Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-05-14
EINSTEIN GIVES PRAISE
TO AMERICAN COLLEGES
Noted Physicist After Speaking Before Princeton Professors Gives
His Impressions Of Our Scholastic Progress Thinks Research
Work Here is Greater Than That Performed Abroad
From Tlr New York Evening rost.

4
Princeton. May 12.-Before a small
group 81 msthematicians, physiciets
astronomers, and graduate scholars In
sciences, Dr. Albert Einstcin, III the
third lecture of his series delivered III
Princeton yesterday. deived Into the In
tricacics and technioalIties of his sub
1ect. The discourse was devoted To the
mathematical formulation Of the special
theory OF relativity~in the form given
II by Minkowslsi.
After the colloqtnum which followed
the lecture. Mr.. Einstain. as he walked
along the street with a band OF faithful
satellites and admirers at his heels
made some general observations upon
scientific research In this country and
IN Europe. He said In substance, as
TRANSLATED from the German:
i am particularly pleased with the
amount OF study being done In Amerl-
ca IN connection with this theory and
with other scientific matters. Because
or the unfortunate conditions I'm En-
rope at present, the chances for arriv-
Ing at important discoveries in this
country are now far greater than In
the intellectual centres OF the Old
World.
Due to the economic conditions in
Europe. scientific research at the uni
versities liz at standstill All the
educators and scientists there are using
their heart. head and hand for what
ever purpose can gain for them the
means of subaistence.
Praises American Colleges.
The result Is that scholarly inves-
ugnton has had To be abandoned. and
II Will be good many years before
the nations will recover from the pres.
eni economic situation so that the uni
versiiy men can resume their researches
without worry over the problem of
making both enda meet, financially =
DIR. Einstein was especially Impress. :.
by the way the students ON the Prince
ton campus live under the dormitory
system, thus making. as he put IL, for
their social well being The average
man, DIR. Efnstein thinks. Is proba Nv
prevented from doing his best work pos-
sible in studies by the attractive et-
vironment and the opportunities for en-
1oyment afforded In most American cul-
leges he has seen. On the other hand
the visiting scientist declared that the
ones really eager I'm the pursuit of wis
dom. could do better work on the college
campuses Of this country than those
among European surroundings.
The fourth lecture of the series will
deal with THE General Theory of Rel
ativity and the Gravitationai Field
and in the concluding talk DR.. Elm
stein will engage in "Cosmological
Speculations." The ground covered b.
the visiting physicist in his discourse
yesterday upon THE Special Theory of
Relatively" was thus summarized By
Prof. Edwin plimpton Adams Of the
Princeton faculty:
The third lecture was devoted to
tho mathematical formulation of the
special theory of relatively in the form
given ii by Minkowslxi. General
theorems regarding the properties OF
four -tiimensionai vectors aud tensors
were stated and the Maxwell Lorentz
equations of the electromagnetic field
We're written in terms of these quantities.
1T was shown how the ordinary
electromagnetic forces due to motions
IN the electromagnetic field followed
as an immediate consequence OF the
special theory of relatively. Finally
the equivalence OF mass ard energy
resulting from this theory was brought
out, as a consequence of which the two
laws of conservation of mass and energy
become welded into a single law.
Following the lecture e coIloutium
was held for the discussion for difficul-
ties. DIR. Sllberstein, scientific ad-
wiser TO the Eastman Kodak Company,
acted as interpreter. The principal
topic Of discussion related to Prof
Einstein's illustration of rotatine
disk. Prof. Einstein removed the diff
ficnlties which had been felt by re.
marking that the objective existence
of the rotating disk was not at all nec-
essary for the purposes of the iluatra-
tion.'
While the highly trained mathe-
maticians are thus wrestling with the
complicated formula and conceptions
involved in the advanced aspects of
the theory, Prof. Luther r. Eisenhart
OF the department of mathematics al
Princeton has given an answer 10 the
query whether such speculations are
much ado about nothing"
The question has been raised wheth-
er the Einstein theory is any good after
all, said Prof. Eisenhart 'sThe pur-
pose of any physical theory is to give
mathematical formulation which
agrees with experiment and from which
predictions can be made concerning