Part 1 - The Institute Libraries - Institute for Advanced Study

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Ih you how why Einstein said the most original and profound
things about space and time that hare been said in
our generation? Be~use he had learned nothing about ell
the philosophy and mzthematics of time and space.
h'or was Einstein loath to set himself apart from the wthe~ricians when, -
Frank mote, he humorously c mnted on Dr. van hue's restatement in
mathemtical terms of the theory of reletfvity that "I myself can hardly
understand hue's book." And again he is quoted as saying vrply that
'"the people at GHttingen sometimes strike me not as if they wanted to
help one Eonnulate somthfng clearly, but instead as if they wanted to
show us physicists how much brighter they are than
One reason for the attftude of some mathm.ticians at Princeton
tht Einstein worked to schieve a unified field theory while questkon-
ing the value of vork in contemporafy quanttm theory taken from classical
~echanics as offering *'no useful point 05 departure for future developments,"
In Princeton particularly there was a strong feeling against further work
-
in unitary field theory, fnfeld urote, nalthough,w he added, mpractically
' everyone knev fTinsrein's/ papers, &it% meant santhing in these days of
narrow special izatian." 10s
In view of the fact that Einstein apparently worked closely
with none of the professors at the hiversfty, nor even with Dirac or
Pavli uhm his colleagues called as visiting professors, it was tragic
that a man with whom Efnstein dfd want to work, Dr. Ervin Schroedinger,
missed an opportunity to take the Jones research chair in mathmnatical
physics, The Viennese physicfst had succeeded Hax Planck at Berlin in
1928. A vexy kppy and productive period of vork with Dr. Einstein fol-
. loved, Dr. Frank noted: ,