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Page detail from The Theory of Relativity

Books of Influence

‘Die Grundlage der allgemeinen Relativitatstheorie’ in Annalen der Physik, vol. 49

Albert Einstein

1916


Albert Einstein (1879-1955) detailed a general theory of relativity that redefined the accepted view of the universe.

His paper entitled 'Die Grundlage der Allgemeinen Relativitatstheorie' (translated as The Theory of Relativity), first appeared in the prestigious German science journal Annalen der Physik. It was the first complete paper on the subject that explained Einstein's use of tensor calculus to generate field equations for gravity.

Einstein postulated that gravity was a curved field in the space–time continuum, created by the presence of mass. This was proved in 1919 by the Royal Society of London measuring the deflection of light emitted from the moon as it passed in front of the sun during a total solar eclipse.

The State Library of Victoria holds the original 1916 copy of Annalen der Physik which contains Einstein's influential paper.