Page:Eddington A. Space Time and Gravitation. 1920.djvu/37

I] There are other natural forces which have not as yet been recognised as coming within the electromagnetic scheme—gravitation, for example—and for these other tests are required. Indeed we were scarcely justified in stating above that the diameter of the earth would contract $2 1⁄2$ inches, because the figure of the earth is determined mainly by gravitation, whereas the Michelson-Morley experiment relates to bodies held together by cohesion. There is fair evidence of a rather technical kind that the compensation exists also for phenomena in which gravitation is concerned; and we shall assume that the principle covers all the forces of nature.

Suppose for a moment it were not so, and that it were possible to determine a kind of absolute motion of the earth by experiments or observations involving gravitation. Would this throw light on our motion through the aether? I think not. It would show that there is some standard of rest with respect to which the law of gravitation takes a symmetrical and simple form; presumably this standard corresponds to some gravitational medium, and the motion determined would be motion with respect to that medium. Similarly if the motion were revealed by vital or psychical phenomena, it would be motion relative to some vital or psychical medium. The aether, defined as the seat of electric forces, must be revealed, if at all, by electric phenomena.

It is well to remember that there is reasonable justification for adopting the principle of relativity even if the evidence is insufficient to prove it. In Newtonian dynamics the phenomena are independent of uniform motion of the system; no explanation is asked for, because it is difficult to see any reason why there should be an effect. If in other phenomena the principle fails, then we must seek for an explanation of its failure—and no doubt a plausible explanation can be devised; but so long as experiment gives no indication of a failure, it is idle to anticipate such a complication. Clearly physics cannot concern itself with all the possible complexities which may exist in nature, but have not hitherto betrayed themselves in any experiment.

The principle of relativity has implications of a most revolutionary kind. Let us consider what is perhaps an exaggerated case—or perhaps the actual case, for we cannot tell. Let the