The discovery of the electron spin / S.A. Goudsmit / And that was it: the spin; thus is was discovered, in that manner. Of course we told Ehrenfest about it and then summer was over and I went again to Amsterdam and various episodes followed. Naturally, I found it wonderful, because in the formalism which I knew it fitted perfectly. And the rigorous physics behind it I did not fathom. But Uhlenbeck, being a good physicist, started to think about it. ...... "A charge that rotates"......? He claims that he then went to Lorentz and that Lorentz replied: "Yes, that is very difficult because it causes the self energy of the electron to be wrong".
And Uhlenbeck also tells you that ........ We had just written a short article in German and given to Ehrenfest, who wanted to send it to "Naturwissenschaften". Now it is being told that Uhlenbeck got frightened, went to Ehrenfest and said: "Don't send it off, because it probably is wrong; it is impossible, one cannot have an electron that rotates at such high speed and has the right moment". And Ehrenfest replied: "It is too late, I have sent it off already". But I do not remember the event, I never had the idea that is was wrong because I did not know enough. The one thing I remember is that Ehrenfest said to me: "Well, that is a nice idea, though it may be wrong. But you don't yet have a reputation, so you have nothing to lose". That is the only thing I remember. http://www.lorentz.leidenuniv.nl/history/spin/goudsmit.html ======================… “ . . . . . it is impossible, one cannot have an electron that rotates at such high speed and has the right moment". / S.A. Goudsmit / ==. 1. Do we have another way to explain the high speed of rotation ( frequency) of elementary particles? 2. And if it is possible (!) . . . . . then . . . the constant speed c=1 of quantum of light will be minimally. And we have theory . . . theory of ‘ Tachyon.’ ===. S. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Epistemology" group. To post to this group, send email to epistemology@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to epistemology+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/epistemology?hl=en.