Abstract
IN the last of his Rhodes lectures delivered at Oxford a year ago, Prof. A. Einstein pointed out that a defect in the original form of the general theory of relativity was that the electromagnetic field was not expressed by means of the metric of the space-time continuum as was gravitation. By introducing a modified form of the Riemann geometry admitting of distant parallelism, Prof. Einstein obtained field equations which he hoped would remedy this defect. From his Rouse Ball lecture at Cambridge on May 5, it appears that this method of approach has been unsuccessful. Prof. Einstein has reverted to a mathematical technique introduced by Kaluza, and has succeeded in defining a vector with four or five components in space of one less dimension. Introducing parallel displacement, a five-component vector is projected repeatedly on to a four-dimensional plane, giving rise to a curve, the properties of which provide the relationship required. In this way the extra term required to account for the phenomena of electrodynamics is obtained. The method resembles that used in building up the general theory of relativity.
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Gravitation and Electrodynamics. Nature 129, 716 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129716c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129716c0