Cosmology Old and New

Author(s): G R Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 27

THE PROLOGUE
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We give below a typical example to show how the views of science change in time:
“The earth is at rest and the sun moves” was the view of Ptolemy.
. "The earth moves and the sun is at rest” was the view advanced by Copernicus. Which of these two statements is correct?
In answer, again quoting from the same work (p. 18) of Leopold Infeld:
"The verdict of classical physics is clear and definite in favour of the second statement (i.e., the Copernican view). Is it perhaps possible, is it conceivable that both propositions may be false? And yet a modern physicist listening to a discussion between supporters of the respective theories of Ptolemy and Copernicus might well be tempted to a sceptical smile. The theory of relativity has introduced a new factor into science and revealed a new aspect of phenomena. It is now known that the question of deciding between the Copernican view and that of Ptolemy is pointless and that in fact the propositions of both of them have lost their significance. Whether we say “the earth moves and the sun is at rest” or “the earth is at rest and the sun moves", in either case we are saying something which really conveys nothing. Copernicus' great discovery is today reduced to the modest statement that in certain cases it is more convenient to relate the motion of heavenly bodies to the solar than to the terrestrial system.”
The reader should carefully note down the latest viewpoint of science on this ancient puzzle. The Jaina astronomers held the Ptolemaic view with regard to the relative motion between the earth and the sun and until lately, before the advent of Prof. Einstein's theory of Relativity? the Ptolemaic view was regarded
2. Prof. Albert Einstein, born in 1879, has been universally regarded as the brainiest man in the world'. He startled the scientists all the world over by his theory of Relativity. The special theory was given in the year 1905 and the general theory of Relativity was published in 1915. One interesting story is told about the explanation of relativity.
Mrs. Einstein did not understand her husband's theories. One day she asked, "What shall I say is Relativity ?" The thinker replied with an