Tertium Organum

principle of relativity. 
The deductions of Lorentz, made in 1909 and referring mainly to electro-optical 
phenomena, gave the impetus to the publication by Albert Einstein of a new principle, 
and to its remarkable generalization by the recently deceased Hermann Minkowsky. 
We are approaching the summit of modern physics: it is occupied by the principle of 
relativity, the expression of which is so simple that its all-important significance is not 
immediately evident. It says; the laws of phenomena in a system of bodies, for an 
observer connected with it, appear 

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to be the same whether the system is at rest or is moving uniformly and rectilinearly. 
It follows hence that, by the aid of phenomena taking place in a system of bodies 
with which he is connected, an observer is unable to discover whether this system 
possesses a uniform progressive motion or not. 
Thus, no phenomenon taking place on earth enables us to discern its progressive 
motion in space. 
The principle of relativity includes in itself the observing intellect, which is a 
circumstance of the greatest importance. The intellect is connected with a complex 
physical instrument - the nervous system. Consequently, this principle gives 
indications concerning things which take place in moving bodies, not only in 
relation to physical and chemical phenomena, but also in relation to phenomena of 
life, and therefore also to the quest of man. It is remarkable as an example of a thesis 
based on strictly scientific experiment in the purely physical domain, which bridges 
the gulf between two worlds generally considered to be of different nature. 
Professor Oumoff gives examples of explaining complex phenomena by means of 
the principle of relativity. And he further shows how the most enigmatic problems of 
life 
are explained from the point of view of electro-magnetic theories and the principle 
of relativity, and, finally, comes to what is especially interesting for us: 
All spatial measurements involve time. We cannot define the geometrical form 
of a solid moving in relation to us; we always define its kinematic form. 
Therefore our spatial measurements actually take place not in a three-
dimensional manifold, i.e. one possesssing three dimensions of height, width 
and depth, such as this hall, but in a four-dimensional manifold. We can 
represent the first three dimensions by three tape measures upon which are 
marked feet, yards or other measures of length. We represent the fourth 
dimension by a cinematographic reel, on which each point corresponds to a 
new phase of the phenomena of the world. The distance between the points 
of this reel is measured by a clock which goes uniformly at any speed. One 
observer will measure the distance between two points by one year, another 
by a hundred years. The passage from one point on this reel to another 
corresponds to our conception of the flow of time. Therefore we shall call this 
fourth dimension - time. The cinematographic reel can replace the reel of any 
of the tape measures and vice versa. The mathematical genius Minkowsky, 
so prematurely deceased, has proved that all these four dimensions are 
equivalent. How to understand this? Those who came from Moscow to St 
Petersburg passed through Tver. They are no longer at that station, never-
theless it exists. In the same way, a moment which corresponded to some 
event, already past, as, for instance, to the birth of life on earth, has not 
disappeared but exists. It is not outlived by the universe, but only by the earth.