Consciousness and Albert Einstein’s relative space-time: new perspectives on Albert Einstein’s discovery in Sobral.

Diverse are the interpretations of Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity in the different sciences since May 29th, 1919, when Einstein verified in Sobral, Brazil, a completely new conception of cosmology advancing scientific understanding and presenting new consequences for the human race and modern science. The main objective of this paper is to present an interdisciplinary approach dealing with CONCEPTUALIZATION; FIGURATIVIZATION AND METAPHORIZATION in Einstein’s Relativistic Mechanics. The thesis defended is that relativity is a metaphor in Einstein’s Mechanics. The central question therefore aims to define in which theory of consciousness is Einstein’s Sobral discovery best grounded?

With these objectives established, we propose to discuss the concept of relativity in Einstein’s Mechanics in relation to consciousness, language and thought. We also set out to discuss the concept of relativity as a cognitive metaphor in language and thought in Albert Einstein’s relativistic Mechanics. The second objective deals with the contributions of prominent theorists of Cognitive Linguistics, Cognitive Semantics, Hermeneutical Phenomenology and Consciousness in order to discuss Einstein’s scientific discovery in Sobral, as a scientific breakthrough considered to be the most important contribution to Modern Physics, if not to the history of physics.
With this interdisciplinary perspective our approach discusses the reasoning and confirmations established in Einstein’s relativistic Mechanics. If Einstein’s relativist Mechanics  does not completely unveil to mankind a conceptualization, figurativization and metaphorization of space and time, it does at least inform beacons, in this much complex but fascinating field,  of man-language-myth-natural world relations.

Among these beacons, we emphasize that the process of comprehension of these relations can only be tropological, since what is involved in the conversion of the unfamiliar to the familiar is a creation of a metaphor that in general is figurative.

The conclusion herein reached therefore is that the concept of relativity is a cognitive metaphor in thought and language in Albert Einstein’s relativistic Mechanics, confirmed in Sobral, Brazil.

Abstract presented in the IIIrd International Conference on Metaphor In Language and in Thought,in Fortaleza,2008.

EINSTEIN: Figurativisation, metamorphosis of space-time relativity and the problem of the metaphoric consciousness in the modes of comprehension of the reality of Relativistic Mechanics according to Einstein.

There are numerous interpretations of the Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, in the sciences since 1919, when Einstein presented one innovating conception of Cosmology with scientific consequences for human innovation.  Considering the principal contributions of predominant experts of Linguistics, Poetry, Phenomenology, Semantics and Anthropology, we discuss “Einstein: figurativisation and metamorphosis of space-time relativity and the problem of metaphoric consciousness in the modes of reality comprehension.” This innovative scientific experience realised in the city of Sobral, Ceará, in May 1919, as a scientific pioneering experiment is considered to be one of the most important contributions to Modern Physics, if not the most important one in the history. With this interdisciplinary objective we aim to discuss the questions and confirmations realised in the physics of Einstein, if not to completely solve the enigma of the figurativisation and metamorphosis of space-time relativity, then to point to at least some beacons in this very complex but fascinating field in the relations of man-language-myth-world.  We emphasize that these beacons can only be comprehended in the tropological relation, because what is involved in the conversion of the non-familiar into familiar is a creation of metaphors which is in general figurative.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The total eclipse of May 29^th 1919, in Sobral.

One of Eddington’s photographs of the 1919 eclipse, presented in his 1920 paper announcing its success.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cosmological Models

Cosmological models facing the interpretative limit of the metaphoric consciousness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two deep questions about the interpretive range of the metaphoric consciousness in the understanding of the relativistic mechanics of the general theory of relativity: can the Einsteinian cosmos be interpreted according to the present interdisciplinary study?

 

Figure 1: (Text written in French)

Figure 2: Holes in space-time

In the proximity of material bodies space-time is distorted and rays of light do not follow a straight path, but obey to the corresponding geometry. This ensures that they bend around a compact material – in this case a black hole – many times. The region which involves the black hole, the horizon of events, is defined by one situation in which not a single ray of light can pass it from the inside to the outside. But in an inverse direction this is possible – therefore the designation “black hole”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DESENVOLVIMENTO HISTÓRICO DA TEORIA GERAL DA RELATIVIDADE

 

BC      século VI                                Pythagoras and the beens

BC      450-265         Greece              Euclid publishes Elements

and the           Hiparcus files 1080 stars according to magnitudes                

BC      295                  Ptolomeu        Library of Alexandria   

AC      85-165                                       Ptolomeu publishes Syntaxis (Almagest)

...and the geocentric epicycles complicate the world

AC      476-670          Índia               Aryabhata e Brahmagupta

AC      800-1000        Arabia            al-Khwatizmi, al-Batani e ibn Yunus

 

AC 1473-1543           Europe           Copernicus suggests a heliocentric theory

 1571-1630                            ... and Kepler dissipates the angels from Aristotle

1564-1642                            Galileu, the Inquisition and the media

1642-1727                             Isaac Neewton and us

1646-1716                             Leibniz anticipates the Calculus

1707-1783                             Euler among other workaholics

1749-1827                             Laplace matrizes planeariam disturb

1781                                    Herchel finds Uranus planet

1846                                    Netuno is discovered

1826-1866                              Riemann curva espaços não-euclidianos

1907                                    Einstein concludes that E is equal to mc2

1915/6                                 General Theory of Relativity

1919                                    Einstein and the eclipse in the parameter of Sofala

 

Contemporaneous Cosmology

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The prediction of Einstein, made in 1916, that the light of a star should

divert its course by 1,7” when it goes very close to the sun, was tested during one total eclipse which occurred on 29^th May 1919. This eclipse was visible in some territories in Brazil and Africa.

The English astronomer Arthur Eddington, an enthusiast of Einstein’s ideas, convinced the British authorities to finance two expeditions to observe the eclipse. One of them, lead by Eddington himself, was to the island of Principe, in Africa, and the other one was to Sobral, in Ceará (See map). The aim was to photograph and measure the relative position of the stars surrounding the sun, made visible when the sun would be covered by the moon. Comparing these positions with normal positions of the same stars in photographs obtained during the night, faraway from the sun, it would be possible, theoretically, to measure the deflection of the light. This is not an easy measurement. To begin with, the angle predicted (1,7”) is very small as we have already said. Spurious effects, with refraction in the atmosphere and thermal variations in the length of the photographic plates, can irreversibly mask the result of the measurements. Not to mention the big enemy of eclipse observers: the possibility of the sun being covered by clouds right at the moment of total eclipse. This is what happened on the island of Principe. On the day of the eclipse rain fell to the despair of Eddington. Close to the eclipse time, the clouds dispersed, allowing for two photographs, where it was possible to see five stars. The team in Sobral had better luck; the sky was bright by the time of the total eclipse. They obtained eight photos in high quality, with seven stars in each of them. The observed detours, according to the scientists, were the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOBRAL: 1,98”; PRINCIPE: 1,60”. These values are very close to the prediction of Einstein (1,7”), allowing their confirmation in accordance to the prediction of Soldner (0,85”).

 

This result was considered to be a triumph of the general theory of relativity of Einstein. Presented by Eddington in the meeting of 6^th November 1919 of the Real Society of London, it was published with great importance by The Times newspaper on the following day, and soon after by the most prominent newspapers in the world. Albert Einstein suddenly became a superstar of science, he became known by a large public with the same importance as film and sports stars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s almost commonplace to affirm that along the history of science there were only three scientific revolutions. The first one took place in ancient Greece, when geometry was introduced, and from that the conception of rigid bodies and the static configurations was elaborated. This accomplishment gave birth to the recognition of the role of mathematics rationale in our comprehension of nature. The second revolution we could say

arrived in the 17^th century, when Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton established how the movement of bodies can be understood based on the force of the particles which constitute the bodies and the accelerations that such forces generate.

The third and last scientific revolution arrived in the 19^th century, when Michael Faraday and James Maxwell showed us that particles are not enough, and we have to consider the continuing camps moving in a permeable space to describe the physical reality. These continuing camps combine in one physical entity, in other words: the electromagnetic camp; and it would be possible to explain the behavior of light and the result of each propagation and oscillation.

It is not possible to deny therefore that in 1905, Albert Einstein, an unknown physician at the time, presented one ground-breaking, new conception of the function of the Universe, its physical nature, space, time, and light. By doing so he therefore launched new bases to the two previous theories, which were considered to be the most revolutionary theories of physics at the beginning of the twentieth century. Consequently, in a pioneering way, the epistemology of space-time relativity established by Albert Einstein has at once questioned two of the most important scientific revolutions. The first, the revolution of the law of gravity by Isaac Newton formulated in the 17^th century, the second, the theory of electromagnetic field, formulated by Faraday and James Maxwell in the 19^th Century.

The new science and epistemology so established by Einstein questioned and at once eliminated the Newtonian determinism of absolute time: one paradigm which prevailed for many years in physics. In a second moment Einstein incorporated to his new perspective the notion of the electromagnetic field in accordance with what was previously proposed by Faraday and Maxwell. This way, Einstein solved two unanswered problems of the Theory of Physics. Primarily, the institution of a change in the paradigm of modern physics, and in a second moment contributing to a new rationale which had begun to be established in the sciences and in the modern world since the 19^th Century. Therefore, instituting at the beginning of the 20^th Century, on the other side. The relativity of physics and on the other side, in the scope of Social Sciences, the cultural relativity of the ideas. Furthermore, new categories in human and scientific thinking were introduced, a new dimension of rationality and science consolidated after the contribution of Albert Einstein.

Observations of the minor planet Eros, in order to determine solar parallax. J.E.Keeler’s photographs show “large numbers of nebulae, particularly of spiral form. C. Easton suggests that Milky Way galaxy has a spiral structure. M. Planck’s quantum hypothesis proposed.  1901 Nova Persei : first bright nova of the 20th century. J.C. Kapteyn uses statistical methods to determine stellar distances from proper motions and hence to estimate the size of the galaxy. 1902 A. Schuster proposes a heory to explain the machanismof absorption and scattering in stellar atmospheres, further developed in a paper in 1905. 1904 Two “star streams” discovered b Kapteyn,Mount Wilson Solar Observatory established by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. J. Hartmann finds stationary CA 11 lines in the spectrum of 8 Orionis. 1905 Special theory of relativity developed by A. Einstein, E. Hertzsprung points out the importance of differences in s stellar spectra, first noticed by Miss. A. Maury. 1906 K Schwarzchild suggests that energy in stellar atmospheres is transported mainly br radioation. “Plan of Selected Areas” proposed by Kapteyn. 1908 Magnetic field in sunspots detected by G. E Hale and his collaborators at Mount Wilson Solar Observatory. 1909 F. Schlsinger notics rotation effecti in the veolicty curves ofeclipsing binaries e Librae and a Tauri.

1910 First successful experiments with gelentium cell by J. Stebbins. 1911 C.C Abbott suggests that the atmosphere of the sun is gaseous throughout. Magnitude-color diagrams for Pleiades and Hyades clusters plotted by Hertzsprung. J Hahn suggests correlation between absolute magnitudes of stars and their ....? 1912 V. M. Slipher begins investigations of radial velocities of galaxies. First extensive theory of light variation of eclipsing binaries developed by H. N. Russell and H. Shapley. Period-Inminosity relation of variable stars in Small Magellanic Cloud n


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