◇◇新语丝(www.xys.org)(xys.dxiong.com)(xys.3322.org)(xys.xlogit.com)◇◇ 也谈洛仑兹、爱因斯坦和狭义相对论(二,完) wangyu   Hooklee的《回复wangyu《也谈洛仑兹、爱因斯坦和狭义相对论(一)》》 一文观点我基本认同。但对所谓的维基百科,有点过誉了,引用一位网友的评论: He (Hooklee)overvaluated the wikipedia. Quantity wise, it is true. But quality wise, I don't agree. Every one can edit the entries in wikipedia and it is hard to say it is not biased.   如我前所说,真正要弄清楚这里的来龙去脉,要从原始文献开始去考证,并 将之详细写成paper,工作量太大。实在是太耗费精力了。   国外的网站和论坛上有许多关于狭义相对论的争论(和维基百克上的大同小 异),和国内不同,国内大概是由于宣传的原因,基本上是一面倒的舆论,有关 爱因斯坦的负面消息基本处于封锁状态。国外就激烈得多,甚至有人说爱因斯坦 某些东西是剽窃(Hooklee也提到了这一点)。   这里说说主要结论,以及几个有趣的事实。   1. 国外科学界的主流观点是爱因斯坦的狭义相对论是从前人的工作上来, 所谓独立推出洛仑兹变换纯粹是无稽之谈。爱的工作使得洛仑兹变换推导变得简 单和美观,相当于用简单方法解决了一道难题(洛仑兹也几乎解决了这道难题, 但是方法太复杂)。这一点,后来爱因斯坦自己也承认了(据说还是在普朗克的 “force”下承认的)。用足球来打比方,爱因斯坦的贡献在于临门一脚,他进 球了,但不能抹杀给他传球的队员的功劳。   2. 爱因斯坦声称的从未看过洛仑兹的论文(即那个由Sommerfeld作的有名 的footnote:“The preceding memoir of lorentz was not at this time known to the author”)是特指1904年的那篇,这个注释是1923年出英文版的 《相对论》的时候的事情,同时收录了洛仑兹1904年的那篇文献,故有此注释。 这是有可能的,因为当时信息传播不发达,仅仅一年前的文献,爱因斯坦完全可 能没有及时看到。但是洛仑兹的其它文献,爱因斯坦说不知道就有点说不过去了。 (参见附录的狭义相对论时间表中洛仑兹的工作)   3. 1905年之后的1908年,普朗克(Planck)和闵可夫斯基(Minkowski, 爱因斯坦的数学导师)各自写了一篇关于狭义相对论的论文,正因为有普朗克和 闵可夫斯基这样的重量级人物推广相对论,相对论才会这么快的被接受。想想也 是,爱因斯坦发表的第一篇文献就在1905年,并且一篇参考文献都没有,给人一 种横空出世的感觉,当时爱只是伯尔尼专利局的一个三流审查员,如果没有当世 的大科学家为他说话,很可能爱就被当作一个“民科”扼杀了。   4. 狭义相对论的主要贡献毫无争议地来自洛仑兹、彭加勒和爱因斯坦。彭 加勒对爱因斯坦1905年那篇论文的反应相当奇怪,其1909年在G?ttingen做关于 相对论的报告时压根就没有提到爱因斯坦,按理说聪明如彭加勒这样的人不可能 不理解爱因斯坦的论文。事实上彭加勒从没有一篇关于相对论的论文提到爱因斯 坦。爱因斯坦则和彭加勒几乎一样,只有一次在论文中提到了彭加勒。而洛仑兹, 被爱因斯坦和彭加勒赞扬并经常在他们的著作中引用。洛仑兹更是爱因斯坦的好 朋友   5. 由于在狭义相对论方面的贡献,洛仑兹和爱因斯坦于1912年被共同提名 诺贝尔奖候选人。推荐人是1911年的获奖者维恩( Wien) , 他说:   ... While Lorentz must be considered as the first to have found the mathematical content of the relativity principle, Einstein succeeded in reducing it to a simple principle. One should therefore assess the merits of both investigators as being comparable...   6. 牛顿宣称他取得这么大的成果是因为站在巨人的肩上,和牛顿相比,爱 因斯坦这方面有点不地道了。他甚至在刚开始时都不太想承认他知道迈克耳逊— 莫雷实验。其狭义相对论没有评上诺贝尔奖,不知道是否和这个有关?当然后来 爱因斯坦认识到这一点,在1916年出版他的《相对论》一书时,对他早期的论文 作了修订,提到了其他人的工作。(参见附录的狭义相对论时间表)   7. 爱因斯坦(狭义相对论)在国外远没有在国内的地位那么崇高和神圣。 究其原因,一是前面所说,爱因斯坦只是临门一脚;二是,他提出的两个假设, 第一相对性原理,不是他的独创,(牛顿就提到了所有惯性参照系对物理规律都 是同等地位的,即不存在一个特殊的惯性参照系)。洛仑兹搞了半天在干什么? 不就是要弄一个有别于伽利略变换的新变换吗?这个新变换干什么用?不就是为 了使物理规律在任何惯性参照系中形式一样吗?(即满足物理规律的协变性), 况且洛仑兹已经首先得出了这个新变换的完全的数学形式。爱因斯坦只不过是换 了一个解题的方法,这个方法更简单、美观。第二个假设是光速不变。这就更不 新鲜了,早在1873年麦克斯韦的电磁理论就得出了这个结论(参见附录的狭义相 对论时间表)。爱因斯坦在国内享有崇高的地位,这可能和我们国情有关,我们 国内要“造神”或塑造英雄人物的话,都是高大全的形象。(这是题外话了)   8. 从狭义相对论未获诺贝尔奖来看,也可以说明一些问题。按理说,这么 伟大的理论,并且其结论也已多次被实验证实(在爱因斯坦逝世之前),应该被 评为一次诺贝尔物理奖了。   9. 当然,爱因斯坦不失为一个继牛顿以来的伟大的物理学家。   最后回答008,新语丝里在争论什么,不是争论爱因斯坦和洛仑兹的工作是 不是一个“层次”上的问题,而是爱因斯坦在他发表论文时究竟知道不知道洛仑 兹的有关工作和结果。前者尚属于学术争议,后者是学术道德、学术品德的问题。 附录,狭义相对论时间表 1873: Maxwell (1831-1879) publishes the 'Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism'. He is the first scientist to propose the constancy of light. His electrodynamic formulas incorporate c as a constant. 1878: Maxwell (1831-1879) writes an article for Encyclopaedia Britannica in which he describes how light is propagated as a transverse wave and transmitted by the ether. In the article, he suggests an experiment to determine the velocity of the earth through the ether by splitting a ray of light and sending the two resulting rays at right angles to each other. If reflected and recombined, they should visibly interfere. 1881: Michelson (1852-1931) conducts the experiment suggested by Maxwell by using an interferometer. He reports after the experiment: '....The interpretation of these results is that there is no displacement of the interference bands. ... The hypothesis of the stationary aether is thus shown to be incorrect.' (A. A. Michelson, Am.J. Sci,122,120;1881). 1886: Lorentz (1853-1928), believing in the ether, criticises Michelson's experiment in the paper 'On the Influence of the Earth's Motion on Luminiferous Phenomena'. 1887: Michelson (1852-1931) and Morley (1838-1923) repeat the experiment, again reporting that no effect of the movement of the earth through the aether had been found. (A. A. Michelson and E. W. Morley,Am. J. Sci. 34, 333; 1887). 1887: Voigt (1850-1919) publishes a paper 'On Doppler's Principle' ('Ueber das Doppler'sche Prinzip', Nachr. Ges. Wiss. Goettingen 41,1887). The paper contains the Voigt transformations. In modern notation they were: x' = x - vt, y' = y/g, z' = z/g, t' = t - vx/c2 g= gamma = sqrt(1-vv/cc) Multiplying the right-hand sides of the equations by g give the Lorentz transformations. Voigt corresponds in 1887 and 1888 with Lorentz about the Michelson-Morley experiment. 1889: Hertz (1857-1894) publishes 'About basic equations of the electrodynamics of moving bodies'. Hertz confirmed by experiments Maxwells's theory that electromagnetic waves and light are one and the same phenomenon. He demonstrated that electromagnetic waves can be emitted from wires into free space. He also modified Maxwell's equations to allow for the null result of the Michelson-Morley experiment. 1889: Fitzgerald (1851-1901) publishes a short paper 'The Ether and the Earth's Atmosphere'. He points out that the results of the Michelson-Morley experiment could be explained only if '... the length of material bodies changes, according as they are moving through the ether or across it, by an amount depending on the square of the ratio of their velocities to that of light'. 1890: Lorentz (1853-1928) publishes 'Electrodynamic basics for moving bodies' (Ueber die Grundlagen der Elektrodynamik für bewegte K?rper, Ann. Phys. Chem. 15, 478-480, 1890). 1892: Lorentz (1853-1928) publishes 'Maxwell's electromagnetic theory applied to moving bodies '(La théorie électromagnétique de Maxwell et son application aux corps mouvants, Archives Néerlandaises des Sciences Exactes et Naturelles). 1892: Lorentz (1853-1928) proposes contraction in a paper. 1898: Larmor writes down the 'Lorentz' transformations in an article and shows that the FitzGerald-Lorentz contraction is a consequence. He corresponded with Fitzgerald. 1898 Poincare (1854-1912) deals with the issue of simultaneity in his paper 'Measurement of Time'. 1899: Lorentz (1853-1928) publishes the 'Lorentz' transformations, the third man to do it (after Voigt and Larmor). His paper describes the increase of mass, the shortening of length, and the time dilation of a body moving at speeds close to the velocity of light. 1900: Larmor (1857-1942) publishes 'Aether and Matter' (Cambridge University Press, New York, 1900). 1902: Lorentz (1853-1928) receives the Nobel prize in Physics. 1904: Lorentz (1853-1928) publishes a paper 'Electromagnetic Phenomena in a System Moving with any Velocity less than that of Light' (Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of Amsterdam_, 6p. 809, 1904). It contains concepts of 'Local Time'. 1904: Poincaré (1854-1912) states at the St Louis (USA) exhibition in 1904: '. . . the principle of relativity, according to which the laws of physical phenomena should be the same, whether for an observer fixed, or for an observer carried along in a uniform movement of translation, so that we have not or could not have any means of discerning whether or not we are carried along in such a motion.' 1905: Lorentz (1853-1928) publishes 'Attempt of a Theory of Electrical and Optical Phenomena in Moving Bodies'(Versuch einer Theorie der elektrischen und optischen Erscheinungen in bewegten K?rpern). 1905, 5th June: Poincaré (1854-1912) presents his work 'Sur la dynamique de l'electron'. 1905, 30th June: Einstein (1879-1955) publishes his first paper on relativity 'On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies' (Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Koerper, Annalen der Physik 17:891, 1905). Einstein gives no references but mentions Maxwell, Hertz, Doppler and Planck. He states in the footnotes that 1907: Michelson (1852-1931) receives the Nobel prize in Physics. 1908: Planck (1858-1947) publishes a paper on relativity. 1908: Minkowski (1864-1909) publishes a paper on relativity presenting the Lorentz equations in tensor form. 1909: Poincaré (1854-1912) lectures at Goettingen University on Relativity. He ignores Einstein's work. 1909: Lorentz (1853-1928) publishes the book "The theory of electrons". He acknowledges the work of Voigt. 1912: Lorentz (1853-1928) and Einstein (1879-1955) are jointly recommended by the physicist Wien (1864-1928) for a Nobel prize for their work on special relativity. Wien: '... While Lorentz must be considered as the first to have found the mathematical content of the relativity principle, Einstein succeeded in reducing it to a simple principle. One should therefore assess the merits of both investigators as being comparable...'. 1916: Einstein (1879-1955) publishes a book: "Relativity". It is a revision of his earlier papers and contains references to the Lorentz transforms and the Michelson Morley experiment. 1918: Planck (1858-1947) receives the Nobel prize in Physics. 1921: Einstein (1879-1955) receives the Physics Nobel Prize but not for relativity. (XYS20070801) ◇◇新语丝(www.xys.org)(xys.dxiong.com)(xys.3322.org)(xys.xlogit.com)◇◇