Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-11-15
E;nste;, and the Reborter

tn HE newsI aper-reading public, dipping
- ! timidly into the Einstein theory OF
Relativity-not so much afraid of
getting its feet wet as uncertain how to &C
complish it-may be mildly astonished to
nlearn from Edwin E. Slosson, author of
Easy Lessons in Einstein,'' that every news
paper reporter habitually and of necessity
uses DR.. Einstein's fourth dimension, which
nfact Of course directly concerns the reading
public as well. And the public is astonished
sno more than the reporter, likely as not.
- Struggles with a fourth dimension Of
space have occupied the most profound
mathematicians and scientists time out of
s,mind, and mostly they have come off second
best. 1t is asserted that :. geometrical figure
can be drawn, and has been drawn and
named 'Tesseract," that employs fourth
Ispatial dimension. But it is admitted that
mo one ever has visualized four-dimen-
sional figure, though certain mathematician
''@ndowed with constructive imag1nations of
-rrlgh power" claim to have got "by long
shard thinking some sort of shadowy and
Sfleeting perception" of the hyper-cube.
But that didn't help them much, nor the
crest of us at all.
Va When it comes to Time as the Fourth Dr.
mension, asserts Mr.. Slosson, no such diff
Guilty exists.
In fact, the reporter employs 1t naturally
and inevitably. Say shooting occurs at the
corne. of Broad and Marietta streets AM the
reporter is writing his story of it. Two Of
! the dimensions have just been fixed-Broad
and Marietta streets, at their intersection.
! These are the "plane" dimensions.
But was it on one o. the4loors of the Citi-
zens and Southern Bank building, or per-
chance in the basement-above or below the
street level? That point being established,
we have the three spatial dimensions And
i yet the event is not ixed-not at all.
If it is aided that the shooting occurred
at four o'clock on the afternoon of NOvem-
Der IL, 1921, the calamitous affair is truly
located; differentiated from any other shoot
ing that might have taken place there last
year, or might take place there next year, or
the year after that.
y Thus any event must be fixed at an inter-
section of tOUR ines-the spatial lines
that aolsh it's location in the space-uni-
verse; and the TINE LINE that fixes it's
place in the apparently infinite progress of
the universe. And one line is just as i'm
portant as another, when it is comprehended
that all spatia1 points moving steadily
along through time itself, each spatial point
Registering "world-line'' in time
Says Mr.. Slosson with engaging clarity:
Somewhere along or between these four
dimensional lines that cross in your brain
you can find place for anything that you
need; your pencil; the discovery of America;
the sun; and next Friday. You can connect
up all these things by lines which may rep
resent changes-that is, the racks of move
ments in Time and Space. To connect the
pencil in your hand with the discovery of
America you would have to count back four
hundred and twenty-eight years on the time
line and measure Off on the east-west and
north-south lines whatever distance you may
be from San Salvador
Rather fascinating. isn't it? Only, as it
is now 1921 A. D., whereas it was 1920
when Mr.. Slosson's clever little book was
written, we should have to count back four
hundred Twenty-Five years to fix the landing
of Columbus correctly in the Time Line
through the illimitable progress of the uni
verse. +
Another field of speculation is opened up
by the Time Line, which, DR.. Einstein con-
cludes, comedies with the speed of light
1928 miles a second. What is present,
as we know it on this earth, would be as far
in the future of another world, that could
watch us, as it took the light rays from this
earth to reach that celestial witness of our
sdoings.
< Thus the inhabtant of one of the planets
of Capella the largest star in the constella-
zion Auriga, would at this moment be watch
ing with consuming interest the approach Of
the United States to civil War-and it would
be more than three-score of our years later
that they beheld, Mortified, the World War
that tore this hapless planet from 1914 TO
1918. Why? Because it takes the Time
Line travelling with the speed of light, abou.
.seventy-two years to reach from our little
earth to the people, if any, Of Alpha Aurigae
And If our little sun should go out suddenly,
it would take those people seventy-two years
to discover it.
How unnecessary it does make one feel!
u