On an Inversion of Ideas as to the Structure of the Universe

Abstract

THIS is a short description of a new theory of the universe which formed the subject of the Rede lecture last June. All such theories must satisfy two conditions. The structure must be dynamically possible, and the results deduced by dynamical reasoning from the theory must correspond qualitatively and quantitatively to the phenomena of Nature. The analytical difficulties maybe too great to deduce all the phenomena, but if any be contrary to experience, the theory, at least in its exact form, must go. It is only by inventing, discussing, comparing and remodelling as many theories as possible that we can hope to arrive at any knowledge of. the constitution of matter or of the aether. This new and very original attempt is therefore to bs welcomed. As a rule, authors of such theories are satisfied to show how many facts their theory explains, and how probable, therefore, it is that their theory corresponds to reality. Not so, however, Prof. Osborne Reynolds. He claims to have shown that “the research has revealed the prime cause of the physical properties of matter,” and that

On an Inversion of Ideas as to the Structure of the Universe.

By Prof. Osborne Reynolds Pp. 44. (Cambridge: University Press, 1902.) Price 1s. 6d. net.