The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1922-07-16

n Fascinating and complete
Explanation Is Given on This Page!
. in space from eight to left Observers in
the tower are about to drop the bali and
10 calculate It's exact path as II falls, with
the finest scientific instruments.
Imagine yourself OF in space, with an.
other set Of observers equipped with high
powered Telescopes and equally fine sclen-
thc instruments for measurement OF the
line the hall makes when II falls.
You can SEQ the ball fall Just as tho
people In the tower can--but what you
can also see and what the people in the
tower cannot see is tho revolving move
ment OF the earth which takes place while
the ball is falling
In the top panel tho observers in the
tower drop the ball Impelled by gravita.
tion It falls In an absolutely straight line
TO earth, along the dotted line. parallel at
every moment with the tower itself. They
have. measured It's movement and found
the line absolutely straight.
Meanwhile. in the bottom panel, we have
been making observations Of tho falling
ball from our posltion out In space.
As the ball is falling the earth revolves
a short distanceo rom right TO left. and the
tower with II. So also does the ball-fall.
ton to tho tower-and for this very reason,
that Il does tend to follow the tower and
fall in n straight line with relation to It,
tho ball falls In curved line with relation
to our instruments out in space
Study the dotted lines! IT'S amazing,
but It's truel SO this is relativityi
And what Professor Einstein has done
ia 10 apply this principle Of reativity to
tho problems of physics, astronomy and
higher mathematics.
lie tells you that there may be con-
ceivable condition in which two and two
do not make four-in which q straight line
may not be the shortest distance between
two points-in which two sides OF tri-
angle may not be longer than It's third side!
To explain this, he supposes q fourth
dimension" and Curved space" Do not
bo afraid OF the phrases You know what
tho three dimensions are-length, width
and thickness. And you know what space
IA as conceived In these three dimensions.
Einstein'B contention Ia that space itself
may be curved" or bent" on some giaan-
tic scale, so that a line which travels
"Rtraight' by Euclidian geometry for q
distance approaching infnity might event
ually come back to the point from which
Il originally set out.
Stil more extraordinary arc Einstein's
conclusions about the speed OF light. All
scientists know that light travels at the
rate OF 10000 miles a second. Einstein's
theory, according to some eIponents. pre-
sents. the amazing suppostion that a ray
Of light will travel past an object which
Is itself moving rapidly either toward or
away from II at exactly the same rate II
would pass 1t II the object were standing
still.
The large black and white drawing on
this page illustrates this idea. 1t repre-
sents an immense railroad bridge stretch.
ing for billions OF miles through infinite
space. On 1t is an electric train speeding
toward the reader at 1000 miles per sec.
Ond. At each end OF the train are two
mirror refectors, facing each other.
Fastened to the bridge is a Bearchlight.
AZ the front end OF the train passes the
searchllght, the searchight sends back a
ray OF light which strikes the rear mirror
OF the moving train. This rear mirror
then throws the Hight forward to the front
mirror The front mirror being on the
moving train, is speeding away from the
ray OF light which is chasing H. You would
expect that the reflected ray OF light--the
first fash which darted from the rear mir
TOr the instant the searChlRht first struck
would, in order to reach the front mir.
rOr have to travel the mllion,mile length
OF the train PLUS the distance which tho
front mirror has been carried by the NOV
ing train during the time light takes to
catch It. In other words you would sup
pose, by the rules OF physics the ray would
have to travel farther, and, therefore, have
10 take a longer time, because Of the trains
movement, tam II the train had been
standing still But Einste IS theory, and
certain actual experiments. seem to prove
that the ray OF light would take exactly
tho same time to make the Journey as II
tho train were standing still
From this the extraordinary idea Is de-
duced that "the speed OF light between two
bodies is not affected by the movements
OF either body" In other words, two
planets may be moving toward each other
or away from each other at an enormous
rate OF speed, yet the time Il takes for
light 10 travel between them Is the same
as II they were both standing still!
Is the Ensteln theory true? Nobody
knows. lie doesn't know himself. But the
worlds greatest astronomers and mathe-
maucians have discovered that It seems to
work practically in certain cases, and
therefore they believe It may be true and
regard Einstein as ono OF the worlds
greatest living men.