Evening star., 1934-12-29
bR0WS PUCKERED
BYE|NSTE|N PROOF
Professor Undertakes to
Explain Equivalence of
Mass and Energy"
Continued From First Page.)

established premises. The lecture was
his first announcement Of his finally
confirming the theory.
For an hour he ran through tht
/ long and complicated formulas, paus'
ing every now and then to remark:
But this Is SO elementary I viii
not trouble you with it,"
| And at one rather knotty point, Al
which some lofty brows were puckered
he remarked:
This Is so infantile I must not de.
lay over it."
And when he had made his fina
point the audience, carefully selected
from among the foremost mathema-
ticians in the country, came out tt
f1nd the newsboys on the street out.
side shouting:
| "Seven-star final Read all about
da perfesser's theery-an about ths
perfesser's theery, gents"
Grants Interview.
Before the lecture Prof. Einsteir
granted newspaper interview.
Whether man lives In a cosmos gov
erned by natural law, or operating
according to chance, is matter oi
TASTE" Such, at least, Is the present
view Of EinStein.
He gave one Of his first newspaper
interviews in the spacious library OF
a Pittsburgh merchants home He
spoke in excellent English which he
has mastered in the last few years
Tactfully, he turned aside questions
about matters not pertaining tc
science.
Don't you enjoy talking about any
thing else" one reporter asked.
Yes, but not with you," came the
quick reply.
He answered three questions.
VIII science ever be able to make
a practical conversion Of mass to
energy?
Prof. Einstein answered that it was
largely matter of speculation, but
that, from the present outlook, he saw
no hopes OF 1t even in the distant
future.
In order to effect such a conversion
1t would be necessary to make direct
hits on the nuclei of atoms with pro-
]ectiles propelled by tremendous ener-
gies. 1T is like hunting BIRDS" Prof
Einstein said, in a country where
there are very few birds and in pitch
darkness. A hunter hardly would ex-
pect much success"
Probes Light Theories.
The second question was: What
progress has been made toward q
reconciliation of the quantum and
relatively theories? One holds light te
be particles, the other waves. Some
times it behaves as If one, sometimes
as If the other.
| At present, Prof. Einstein said, they
appear largely contradictory to each
other and. at the same time, both ap-
pear to contain much truth. 1t seems
an unsolvable problem, but he Is work
| ing on it.
The third question was: Will SCI
ence ever be able to restore the prin-
ciple Of strict casualty in nature?
Science came into the present era
with a well established philosophy OF
a cosmos, governed, in its every aspect
except possibly human and animal be-
havior, by laws of cause and effect
Nothing happened without a cause
There was no event without a conse-
quence. II the cause was known the
effect could be predicted, once the in
termediate steps had been worked out
This has been seriously upset dur
ing the past few years by data tending
to show that In the subatomic world
upon which everything else is built
up. the law does not obtain. This Is
the so-called Heisenburg principle OF
uncertainty" II cause and effect falls
down on the most fundamental plane
however, the implication is that 1t does
not obtain anywhere else.
Clinss 10 Old idea.
The majority of physicists today
Prof. Einstein said, are abandoning the
idea of a strictly deterministic uni
verse for one governed by statistical
laws, In which events seem to happen
according to predetermined law be-
cause the statistical chance Is greatly
in favor Of their happening in that
way. But, he said, in the light OF
present evidence, he himself prefers
to cling to the old idea. From the
more useful and seems to offer more
hope for eventual solution Of the prob
lens Of the universe.
| As q mater of fact, he said, 1t 1.
always possible to state a law of nature
either In a deterministic or q statistical
form and it might be considered that
| the statistical is only part of the ex-
preston of the non-statistical.
One Of the outstanding implications
Of the theory of relativity Is that space
is hyper -dimensionally curved and, II
finite, would turn back upon itself
eventually. Thus a particle departing
from the earth in straight line after
q few quadrillions ofsyears might be
| expected to return to the point from
| which it started. Among the ques-
tions asked Prof. Einstein was whether,
with the new 200-inch telescope, II
might not be possible to see clear
| around the heavens. This was alb
surd, he said, but voiced the hope that
with more and more powerful telescopes
! 1t might be possible to observe great
enough segment of space to prove OBJ
jectively that it actually is Curved. "
The controversy over whether space
is finite or infinite, now very much to
the fore, was too complicated a prob
lem for Prof. EinStein to discuss in a
popular way. his associates said. Both
can be deduced from the relativistic
conception Of the curvature of space,
and which is the true state of affairs
depends on whether this undescribable
hyper-dimensional space is positively
or negatively curved.
DR.. Leon L. Waters, New York City,
said Prof. Einstein now does most OF
his thinking in his sloop of Watch
Hill, r. I. He sails alone.
SCIENCE UNDERSTANDS.
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