Eddington and Einstein
Mar. 27th, 2010 12:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shipperxWatched the HBO movie Eddington and Einstein last night while struggling with my computer (damn thing wouldn't work. It would find the wifi and would say that it couldn't find the internet. Internet provider said they could see my modem and could ping so that wasn't the problem. Ultimately (::fingers crossed:: I think it was just a cable. When I replaced it this morning it finally decided to work again).
Anyway, over all, the movie was pretty good. Plus, Tennant! That said, the movie is also an instance of if you know your history, you begin to say "Wait! That's not the way it happened!" The whole hike through Africa, limited number of slides, the rain stopping and the clouds parting just in time to get the shot were all true. But if I remember correctly what I've read on the subject Eddington didn't just look at the images (which were not nearly as obvious as what was shown in the film) and announce, voila! Einstein is right. In fact, he initially concluded that Einstein had been wrong.
I can't think of the names and, for the moment, I'm not trying to look them up so I may have sequences and locations wrong. But if my memory is correct, there was another astronomer who tried to make the observation earlier, only that astronomer ended up in a place that came into contention in WWI and was arrested as a 'spy' and left as a prisoner of war for the bulk of WWI. Eddington's was the second attempt at confirmation and the same eclipse was also viewable by an American astronomer. The American astronomer also observed the same eclipse, elsewhere, and concluded that Einstein was right. Meanwhile, Eddington (who, as the movie showed, was a Quaker against the war and thus was supportive of Einstein and working with a German scientist. All of this was true)... anyway, if I remember correctly, Eddington was preparing to release that his results did not in fact definitively prove the Theory of Relativity. Eddington then heard about the American's result and so he went back to re-examine his slides and then concluded that there was, indeed, a shift.
At least that's my memory of the way that I read it. Not quite the heroic "aha!" moment of the movie. But, really, that's just a quibble. The movie was quite interesting. :)
Anyway, over all, the movie was pretty good. Plus, Tennant! That said, the movie is also an instance of if you know your history, you begin to say "Wait! That's not the way it happened!" The whole hike through Africa, limited number of slides, the rain stopping and the clouds parting just in time to get the shot were all true. But if I remember correctly what I've read on the subject Eddington didn't just look at the images (which were not nearly as obvious as what was shown in the film) and announce, voila! Einstein is right. In fact, he initially concluded that Einstein had been wrong.
I can't think of the names and, for the moment, I'm not trying to look them up so I may have sequences and locations wrong. But if my memory is correct, there was another astronomer who tried to make the observation earlier, only that astronomer ended up in a place that came into contention in WWI and was arrested as a 'spy' and left as a prisoner of war for the bulk of WWI. Eddington's was the second attempt at confirmation and the same eclipse was also viewable by an American astronomer. The American astronomer also observed the same eclipse, elsewhere, and concluded that Einstein was right. Meanwhile, Eddington (who, as the movie showed, was a Quaker against the war and thus was supportive of Einstein and working with a German scientist. All of this was true)... anyway, if I remember correctly, Eddington was preparing to release that his results did not in fact definitively prove the Theory of Relativity. Eddington then heard about the American's result and so he went back to re-examine his slides and then concluded that there was, indeed, a shift.
At least that's my memory of the way that I read it. Not quite the heroic "aha!" moment of the movie. But, really, that's just a quibble. The movie was quite interesting. :)
