Report on the Relativity Theory of Gravitation

by Arthur Stanley Eddington

The disruption and lingering chaos of World War I obscured new developments in German science, and this work marked the first announcement to the English-speaking world of the theory of general relativity. The era's foremost astrophysicist, Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, published these reports five years after the initial appearance of Einstein's landmark paper in 1915.
The eight papers featured in this collection include "The Restricted Principle of Relativity," "The Relations of Space, Time, and Force," "The Theory of Tensors," "Einstein's Law of Gravitation," "The Crucial Phenomena," "The Gravitation of a Continuous Distribution of Matter," "The Principle of Least Action," and "The Curvature of Space." A popular lecturer, Eddington was celebrated for his ability to explain scientific concepts in lay terms. These informative reports reflect his interpretative skills and remain models of clarity.

112 pages, Hardcover

First published May 26, 2006

About the author

Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, OM, FRS was a British astrophysicist of the early 20th century. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the luminosity of stars, or the radiation generated by accretion onto a compact object, is named in his honour.

He is famous for his work regarding the Theory of Relativity. Eddington wrote a number of articles which announced and explained Einstein's theory of general relativity to the English-speaking world. World War I 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 May 29, 1919 that provided one of the earliest confirmations of relativity, and he became known for his popular expositions and interpretations of the theory.