- Start
- Nov 6, 191990% CONFIDENCEfrom the source
The 1919 Eclipse Results Confirm General Relativity
- Eddington presented the eclipse results to a joint session of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society on 6 November 1919, and after some deliberation the meeting accepted them[1][2]
- The expeditions, organised by Frank Watson Dyson and Eddington, observed the total solar eclipse of 29 May 1919 from Principe off West Africa and from Sobral in Brazil, to measure the gravitational deflection of starlight passing near the Sun[1][3]
- Einstein's 1911 prediction of 0.83 arcseconds "was the same as the Newtonian value" and was wrong; he corrected it to 1.75 arcseconds in 1915 after finalising the theory and after Schwarzschild solved his equations[1]
- Earlier attempts all failed on weather or war - Perrine at the 10 October 1912 Brazilian eclipse, and Perrine, Freundlich and Campbell in the Crimea on 21 August 1914, where "the German astronomers were either forced to return home or were taken prisoner by the Russians"[1]
- "It is fortunate for Einstein that the weather precluded results by Perrine in 1912 and Perrine, Freundlich, and Campbell in 1914. If results had been obtained they may have disproved the 1911 prediction"[1]
- Eddington took up general relativity in 1916 after Willem de Sitter sent Einstein's Berlin papers to the Royal Astronomical Society, and he "lent his considerable prestige in the British scientific establishment in an effort to champion the work of this German scientist"[2][3]
- "Widespread newspaper coverage of the results led to worldwide fame for Einstein and his theories", first in Britain, days later in the US press led by The New York Times, and later still in Germany[1][2]
- "The first piece of evidence in support of general relativity came from its correct prediction of the anomalous rate of precession of Mercury's orbit"; the 1919 result "helped to cement the status of general relativity as a viable theory"[2]
References 385% CONFIDENCE
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- [1]90%en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experimenten.wikipedia.org· Posted Sep 22, 2026· Starts Nov 6, 1919 ✓· 33% of score
Wikipedia's[2][3] Eddington experiment article dates the session: "The presentation of the results at the joint 6 November 1919 session of Royal Society and Royal Astronomical Society led to intensive press coverage first in Great Britain and a few days later in the US press". The eclipse itself was on 29 May 1919; this pin is the announcement, which is what made Einstein famous.
- [2]80%General relativityen.wikipedia.org· Added Sep 22, 2026· 33% of score
The theory the expeditions tested, for what a deflection of starlight near the Sun means and why the measurement settled the question.[1]
- [3]85%Arthur Eddingtonen.wikipedia.org· Added Sep 22, 2026· 33% of score
The astronomer who led the Principe expedition and presented the results at Burlington House, for who he was and what he did with the plates; the RAS homepage, cited here before, states nothing about 1919 and was dropped.[1]
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