Einstein's Clocks: Empires Of Time

If a bicycle collides with a vehicle in Singapore and another in Canada, which seem to happen at the same time to an observer on the earth, will be slightly different to an observer on elsewhere, such as space. This is the relativity of simultaneity where this book, Einstein's Clocks, Poincaré's Maps: Empires of Time by Peter Galison discusses when two extraordinary scientists cogitates about the problem of simultaneity and was it appreciated by the world during their era.

In this book, Mr Galison introduced the famous Albert Einstein, who was a minor bureaucrat in the patent office in Berne and Henri Poincare, who was the president of France’s Board of Longitude. Both had the ambitious in the field of relativity, but Poincare was known to

In Poincare’s era, people adopted the principles of physics in solving the celestial mechanics. Poincare discovered a new way in solving the celestial mechanics with diagrams. He focused on the differential equations; which shows how object changes within fraction of a second, as well as the physics of three-body problem. Henri Poincare advance further in understanding the behavior of differential equations, attracting attention of the world’s leading mathematicians. Poincare won the Oscar II, King of Sweden’s mathematical competition, proving his capability in the mathematical field. However, in 1889, Lars Edvard Phragmen, a Swedish mathematician, was skeptical about Poincare’s claim; that if asteroid’s trajectory is from a fixed point, it would ultimately stabilize towards another fixed point. Poincare rewrote his paper with regards to the problem brought up by Edvard Phragmen. Although Poincare did not succeed in perfecting his work in celestial mechanics, it was still remarkable for him to come up with periodic solutions of the three body problem. Poincare showed the difference between true and intermediate orbits and that is one of the important factors in modern’s day when designing

The convention concluded the metric measurement system from the French Revolution as the international standard for length and weight. Thirty iridium-platinum meter bars were made with super high precision that would serve as the international standard for length for countries around the world. France also attempted to standardize time, by synchronizing the Observatory time from telegraph cables with twelve main clocks of Paris. However, the attempt was a failure due to the ice in the sewers that cripples the cables underground. By 1883, none of the twelve clocks were synchronized, and all clocks were having different times. The director of the Observatory decided that Paris would no longer attempt to standardize the time or distribute time in Paris. It was a huge step for the world in standardizing a universal measuring system, and it was a pity that the French did not succeed in synchronizing the clocks. Even in the modern computer, it is critical to time synchronize our system as to prevent security breaches, time-stamping of documents and accuracy of billing services. The attempt by the French was a good head start in creating awareness the importance of time