by Michio Kaku
“The idea is amusing and enticing;…”: Folsing, p. 196.
“for the time being…”: Ibid., p. 197.
“Imagine the audacity of such a step…”: Brian, p. 71.
“From now on, space and time separately have vanished…”: Ibid., p. 72.
“The main thing is the content,…”: Ibid., p. 76.
“superfluous erudition”: Cropper, p. 220.
“Since the mathematicians have attacked the relativity…”: Clark, p. 159.
“might have remained stuck in its diapers.”: Cropper, p. 220.
“As a student he was treated contemptuously by the professors…”: Brian, p. 73.
“The festivities ended in the Hotel National,…”: Ibid., p. 75.
“He appeared in class in somewhat shabby attire,…”: Cropper, p. 215.
Another paradox involves two objects, each shorter than the other. …: Over the decades, scores of paradoxes have been introduced to illustrate the seemingly bizarre nature of special relativity. They usually involve two frames of reference traveling at different speeds that are making observations of the same object. The paradoxes arise because the observers in each frame see the same object in two entirely different ways. Almost all of them can be resolved using two observations. First, length contraction in one frame has to be balanced with time dilation in the other. If we forget to balance the distortion of space with the distortion of time, then the paradoxes arise. Second, paradoxes arise if we forget to bring the two frames together at the end. The final resolution of who is really younger or shorter can be achieved when we bring the two observers together in space and time and compare them. Unless we bring them together, then it is possible to have two objects each shorter and younger than the other, which is impossible in Newtonian physics.
p. 82 “There once was a young lady named Bright…”: Going faster than light in order to break the time barrier to go backward in time is not possible. As you approach the speed of light, your mass becomes nearly infinite, you are squeezed until you are almost infinitely thin, and time almost stops. Hence, the speed of light is the ultimate speed in the universe. However, I discuss possible loopholes to this later, when I write about wormholes and Einstein-Rosen bridges.
“mathematical physicists are unanimous…”: Sugimoto, p. 44.
“The gentlemen in Berlin are gambling on me…”: Cropper, p. 216.
“It seems that most members…”: Folsing, p. 336.
“I live a very withdrawn life…”: Ibid., p. 332.
“She is all love for her great husband,…”: Brian, p. 151.
Chapter 4. General Relativity and “the Happiest Thought of My Life”
“As an older friend, I must advise you…”: Pais, Subtle Is the Lord, p. 239.
“I was sitting in a chair in the patent office…”: Ibid., p. 179; Folsing, p. 303.
“Do not Bodies act upon light at a Distance,…”: Folsing, p. 435.
“When a blind beetle crawls over the surface…”: Calaprice, p. 9.
“Grossman, you must help me or else…”: Pais, Subtle Is the Lord, p. 212.
“Never in my life have I tormented myself…”: Folsing, p. 315.
“Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics;…”: Calaprice, p. 252.
Mach’s principle: More precisely, Mach’s principle states that the inertia of an object, and hence its mass, is due to the presence of all the other masses in the universe, e.g., the distant stars. Mach restated an observation known as far back as Newton, that the surface of a spinning pail of water becomes depressed (due to centripetal forces). The faster the spin, the greater the depression of the surface. If all motions are relative, including rotations, then one can consider the pail to be at rest and all the distant stars to rotate around it. Thus, reasoned Mach, it was the rotation of the distant stars that caused the stationary pail’s surface to be depressed. Thus, the presence of the distant stars determines the inertial properties of the pail of water, including its mass. Einstein modified this law to mean that the gravitational field is uniquely determined by the distribution of masses in the universe.
“If everything fails, I’ll pay for the thing…”: Folsing, p. 320.
Einstein had dropped the Ricci curvature…: General covariance means that the equations retain the same form after a change of coordinates (today this is called a “gauge transformation”). Einstein did not appreciate in 1912 that this meant that the physical predictions of his theory also remained the same after a change of coordinates. Thus, in 1912 he found, to his horror, that his theory gave an infinite number of solutions for the gravitational field surrounding the sun. But three years later, he suddenly realized that all of these solutions described the same physical system, i.e., the sun. Thus, the Ricci curvature was a perfectly well-defined mathematical object that could uniquely describe the gravitational field around a star, according to Mach’s principle.
“For some days, I was beyond myself with excitement…”: Folsing, p. 374.
“Imagine my joy over the practicability…”: Ibid., p. 373.
“Hardly anyone who has truly understood…”: Ibid., p. 372.
“Russian hordes allied with Mongols and Negroes unleashed against the white race.”: Brian, p. 89.
“The German Army…”: Sugimoto, p. 51.
“Unbelievable what Europe has unleashed in its folly.”: Folsing, p. 343.
The war and the great mental effort necessary…: The chaos caused by World War I almost closed the University of Berlin when students seized control of the campus and the rector. Faculty members immediately called Einstein to help negotiate their release. Einstein in turn called physicist Max Born to help make the perilous journey to negotiate with the students. Born would later write that they traveled “in the Bavarian Quarter through streets full of wild-looking and shouting youths with red badges…. Einstein was well known to be politically left wing, if not ‘red’, and would be an ideal person to help negotiate with the students” (Brian, p. 97). Einstein was recognized by the students, who then gave him their demands. They agreed to let their prisoners go free if the newly elected Social Democratic president, Friedrich Ebert, consented. Einstein and Born then made the journey to the palace of the Reichschancellor and pleaded with the president, who then agreed to authorize the release of the prisoners. Born recalled later, “We left the palace in the Reichschancellor in the highest of spirits, with the feeling of having taken part in a historic event, and hoping indeed that the time of Prussian arrogance was finished, that it was all over with the Junkers, the hegemony of the aristocrats, the cliques of officials, and the military, that now the German democracy was victorious.” Einstein and Born, two theoretical physicists interested in the secrets of the atom and the universe, had apparently found a more practical application for their talents: saving their university.
Chapter 5. The New Copernicus
“Dear Mother—Good news today…”: Sugimoto, p. 57.
“If he had really understood…”: Calaprice, p. 97.
“There was an atmosphere of tense interest…”: Parker, p. 124.
“After careful study of the plates…”: Ibid.
“one of the greatest achievements in the history of human thought….”: Clark, p. 290; Parker, p. 124.
“There’s a rumor…”: Parker, p. 126.
“Don’t be modest Eddington…”: Ibid.
“Revolution in Science—New Theory of the Universe—…”: Folsing, p. 445.
“All England is talking…”: Ibid.
“Today in Germany I am called a German man of science,…”: Ibid., p. 451.
“At present, every coachman and every waiter…”: Ibid., p. 343.
“Since the flood of newspaper articles…”: Cropper, p. 217.
“This world is a curious madhouse…”: Ibid., p. 217.
“I feel now something like a whore….”: Brian, p. 106.
“seem to have been seized with something like intellectual panic…”: Ibid., p. 102.
“The supposed astronomical proofs…”: Ibid., p. 101.
“I have read various articles on the fourth dimension,…”: Ibid., p. 102.
“cross-eyed physics…utterly mad…”: Ibid., p. 103.
“A new scientific truth does not as a rule prevail…”: Folsing, p. 199.
“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition…”: Pais, Einstein Lived Here, p. 219.
“could have been predicted from the start—…”: Sugimoto, p. 66.
“we should not drive away such a man…”: Brian, p. 113.
He had finally rediscovered his Jewish roots….: It should be pointed out that his Zionist colleagues often feared that Einstein, famous for speaking his mind, would say things they disapproved of. Einstein, for example, once thought that the Jewish homeland should be in Peru, stressing that no one should be unnecessarily displaced if Jews settled there. He often stated that friendship and mutual respect between the Jewish and Arab people were absolutely important factors in any successful attempt to create a Jewish state in the Middle East. He once wrote, “I should much rather see a reasonable agreement with the Arabs based on living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish state” (Calaprice, p. 135).
“making me conscious of my Jewish soul…”: Brian, p. 120.
“It’s like the Barnum circus!”: Ibid., p. 121.
“The ladies of New York…”: Sugimoto, p. 74.
A mob of eight thousand squeezed…: Brian, p. 123.
“from possibly serious injury only by strenuous efforts…”: Ibid., p. 130.
“It was the first time in my life…”: Pais, Einstein Lived Here, p. 154.
“Not until I was in America did I discover…”: Folsing, p. 505.
“If your theories are sound, I understand…”: Brian, p. 131.
“He has become the great fashion….”: Pais, Einstein Lived Here, p. 152.
“If a German were to discover a cure for cancer…”: Sugimoto, p. 63.
Previously, he had even advocated killing Rathenau.: Ibid., p. 64.
“it was a patriotic duty to shoot…”: Clark, p. 360
Once, a mentally unbalanced Russian immigrant,…: Brian, p. 150.
“Life is like riding a bicycle….”: Ibid., p. 146.
“He spent all his time…”: Brian, p. 144.
By the 1920s and 1930s, Einstein had emerged as a giant…: Einstein, a lion of German society, was constantly surrounded by wealthy matrons who clamored to hear his wit and wisdom, many of whom would donate generously to his favorite causes and charities. Some of them would occasionally send their personal limousine to pick Einstein up at his summer house in Caputh, to escort him to a fund-raiser or concert. Inevitably, rumors would spread about alleged affairs. If one tracks the source of these rumors, one finds that they come mainly from the recollections of the maid at the summer house, Herta Waldow, who sold her story to the press. She had no proof, however, of any extramarital affairs and admitted that these society women would invariably personally give chocolates to Elsa when picking up her husband to quell any suspicions of impropriety. Furthermore, Konrad Wachsmann, an architect who helped to design the Caputh summer house, observed the Einstein household and concluded that these liaisons were perfectly harmless. He believed that they were “almost without exception” platonic in nature, that Einstein was never unfaithful to Elsa with these women.
“gentle, warm, motherly,…”: Cropper, p. 217.
“He ate with everybody,…”: Pais, Einstein Lived Here, p. 184.
“The people applaud me…”: Sugimoto, p. 122.
“I could have imagined…”: Brian, p. 205.
“It was interesting to see them together—…”: Calaprice, p. 336.
“Is not all of philosophy as if written in honey?…”: Pais, Subtle Is the Lord, p. 318.
“The world, considered from the physical aspect,…”: Pais, Einstein Lived Here, p. 186.
“Morality is of the highest importance—…”: Calaprice, p. 293.
“Science without religion is lame,…”: Pais, Einstein Lived Here, p. 122.
“The most beautiful and deepest experience…”: Ibid., p. 119.
“If something is in me which can be called religious,…”: Sugimoto, p. 113.
“I’m not an atheist…”: Brian, p. 186.
Chapter 6. The Big Bang and Black Holes
“If the matter was evenly…”: Misner et al., p. 756.
“My husband does that…”: Croswell, p. 35.
“There should be a law of Nature…”: Thorne, p. 210.
“there is not much hope…”: Petters et al., p. 7.
“is of little value, but it makes the poor guy [Mandl] happy.”: Ibid.
Chapter 7. Unification and the Quantum Challenge
“They do not shake my strong feeling…”: Pais, Subtle Is the Lord, p. 23.
“It is a masterful symphony”: Parker, p. 209.
“no significance for physics.”: Pais, Subtle Is the Lord, p. 343.
“The idea of achieving…”: Ibid., p. 330.
“The formal unity of your theory is startling.”: Ibid., p. 330.
“You may be amused to hear…”: Pais, Einstein Lived Here, p. 179.
“It is not even wrong.”: Cropper, p. 257.
“I do not mind…”: Ibid.
“What you said…”: Ibid.
“Some people have very sensitive…”: Ibid.
“The more success…”: Calaprice, p. 231.
“Like the dark lady who inspired Shakespeare’s sonnets,…”: Moore, p. 195.
This extra minus sign, argued Dirac, made possible…: Because matter prefers to tumble down to the lowest energy state, this meant that all electrons might fall into these negative energy states and the universe would collapse. To prevent this disaster, Dirac postulated that all negative energy states were already filled. A passing gamma ray might knock an electron out of its negative energy state, leaving a “hole” or bubble. This hole, predicted Dirac, would behave like an electron with positive charge, i.e., antimatter.
“The saddest chapter of modern physics…”: Pais, Inward Bound, p. 348.
“I think that this discovery of anti-matter…”: Ibid., p. 360
“the motion of particles follows…”: Folsing, p. 585.
“Quantum mechanics calls for a great deal of respect….”: Ibid.
“Heisenberg has laid a big quantum egg….”: Brian, p. 156. p. 165
“cobbler or employee in a gaming house”: Ferris, p. 290.
“Physicists were beginning to…: Einstein most clearly presented his position on determinism and uncertainty as follows: “I am a determinist, compelled to act as if free will existed, because if I wish to live in a civilized society, I must act responsibly. I know philosophically a murderer is not responsible for his crimes, but I prefer not to take tea with him…. I have no control, primarily those mysterious glands in which nature prepares the very essence of life. Henry Ford may call it is his Inner Voice, Socrates referred to it as his daemon: each man explains in his own way the fact that the human will is not free…. Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious time, intoned in the distance by an invisible player” (Brian, p. 185).
“If the last proof is sent away, then I will come.”: Cropper, p. 244.
“To Bohr, this was a heavy blow….”: Folsing, p. 561.
“I am convinced that this theory…”: Ibid., p. 591.
“the greatest debate in intellectual history…”: Brian, p. 306.
“I don’t like it,…”: Kaku, Hyperspace, p. 280.
“Does the moon exist…”: Ibid., p. 260.
“I have thought a hundred times as much about the quantum problems…”: Calaprice, p. 260.
“spooky action-at-a-distance”: Brian, p. 281.
“I was very happy tha
t in that paper…”: Ibid.
“We dropped everything;…”: Folsing, p. 698.
“most successful physical theory of our period”: Pais, Einstein Lived Here, p. 128.
Chapter 8. War, Peace, and E = mc2
“This means that I am opposed to the use of force…”: Cropper, p. 226.
“The purpose of this publication is to oppose…”: Sugimoto, p. 127.
“Turn around, you will never see it again.”: Pais, Einstein Lived Here, p. 190.
“Under today’s conditions, if I were a Belgian,…”: Folsing, p. 675.
“The antimilitarists are falling on me…”: Ibid.
“I had hoped to convince him…”: Cropper, p. 271.
“People say that I get attacks of nervous weakness,…”: Brian, p. 247.
“I failed to make myself understood…”: Cropper, p. 271.
He could have been seriously hurt by this ferocious beating,…: Moore, p. 265.
“Princeton is a wonderful little spot…”: Cropper, p. 226.
“large wastebasket…so I can throw…”: Brian, p. 251.
Two Europeans, on a bet…: Parker, p. 17.
“grave heredity”: Folsing, p. 672.
“I have seen it coming,…”: Ibid.
“utterly ashen and shaken”: Brian, p. 297.
“severed the strongest tie he had…”: Ibid.
“I have got used extremely well…”: Folsing, p. 699.
“It might be possible, and it is not even improbable,…”: Ibid., p. 707.
“All bombardments since…”: Ibid., p. 708.
“Assuming that it were possible to effect…”: Ibid.
“as firing at birds in the dark,…”: Ibid., p. 709.
“the rays released…are in turn…”: Ibid., p. 708.
“the country that exploits it first…”: Ibid., p. 712.
“anyone who expects a source of power…”: Pais, Inward Bound, p. 436.
“Oh, what fools we all have been!” Cropper, p. 340.
“do not justify the assumption…”: Folsing, p. 710.
“Some recent work by E. Fermi and L. Szilard,…”: Ibid., p. 712.
“This requires action.”: Ibid.
“I will have nothing…”: Cropper, p. 342.