Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I. GEOMETRY AND COSMOLOGY 1. The Origin of the Art of Measuring Space and Time 2. Units of Length and Time 3. Origin and Coordinate System 4. The Axioms of Geometry 5. The Ptolemaic System 6. The Copernican System 7. The Elaboration of the Copernican Doctrine CHAPTER II. THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF CLASSICAL MECHANICS 1. Equilibrium and the Concept of Force 2. The Study of Motion?Rectilinear Motion 3. Motion in a Plane 4. Circular Motion 5. Motion in Space 6. Dynamics?The Law of Inertia 7. Impulses 8. The Effect of an Impulse 9. Mass and Momentum 10. Force and Acceleration 11. Example?Elastic Vibrations 12. Weight and Mass 13. Analytical Mechanics 14. The Law of Energy 15. Dynamical Units of Force and Mass CHAPTER III. THE NEWTONIAN WORLD SYSTEM 1. Absolute Space and Absolute Time 2. Newton's Law of Attraction 3. Universal Gravitation 4. Celestial Mechanics 5. The Relativity Principle of Classical Mechanics 6. Limited Absolute Space 7. Galileo Transformations 8. Inertial Forces 9. Centrifugal Forces and Absolute Space CHAPTER IV. THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF OPTICS 1. The Ether 2. The Corpuscular and the Undulatory Theory 3. The Velocity of Light 4. Elements of the Wave Theory?Interference 5. Polarization and Transversality of Light Waves 6. The Ether as an Elastic Solid 7. The Optics of Moving Bodies 8. The Doppler Effect 9. The Convection of Light by Matter 10. Aberration 11. Retrospect and Further Development CHAPTER V. THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF ELECTRODYNAMICS 1. Electro- and Magnetostatics 2. Voltaic Electricity and Electrolysis 3. Resistance and Heat of Current 4. Electromagnetism 5. Faraday's Lines of Force 6. The Electrical Displacement Current 7. Magnetic Induction 8. Maxwell's Theory of Action by Contact 9. The Electromagnetic Theory of Light 10. The Electromagnetic Ether 11. Hertz's Theory of Moving Bodies 12. The Electron Theory of Lorentz 13. Electromagnetic Mass 14. Michelson and Morley's Experiment 15. The Contraction Hypothesis CHAPTER VI. EINSTEIN'S SPECIAL PRINCIPLE OR RELATIVITY 1. The Concept of Simultaneity 2. Einstein's Kinematics and Lorentz's Transformations 3. Geometrical Representation of Einstein's Mechanics 4. Moving Measuring Rods and Clocks 5. Appearance and Reality 6. The Addition of Velocities 7. Einstein's Dynamics 8. The Inertia of Energy 9. Energy and Momentum 10. Optics of Moving Bodies 11. Minkowski's Absolute World CHAPTER VII. EINSTEIN'S GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY 1. Relativity in the Case of Arbitrary Motions 2. The Principle of Equivalence 3. The Failure of Euclidean Geometry 4. Geometry on Curved Surfaces 5. The Two-dimensional Continuum 6. Mathematics and Reality 7. The Metric of the Space-Time Continuum 8. The Fundamental Laws of the New Mechanics 9. Mechanical Inferences and Confirmations 10. Predictions of the New Mechanics and Their Confirmations 11. Optical Deductions and Confirmations 12. Cosmology 13. The Unified Field Theory 14. Conclusion INDEX