Poincare, Lucien / 2008-07-07 00:00:00


From the mathematical point of view, it may be considered that the two
hypotheses are equivalent; all has lengthened around us, or else our
standard has become less. But it is no simple question of convenience
and simplicity which leads us to reject the one supposition and to
accept the other; it is right in this case to listen to the voice of
common sense, and those physicists who have an instinctive trust in
the notion of an absolute length are perhaps not wrong. It is only by
choosing our unit from those which at all times have seemed to all men
the most invariable, that we are able in our experiments to note that
the same causes acting under identical conditions always produce the
same effects. The idea of absolute length is derived from the
principle of causality; and our choice is forced upon us by the
necessity of obeying this principle, which we cannot reject without
declaring by that very act all science to be impossible.
Similar remarks might be made with regard to the notions of absolute
time and absolute movement.
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