Auction 69 Part 1 Rare and Important Items
Dec 3, 2019 (your local time)
Israel
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LOT 140:

Albert Einstein's Business Card, from the Estate of Ernst Mach – With a Scientific Sketch, Made by Mach or Einstein ...

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Albert Einstein's Business Card, from the Estate of Ernst Mach – With a Scientific Sketch, Made by Mach or Einstein – Zurich, Early 20th Century
Albert Einstein's business card, from the estate of Ernst Mach. [Zurich, ca. early 20th century]. With a scientific sketch on verso.
Albert Einstein's business card, which reads "Professor Dr. Albert Einstein / Zurich". On verso of the card is a scientific sketch in pencil (see picture). The card came from the estate of physicist Ernst Mach. Presumably, the sketch was made by Mach or Einstein.
Ernst Mach (1838-1916), an Austrian-Czech physicist and philosopher, noted today mostly for his studies on supersonic motion. The Mach Number (the ratio of flow velocity past a boundary to the local speed of sound) and Mach's Principle (according to which, the inertial forces experienced by a body in nonuniform motion are determined by the quantity and distribution of matter in the universe) are named after him.
Mach's ideas, and especially his objection to absolute space and absolute motion which are the foundations of Newtonian mechanics, had a profound effect on Albert Einstein when he formulated the Theory of Relativity. Einstein became familiar with Mach's work during his studies. A number of letters he sent Mach during the years 1909-1913 indicate his keen interest in Mach's ideas and his appreciation of him (Einstein signed one of these letters with the phrase "Still your student"). During those years, Mach expressed his support of the Theory of Relativity Einstein was then developing. Over the years, their views drifted apart until finally, Mach recanted his support of the Theory of Relativity. Despite their difference of opinion, Einstein continued to see Mach as one the important sources of inspirations in his work and in a letter from 1930 wrote that "Mach is justifiably considered the herald of General Relativity".
For additional information about Mach and Einstein, see "Mach, Einstein, and the Search for Reality", by Gerald Holton. In: Daedalus, volume 97, no. 2 (1968).
4.5X10.5 cm. Good condition. Stains.
Provenance: Ursula Nusser Auction House, Munich, 2019.

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