Working On The Theory Of Relativity While Fighting A World War

If you want to know more about the creator of this project as well as projects like 1001 Writing Tips Project, 1001 Poems Project, 1001 Science Stories Project, 1001 Atomic Essays Project, and 1001 Startup Theses Project, go to the website of Abhimanyu Jha

Science Story

Topics: Physics, Theory of Relativity, Einstein Field Equations

Key Personalities: Karl Schwarzschild, Albert Einstein

Country: Germany

Time: Early 20th century, World War 1

What makes the story captivating?:
Making a fantastic discovery while fighting on the frontlines of a world war

Story:

Karl Schwarzschild was a German physicist, astronomer and professor born in 1873 to Jewish parents in Frankfurt. After WW1 broke out, he joined the German army and was put to work on improving artillery accuracy. Schwarzschild quickly rose through the ranks, and by 1916 he had been promoted to the rank of captain.

While serving on the Russian front in 1915, he contracted pemohigus, a rare and painful skin disease. Despite his illness, Schwarzschild managed to write three outstanding papers during 1915, two of which were on general relativity and one on quantum mechanics.

One of those papers named "On the Gravitational Field of a Point Mass According to the General Theory of Relativity," focused on finding a solution to Einstein's field equations and produced the first exact solutions to the equations which even Einstein had not managed to find. Schwarzschild discovered the solution to Einstein's field equations by assuming a static, spherically symmetric universe. A minor modification of these results give the well-known solution that now bears his name, the Schwarzschild metric, and is the basis for our understanding of black holes.

What is less well known is that Schwarzschild's paper caught Einstein by surprise; he had not expected the field equations to admit exact solutions. In a letter to Schwarzschild, Einstein wrote: "I must tell you that I am greatly surprised by your result. It agrees with mine only in the first order of approximation...It is very beautiful.

In 1916, Schwarzschild contracted tuberculosis and was sent home to recuperate. While at home, he continued to work on mathematical problems related to artillery accuracy. He died later that year from the effects of his tuberculosis.

Despite dying prematurely in 1916 at the age of 42, Schwarzschild managed to make significant contributions to a number of different fields of physics, including general relativity, celestial mechanics, observational stellar photometry, quantum mechanics, instrumental astronomy, stellar structure, stellar statistics etc.

This is what the famous British physicist Arthur Eddington had to say about Schwarzschild: "The wide range of his contributions to knowledge suggests a comparison with Poincaré; but Schwarzschild's bent was more practical, and he delighted as much in the design of instrumental methods as in the triumphs of analysis. ... his joy was to range unrestricted over the pastures of knowledge, and, like a guerrilla leader, his attacks fell where they were least expected."

Topics
Physics, Theory Of Relativity