Re: New version of a relativity FAQ

Tom Roberts wrote on Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:22:25 +0200:

Pmb wrote:
But Einstein *did* put it into writing in a letter to Max Abraham:
------------------------------
I do not agree with the idea that general theory relativity is
geometerizing Physics or the gravitational field. The concepts of
Physics have always been geometrical concepts and I cannot see why the
gik field would be called more geometrical than f.i. the
electro-magnetic field or the distance between bodies in Newtonian
Mechanics. The notion probably comes from the fact that the
mathematical origin of the is the Gaussian-Riemann theory of the
metrical continuum which we are wont to look at as part of a geometry.
I am convinced, however, that the distinction between geometrical and
other kinds of fields is not logically founded. - Albert Einstein to
Lincoln Barnett, June 19, 1948
------------------------------

I remark that today is 2008, not 1948.

Effectively! And the idea that gravity is special, just geometry, and a
interaction completely different from electromagnetism and the rest of
forces sounds so unjustified today as it did then.

--
Center for CANONICAL |SCIENCE)
http://canonicalscience.org
.

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