Kritische Stimmen
zur Relativitätstheorie

von Ernest Rutherford

Aussagen des neuseeländischen Nobelpreisträgers Ernest Rutherford über die Relativi-tätstheorie, zitiert von der Forschungsgruppe G.O. Mueller in ihrer Dokumentation Über die absolute Größe der Speziellen Relativitätstheorie (Textversion 2.1 – Juni 2004):

1924 – Ernest Rutherford

The electrical structure of matter: Presidential address [British Association for the Advancement of Science, Meeting in Liverpool, 1923 / Sir Ernest Rutherford.

In: British Association for the Advancement of Science. Report of the 91. Meeting, Liverpool 1923, sept. 12-19. London 1924, S. 1-24.

Als Präsident der British Association for the Advancement of Science sagte Rutherford 1923 in Liverpool in seiner Presidential Address (S. 24): „There is an error far too prevalent to-day that Science progresses by the demolition of former well-established theories. Such is very rarely the case. For example, it is often stated that Einstein’s general theory of relativity has overthrown the work of Newton on gravitation. No statement can be further from the truth. Their works, in fact, are hardly comparable, for they deal with different fields of thought. So far as the work of Einstein is relevant to that of Newton, it is simply a generalisation and broadening of its basis; in fact a typical case of mathematical and physical development.“

1939 – Ernest Rutherford
In: Eve, A. S.: Rutherford. Being the life and letters of … Cambridge 1939, S. 193.

Anläßlich des „ Solveigh“(?)-Kongresses 1910 in Brüssel berichtet Eve (S. 193): „One day, Rutherford, Willy Wien and I were lunching together out of doors at Brussels, when Rutherford began twitting Wien about relativity. Wien explained that Newton was wrong in the matter of relative motion, which was not the joint velocities u+v, but that expression, according to Einstein, must be divided by 1+uv/c², where c is the velocity of light. Wien added: „But no Anglo-Saxon can understand relativity!“ „No!“ laughed Rutherford, „they have too much sense.““

Zitiert ferner Rutherfords Aussagen in seiner Presidential address vom Sept. 1923, veröff. 1924: „There is an error far too prevelant …“: vgl. Rutherford 1924.

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