"Minkowski... supposed that this fourth dimension of time was not detached from and independent of the three dimensions of space. He introduced a new four-dimensional space to which ordinary space contributed three dimensions, and time one; we may call it 'space-time'. ...The succession of positions which a particle occupied in ordinary space at a succession of instants of time would be represented by a line in space-time; this he called the 'world-line' of the particle. ...Newton's absolute space and absolute time fell out of science, and they carried much with them in their fall. First to go was the concept of simultaneity. ...It now became necessary to find a way of treating gravitation which should not involve simultaneity. Einstein found through the medium of his 'Principle of Equivalence'."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Philosophers from EnglandUniversity of Cambridge facultyMathematicians from EnglandAstronomers from EnglandPhysicists from England
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Jeans
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
James Jeans
Sir James Hopwood Jeans (11 September 1877 – 16 September 1946) was a British physicist, astronomer and mathematician.
63 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by James Jeans →
Related Quotes
"And the substance out of which this bubble is blown, the soap-film, is empty space welded onto empty time."
"One must stand stiller than still."
"Into such a universe we have stumbled, if not exactly by mistake, at least as the result of what may properly be desc…"
"Life exists in the universe only because the carbon atom possesses certain exceptional properties."
"The concepts which now prove to be fundamental to our understanding of nature—a space which is finite; a space which …"
"From the intrinsic evidence of his creation, the Great Architect of the Universe now begins to appear as a pure mathe…"
"Today there is a wide measure of agreement, which on the physical side of science approaches almost to unanimity, tha…"
"the universe can be best pictured, ... as consisting of pure thought, the thought of what, for want of a wider word, …"
"Everything that has been said, and every conclusion that has been tentatively put forward, is quite frankly speculati…"
"For, for aught we know, or for aught that the new science can say to the contrary, the gods which play the part of fa…"