Lot 9
Lot 9
'This gravitational problem is extremely interesting'

Albert Einstein. 11 March 1912

Price Realised GBP 16,250
Estimate
GBP 5,000 - GBP 8,000
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'This gravitational problem is extremely interesting'

Albert Einstein. 11 March 1912

Price Realised GBP 16,250
Price Realised GBP 16,250
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Albert Einstein (1879-1955).

Autograph correspondence card signed ('A. Einstein') to Wilhelm Wien, Prague, 11 March 1912.

In German. 1½ pages, 140 x 91mm. Provenance: by descent from Wilhelm Wien.

'This gravitational problem is extremely interesting': early steps towards general relativity. Einstein had asked Wien to return a paper he had submitted for the Annalen der Physik (of which Wien was editor), but now changes his mind: 'It is true that not everything in the paper is defensible. But I think I should leave the thing as it is, so that those who are interested in the problem may see how I have come to the formulas. The gravitational problem is extremely interesting, and although one has so few facts, it seems that there is only one feasible path. I am now almost finished with the static field and will now also try to discover the laws of the dynamic field'. He concludes with a reference to a dispute on this subject with Max Abraham, noting that 'the principle of the constant c and with it the equivalence of the 4 dimensions are lost'.

The paper in question was Einstein's 'The speed of light and the statics of the gravitational field', which he had submitted to Wien two weeks earlier: it includes a number of important steps towards general relativity, including the first appearance of the 'equivalence hypothesis' and one of the earliest references to the problem of the rotating disc. According to the editors of the Collected Papers, 'Einstein had discovered that the generalization of the Poisson equation he had written down for the gravitational potential was not compatible with the principle of action and reaction'. Einstein's improved treatement, and the new work on the static field which he refers to, were included in his paper 'On the theory of the static gravitational field', submitted nine days later: both papers appeared in Annalen der Physik 38 (23 May 1912). Martin J. Klein, A.J. Kox and Robert Schulmann (eds), Collected Papers, vol. 5, no.371.



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