Sir Arthur Eddington

Been watching a lot pf CSPAN stuff, lectures on the War of Northern Aggression mostly but will pick anything I find interesting and this was definitely one as I knew nothing of this. I wonder if this guy is lost in history or if people know about him and I'm betting on the former. I know, my only source is Wiki but I'm being lazy. Just a little tidbit for ya'all.

Las Vegas is a town that has a lot of "It's not what you know, it's who you know" and this is certainly the case except that Eddington and Edison never met or corresponded while Addington was trying to prove Einstein was right. Addington was a dog with a bone on this one and thankfully for us he was exactly that. So many things in history that happened because of bloody whatever, weird chance meeting, or someone reading an article that influences them to do some life changing thing.

Einstein, was holed up in Germany because of blockades during war times and figures out this "thing" that will revolutionize how we think. But he can't get the info out of the blockade. He can't even do it through a third party so his genius is locked up.

In comes Sir Arthur Eddington, an astronomer. British bloke who happens to be smart enough to think, Hmmm, this Einstein guy is onto something. This math makes sense. He goes through unreal lengths to prove Einstein was right with massive efforts given to the photography of stars and proving light bends. Two expeditions to capture a eclipse and prove that light bends. He had to prove to be a conscientious objector to the war and with some help, succeeded and did his experiments that proved Einstein was correct.

Einstein gets all the credit and becomes, well, Einstein.

Eddington wrote a number of articles that announced and explained Einstein's theory of general relativity to the English-speaking world. World War I had severed many lines of scientific communication, and new developments in German science were not well known in England. He also conducted an expedition to observe the solar eclipse of 29 May 1919 that provided one of the earliest confirmations of general relativity, and he became known for his popular expositions and interpretations of the theory.

Wiki

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

A tip of the hat from Texas, Sir. S&F for a the archer.

a reply to: DreadKnock

Glad you enjoyed it. I do love stories like this of the men/women behind the curtain that actually went out and got crap done. The "cameras" he had to use were bulky and difficult to transport. Of the two, they hit on 50% and that changed the way the world thought at that time.

The dude became a footnote and that bums me out. He should get more credit for his work.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

Let's be fair with history:

The Errors of Sir Arthur Eddington

Don't be sad for the guy. He got the recognition he deserved. In any case you cannot compare Mr. Einstein's achievements with those of Mr. Eddington.

originally posted by: Direne
a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

Let's be fair with history:

The Errors of Sir Arthur Eddington

Don't be sad for the guy. He got the recognition he deserved. In any case you cannot compare Mr. Einstein's achievements with those of Mr. Eddington.

This sounds like an odd contrarian post just to be contrarian.

Your source as prestigious as it is is still just one source and seems to be published in 1931. Any chance we have learned more and have a broader and better perspective in the last 90 years?

a reply to: putnam6

Yes, the article I linked is younger than Mr. Eddington. But if you wish a good reason why Mr. Eddington cannot be paired with Einstein at all you can go to Wikipedia and read the so-called "Dispute with Chandrasekhar on existence of black holes".

There you will learn Mr. Chandrasekhar's work established the existence of black holes, and there you will learn that for Mr. Eddington they seemed so absurdly non-physical that Eddington refused to believe that Chandrasekhar's purely mathematical derivation had consequences for the real world. Eddington was wrong and his motivation is controversial.

Do you know why his motivation for such a stupid refusal is controversial? According to Mr. Chandrasekhar own words Eddington was rather cruel and dogmatic, though it actually happened they were the words of a racist person: Mr. Eddington. Others state racism was not the main motivation, as Mr. Eddington did also insult other physicists and mathematicians (E.A. Mine and James Jeans). That character Mr. Eddington was. The thing is he was unable to derive the existence of massive objects when he himself had the maths at his disposal. He simply did not read the maths, because the guy who published the equations was Indian. That was the reason.

So, you see, mine was not an odd contrarian post. I was giving the OP an answer to his question on why Mr. Eddington cannot and will never be paired with Mr. Einstein.

originally posted by: Direne
a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

Let's be fair with history:

The Errors of Sir Arthur Eddington

Don't be sad for the guy. He got the recognition he deserved. In any case you cannot compare Mr. Einstein's achievements with those of Mr. Eddington.

I didn't compare the two. I just related a little tidbit of history.

Your beef with him has nothing to do with this story.