PROFESSOR EINSTEIN’S NEW THEORY OF GRAVITATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27274, 28 December 1949, Page 5

PROFESSOR EINSTEIN’S NEW THEORY OF GRAVITATION

NZPA—Copyright

Rec. 9 p.m. NEW YORK, Dec. 26.. Professor Albert Einstein has enunciated a new theory which he believes explains the scientific mystery of what gravitation is. Gravity is an attractive force which keeps human beings from floating off the earth’s surface. The new theory was announced by the Princeton University Press at the opening of the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Professor Einstein 'Called his discovery a new “generalised theory of gravitation.” It will form a new chapter in his revised book, “The Meaning of Relativity.” Professor Einstein has described the new theory as an extension of his famous theory of relativity. * A university spokesman said no physicists were yet willing to talk publicly about the new theory. The spokesman said Professor Einstein’s definitive, “ unified field theory ” was set forth in one series of equations of laws governing two fundamental forces of the universe—gravitation and electro-magnetism. Physicists have been seeking for years a formula by which both may be more fully understood.

The new theory is expressed- in involved mathematics. The heart of the explanation of gravity is four equations given in letters or symbols and not numbers. The equations use two mathematical expressions for gravity, but it was not explained whether this meant that there were two forms of gravity. The theory has yet to be tested to establish whether it covers

all known laws or observations about the way that matter, energy, and gravitation behave. Professor Einstein was quoted by the spokesman as having said that the theory was a highly convincing extension of the general theory of relativity, but that there were still mathematical problems to be solved before a practical way was found to test it. These tests might take years.