Abstract
THE HIGHEST ACHIEVEMENTS in science are of quite different kinds: the bold theoretical generalization, breathtaking by virtue of its sweeping synthetic power, and the ingenious experiment, sometimes called "crucial," in which the striking character of the result signals a turning point. Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity as first published in 1905 is a supreme example of the first kind, and A. A. Michelson's experiments in the 1880's to find the effect of ether drift on the speed of light are often cited as prototypical examples of the second kind. Even if these two achievements had nothing whatsoever to do with each other, each would continue to be remembered and studied on its own merit. But these two cases have in fact held additional interest for historians and philosophers of science; for, as we shall see, it has been the overwhelming preponderance of opinion over the last half century that Michelson's experiments and Einstein's theory have a close genetic connection, one which may be stated most simply in the words of the caption under Michelson's photograph in a recent publication of a scientific society (see frontispiece): Michelson "made the measurements on which are based Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity." A more detailed account of the experimental origins of relativity theory is attempted in R. A. Millikan's essay "Albert Einstein on his Seventieth Birthday." It was the lead article in a special issue in Einstein's honor of the Reviews of Modern Physics, and the early parts are worth quoting:
Highlights
THE HIGHEST ACHIEVEMENTS in science are of quite different kinds: the bold theoretical generalization, breathtaking by virtue of its sweeping synthetic power, and the ingenious experiment, sometimes called "crucial," in which the striking character of the result signals a turning point
One of the most interesting of Einstein's early articles, sometimes cited as an historical document on the influence of Michelson's experiment, is his contribution on "Relativity Theory" to a collection of thirty-six essays by foremost physicists, intended to convey the "state of physics in our time."[30] Einstein begins: "It is hardly possible to form an independent judgment of the justification of the theory of relativity, if one does not have some acquaintance with the experiences theory of relativity....' Quoted in Marjorie we find a sequence of sentences which can Johnston, ed., The Cosmos of Arthur Holly be considered implicit history: Compton
Near the beginning of Shankland's firsthand report we find the main reason for his visit-and a response of Einstein for which nothing we have read above has prepared us: The first visit [4 February 1950] to Princeton to meet Professor Einstein was made primarily to learn from him what he really felt about the Michelson-Morley experiment, and to what degree it had influenced him in his development of the Special Theory of Relativity
Summary
THE HIGHEST ACHIEVEMENTS in science are of quite different kinds: the bold theoretical generalization, breathtaking by virtue of its sweeping synthetic power, and the ingenious experiment, sometimes called "crucial," in which the striking character of the result signals a turning point. For the belief that Einstein based his work leading to his 1905 publication of relativity theory on Michelson's result has long been a part of the folklore It is generally regarded as an important event in the history of science, as widely known and believed as the story of the falling apple in Newton's garden and of the two weights dropped from the leaning tower in Galileo's Pisa -two other cases in which experiential fact is supposed to have provided the genesis of synthetic theory. If they are not supportable, it is probably in any case too late to stop the spread of a fable which has such inherent appeal
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