Relativity Theory of Protons and Electrons

Abstract

DURING the past ten years or a little more, physicists have found themselves more and more peremptorily confronted with a question of theoretical conscience– a question which has gradually and almost inadvertently become of overwhelming weight. It is that of how to reconcile Relativity Theory and Quantum Theory. Increasing uneasiness grew from the fact that in the course of their development, both theories approached what many regarded as final states of perfection, but without reaching true Anschluss to one another, or even reconciling their mutual discrepancies. Having, both of them, acquired the rank of inalienable knowledge, they seemed incapable of undergoing serious modifications, yet in urgent need of such, in view of the mutual inconsistency of their respective fundamentals. The book under review, which is an enlarged exposition of the author's investigations from 1928 until 1936, in a way is a continuation of his well-known book on relativity. The least that must be said in praise of the present work is that Sir Arthur puts forward sufficient evidence of blunder (in the sense of misapprehension, of course) in current quantum-or wave-mechanics to reassure us that, in this theory, there is room and indeed need, for radical readjustment.

Relativity Theory of Protons and Electrons

By Sir Arthur Eddington. Pp. viii + 336. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1936.) 21s. net.