Page:Eddington A. Space Time and Gravitation. 1920.djvu/77

III] are quite independent of any views as to the constitution of matter or light. Hitherto our only reference to electrical theory has been in connection with Larmor and Lorentz's explanation of the FitzGerald contraction; but now from the discussion of the four-dimensional world, we have found a more general explanation of the change of length. The case for the electrical theory of matter is actually weakened, because many experimental effects formerly thought to depend on the peculiar properties of electrical forces are now found to be perfectly general consequences of the relativity of observational knowledge.

Whilst the evidence for the electrical theory of matter is not so conclusive, as at one time appeared, the theory may be accepted without serious misgivings. To postulate two entities, matter and electric charges, when one will suffice is an arbitrary hypothesis, unjustifiable in our present state of knowledge. The great contribution of the electrical theory to this subject is a precise explanation of the property of inertia. It was shown theoretically by J. J. Thompson that if a charged conductor is to be moved or stopped, additional effort will be necessary simply on account of the charge. The conductor has to carry its electric field with it, and force is needed to set the field moving. This property is called inertia, and it is measured by mass. If, keeping the charge constant, the size of the conductor is diminished, this inertia increases. Since the smallest separable particles of matter are found by experiment to be very minute and to carry charges, the suggestion arises that these charges may be responsible for the whole of the inertia detected in matter. The explanation is sufficient; and there seems no reason to doubt that all inertia is of this electrical kind.

When the calculations are extended to charges moving with high velocities, it is found that the electrical inertia is not strictly constant but depends on the speed; in all cases the variation is summed up in the statement that the inertia is simply proportional to the total energy of the electromagnetic field. We can say if we like that the mass of a charged particle at rest belongs to its electrostatic energy; when the charge is set in motion, kinetic energy is added, and this kinetic energy also has mass. Hence it appears that mass (inertia) and energy