Page:The Meaning of Relativity - Albert Einstein (1922).djvu/33

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
PRE-RELATIVITY PHYSICS
21

time has the co-ordinates If we express this acceleration by partial differential coefficients, we obtain, after dividing by ,

(16)

We must show that this equation holds independently of the special choice of the Cartesian system of co-ordinates. is a vector, and therefore is also a vector, is a tensor of rank 2, is a tensor of rank 3. The second term on the left results from contraction in the indices . The vector character of the second term on the right is obvious. In order that the first term on the right may also be a vector it is necessary for to be a tensor. Then by differentiation and contraction results, and is therefore a vector, as it also is after multiplication by the reciprocal scalar . That is a tensor, and therefore transforms according to the equation

is proved in mechanics by integrating this equation over an infinitely small tetrahedron. It is also proved there by application of the theorem of moments to an infinitely small parallelopipedon, that, and hence that the tensor of the stress is a symmetrical tensor. From what has been said it follows that, with the aid of the rules