The Einstein Theory of Relativity (film)
All popular knowledge of Einstein centers around the mysterious word Relativity.
The word itself mean "the relationship of" or "dependency upon".
For instance:——
Whether an object is long or short, large or small, "depends upon" the object with which it is compared.
This principle of relating one thing to another (Relativity) is applied by Einstein to everything in the Universe.
Einstein's great Theory is built upon the same scientific laws which inspired present-day inventions.
We are all familiar with these achievements:————
Man-power has become steam-power.
If Robert Fulton, inventor of the steamboat, saw this, he would exclaim:
"That thing will sink!"
The mechanical Demon has practically abolished the horse and buggy.
Away with the ferry!
Thousand League Boots!
The huts we build today!
The miracles of yesterday are the commonplaces of today.
The Magic Carpet!
We now come to inventions dealing with the forces on which Einstein based his theory.
"Listening in" on a thousand mile whisper!
Eyes That Pierce Solids!
To attain these inventions, many obstacles had to be overcome, one of the greatest being the deception of our senses.
Here is an instance;——
What is the shape of the black line?
"Broken near the middle?"
Another example:
What is the color of the circle?
White? It certainly appears white. But is it white?
Against the black background, the circle appears white.
Against a white background the circle now appears grey.
Another instance of confusion of ideas caused by Relativity of Motion.
"Is this man moving forward?"
In relation to the boat, he moves forward.
Suppose we change our position. What will we see?
The man moves forward in relation to the boat——but he stays in the same place in relation to the white square on the shore.
This is an instance of Relativity of Motion.
We have so far seen everything from our position on the earth. Suppose we change our viewpoint, this time to a position outside the earth, and follow Einstein into starry space.
Our Pilot into Space!
As we dash away, our Earth diminishes in size——and in importance.
Millions of miles from the earth! Here in space, we stop and look back.
Will our impressions of what happens on earth now remain the same?
The first thing we find:
We have lost our sense of direction.
To the man on earth the arrow always points up. To us out here in space it points in all directions.
Direction is seen to be only relative. What we called "Up" and "Down" while on earth is meaningless to us out in space.
This again shown when two captains on earth order flags "raised" on their vessels.
Are both flags up as we look at them from our position out here in space?
Even the fall of a ball on earth is no longer simple, now that we have discovered that direction is indefinite.
This is the line of direction in relation to the truck.
This is the line of direction in relation to the earth.
Watch the ball drop from the tower.
This is the fall we saw from space.
Another problem in direction.
How would you draw the line of a cannon ball shot straight up from earth?
Course of projectile in relation to earth, straight up and down.
But Einstein says, "This is your straight up-and-down line!"
The reason:——
From our position out here in space, we see a straight up and down course on earth like this.
So, up and down to you may be sideways to me:——
Direction is relative
And so is Size:——
What was your impression of the size of the stone? How large? How small? Look again.
Watch how your impression of Size is changed by comparing the stone with another object.
Take this principle of the relativity of Size out into space. Is the earth large?
MoonEarthSun
The earth is large when compared to the moon.
But very small when compared with the sun.
Then——is the sun large?
How the sun compares in size with the star Betelgeuse.
Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse: 20,000 times larger in area than the sun
Fast?
The earth travels around the sun at a speed of 1100 miles per minute.
Bullet:
33 miles per minute.
Earth:
1100 miles per minute.
In space, the earth would rush past a bullet so quickly, that the bullet would appear to be going backward.
Well then, is the earth fast?
Yes and no.
Compare it with other planets. The earth is the third from the sun.
Fast or slow has no absolute meaning. Speed is relative.
But there is one speed that is not relative——
The Speed of Light——always 186,000 miles per second!
This surprising independence of the speed of light may be illustrated as follows:——
The two pistols will be discharged at the same instant while the wheel spins.
If this experiment were "slowed up" we should see the light-flashes racing ahead of the bullets.
Note that the upper bullet, discharged with the turn of the wheel, moves faster than the lower one, fired against the turn of the wheel.
Though the bullets travel with different speeds, both flashes of light travel with the same speed.
The spinning wheel quickens the speed of the upper bullet, and slows down that of the lower, but does not affect the speed of the light flashes!
Firing at the Moon
Carry the demonstration of the small spinning wheel out into space and apply it to our big spinning wheel——the Earth.
Two projectiles will be fired simultaneously at the moon.
Both bullets discharged with the same force.
Speed of upper,
2980 miles per hour!
Speed of lower,
980 miles per hour!
(Because the earth's speed of rotation [1,000 miles per hour] is added to the upper bullet and subtracted from the lower.)
Lower bullet arrives 165 hours after the upper.
Experimenting with this unchanging speed of Light, Einstein shows that Time is not the same in different places.
Two towers flash signals at the same time to a balloonist and to a man on the ground.
The observer on the ground says the signals were given from both towers at the same time.
Light rays from both towers are the same length.
But the balloonist insists that one tower signaled before the other.
Or, in our earth-language, an hour for us may be a century on another planet, and vice-versa!
We Have Seen That
Motion is relative.
Direction is relative.
Size is relative.
Speed is relative.
Time is relative.
All Measurement is relative.
One by one, Einstein sweeps away every accepted notion. For instance, he makes the astounding assertion that "Space is bent"!
This is the idea which Einstein said only twelve men in the world could understand:—
He claims that light, which was supposed to travel in a straight line, is "bent" when it passes through space near a big body like the sun.
StarSunEarth
A single ray will be used for this illustration.
Notice how the bent light ray causes the telescope to be wrongly directed as regards the star's actual position.
The observer on earth sees the star here.——
The nearer the sun, the more the light-rays bend.
Looking at the star at different times we see it in different positions.
Einstein even predicted exactly how far the stars would seem pushed out of place.
During the eclipse of 1919, many expeditions were sent out to test his theories, and this is what their telescopes revealed——
The black crosses indicate the positions where the stars were expected to appear, according to the old theory.
Note the difference between the black crosses (where the stars were expected to appear) and the actual position of the stars as predicted by Einstein.
All our lives we have been taught to measure things in three dimensions, but Einsteins adds a fourth——
Time!
He says there is not only
Right and Left
Up and Down
Backward and Forward
but also——
Sooner and later (the "fourth dimension") without which nothing in the universe can be measured or described!
This theory has opened an unlimited field for speculations, dreams and fantasies.
Let our imagination again carry us out into space.
We will see the years leaving the earth with the speed of light.
192019211922
A man is shot from the earth to overtake the speeding years.
191819171916191519141913191219111910
149314921491
Racing forward at tremendous speed, he flies backward through the centuries!
He looks behind and finds
His former Past is now his Future!
Columbus is now in the act of discovering America.
What does it all mean to us?
The same question was asked when Sir Isaac Newton gave us his Theory of Gravitation.
And with the eyes of the world turned upon him, there sits in a quiet little study in Europe, a genius delving ever deeper into the mysteries of the Universe.
The End
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1923, before the cutoff of January 1, 1929.
Copyright law abroad tends to consider the following people authors of a film:
- The principal director
- The screenwriter, and/or other writers of dialogue
- The composer/lyricist (if the film is accompanied by sound)
- The cinematographer
- By extension, the authors of any works that may serve as the basis for a film's plot
The longest-living of these authors died in 1979, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 44 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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