 11 in References], reprinted in
CPAE
, vol. 2, doc. 60, p. 383.

CHAPTER 11. STALKING THE PLANCK

Page

86
The three of us are fine
: Einstein to Solovine, 27 April 1906,
CPAE
, vol. 5, doc. 36, p. 25.

86
a respectable federal ink pisser
: Einstein to Alfred Schnauder, 5 January–11 May 1907,
CPAE
, vol. 5, doc. 43, p. 28.

Other books

Mr. Buff by Angel, April
Armageddon by Dale Brown, Jim Defelice
The Bloodline War by Tracy Tappan
The Age of Reason by Jean-Paul Sartre
Hunt the Jackal by Don Mann, Ralph Pezzullo
Just Another Kid by Torey Hayden
La loba de Francia by Maurice Druon
Farslayer's Story by Fred Saberhagen