General Relativity – An Einstein Centenary Survey

Abstract

The stream of books which have appeared to commemorate the Einstein centenary can leave no doubt as to the awe in which his contributions to modern physical thought are still held. It is a nice touch that the preface to this volume should contain a facsimile of the letter from Clerk Maxwell, who died one hundred years ago (an event which appears to have gone almost unnoticed), concerning the possibility that anomalies in the motion of the Jovian moons might be used to detect motion through the aether: a letter which was to catch the eye of one Albert Michelson and change the course of physics so dramatically.