| RefNo | MS/603/8/95 |
| Previous numbers | 1433 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Letter from E A [Edward Arthur] Milne, 19 Northmoor Road, Oxford, to [Joseph] Larmor |
| Creator | Milne; (Edward) Arthur (1896-1950); British astrophyicist and cosmologist |
| Recipient | Larmor; Sir Joseph (1857-1942); Irish theoretical physicist |
| Date | 24 August 1932 |
| Description | Larmor's letter offering to present his 'Collected papers' is princely, adding to those that Milne already has from Kelvin and others. He leaves England for Germany and asks for the books to be sent to Wadham College. He looks forward to seeing Larmor's 'Problem of Einstein', giving his Potsdam address. He wants to see [Albert] Einstein and 'stand up to him on some matters'. He has been reading [Hermann] Minkowski's address and he discusses ideas arising from this on Galilean space-time and gravitation. Milne finds four dimensional geometry hard, making 'trivial slips', but his equations may be insisting upon introducing light-pressure as a constituant of the universe. He continues, lamenting that his algebra is 'infested with errors' and not trusting his results. He would like to know whether Larmor holds to his view that the space of physics is three dimensional. If Eddington and others are right, and space is expanding and spherical, 'that must simply mean that point events are located in a spatial 4-spread (quite apart from time), but that they only occur in some three-way section of it at one time'. He concludes by discussing the competing views of three- and four- dimensional spaces. |
| Extent | 8p. |
| Format | Manuscript |
| PhysicalDescription | Ink on paper |
| AccessStatus | Open |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA8077 | Milne; Edward Arthur (1896 - 1950) | 1896 - 1950 |