I considered reading this book aloud to my dog, even though I doubted he would understand relativity, even as explained by the witty and clear-thinking Chad Orzel. Maxwell does seem to show some interest in Newton’s first law: A body at rest tends to remain at rest, and a body in motion tends to remain in motion unless acted on by an external force.
Books on Science
Raise a Paw if You Understand Einstein
By KATHERINE BOUTON
Published: May 21, 2012
HOW TO TEACH RELATIVITY TO YOUR DOG
By Chad Orzel
Basic Books. 327 pages. $16.99.
Get Science News From The New York Times »He knows a lot about inertia: sleeping on the couch with all four paws in the air, barely a twitch. But get him chasing a squirrel and he’ll remain in motion until acted on by an external force: me.
Professor Orzel, who teaches physics at Union College and runs the blog Uncertain Principles, is turning his own dog, Emmy, into something of a franchise; he is already the author of “How to Teach Physics to Your Dog” (2009), so popular it was translated into 10 languages.
The device allows him to be both succinct and entertaining. Discussing the Michelson-Morley experiment in the 1880s, which purported to disprove the previous findings of the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell about the speed of light, Professor Orzel calls it “arguably the greatest failed experiment in the history of physics.”
Maxwell (no relation to my dog) was right, as years of further experimentation would show. Not only that, but the failure of Michelson-Morley helped vanquish the old notion of a “luminiferous aether” through which light was supposed to move, and contributed to the mathematical tools Einstein needed to publish his first relativity papers in 1905. As Professor Orzel tells Emmy: “Einstein succeeded where others had failed by showing that a careful treatment of time and motion make these effects inevitable.”
Emmy: “Wait, Einstein didn’t come up with relativity on his own?”
Orzel: “Other people worked out all of the mathematical apparatus before him.”
Emmy: “So why is Einstein all famous, while I haven’t heard of these other guys?”
Orzel: “Because they all balked at the weirdness of the predictions, so none of them got it right.”
Alas, the amusing (and enlightening) dialogue does not stop here; Emmy does have a way of going on a beat too long. Still, bravo to both man and dog. And now — as a reader of Professor Orzel’s blog recently suggested — on to string theory.
KATHERINE BOUTON
