Einstein and Eddington Page #3

The symbols you're using are...

...strange and complicated.

You've moved a long way

away from me.

I brought the Schubert to play.

- Play the music.

- No.

Why not? You love Schubert!

No.

I came to Berlin because I thought

there might be a future for us.

I see now that I was wrong.

Do you want a divorce?

Hans!

When my work is finished,

I will come and tell you

what it means.

I promise you!

We withdraw into

the presence of God.

We are still.

We are silent.

We listen,

so that God may be heard.

Show yourselves!

Who are we?

If we are anything...

...we Quakers are

men and women of principle.

We will never believe...

...that any man, woman or child

is unwelcome

in our beloved England

because they were born in another country.

This IS your home.

CROWD:
Traitors! Where's our traitor?

Traitors! Where's our traitor?

- Coward.

- No, it's not like that.

My boy's gone.

What makes you so different?

Why is it so easy for you to say no?

Stinking cowards!

You should be ashamed of yourselves!

Cowards!

Absolute disgrace!

I have it from the highest authority.

A huge offensive will follow

the first use of the gas.

Then the war will be shorter?

Oh, yeah.

German lives will be saved.

Yes.

What are you doing?

What is this?

My son for years

has been doing nothing.

Now, in the army, he's found a purpose.

He's transformed.

It's a good feeling to be able

to call oneself German again.

Did you know he was

going to be here?

Your membership of the Academy

of Sciences has a consequence.

You have become

an official of the state,

which makes your nationality German.

I gave it up.

The Kaiser himself has personally

decreed your return to German citizenship.

Then the Kaiser himself should have

thought to ask me first.

Show him.

This is a list of the greatest names

in German cultural life -

the inheritors of Beethoven,

Schubert, Goethe.

Yes, but what is it?

A manifesto to be sent all over the world,

even to England -

a statement of solidarity

with the German army,

signed by just 93

of the highest names.

It will be your honour

to be the 94th signatory.

Is Goethe going to

fight Shakespeare?

We could have a Swiss jury

and decide the outcome

without any more bloodshed.

I won't sign.

You are an expensive addition

to the university.

Are you threatening me?

He's reminding you

of your love of God...

...and your duty to your country.

What do you give him, Max?

Hm?

I work on artillery trajectories.

I have a contract,

and my part of it

is the work that I do.

I do not belong to anyone.

You cannot have my name.

The Einstein paper.

I've been told it's unavailable

until further notice.

You've been told? What does that mean?

All German scientificjournals

have been taken out of circulation.

Eddington?

Are you all right?

- I was looking for something.

- What?

The Einstein paper.

Why? You made clear your views.

A very good job you did.

Whatever you might think about

German military ambition,

it has nothing to do with German science.

Really?

"A manifesto to the civilised world.

"The German people are one."

Max Planck - scientist.

Wilhelm Rntgen - scientist.

Fritz Haber - scientist.

I think this makes it clear that we cannot

distinguish between the German military

and German scientists,

wouldn't you say, old chap?

He's not there.

Einstein's not on the list.

But it just so happens

that, at this moment in history,

he has moved himself to Berlin.

I think that shows us

where his allegiances lie.

Consorting with the enemy

is a treasonable offence, Eddington.

Arthur!

Come with me.

Agnes, the sun.

Die Sonne.

Die Sonne, yes.

Uranus.

Uranus.

Neptune.

Neptun.

- Saturn.

- Saturn.

The planets make their orbits

around the sun.

We can measure their orbits

very, very precisely.

Newton's theory of gravity tells us

where they'll be

when they pass closest to the sun.

He's always right, but...

...with Mercury, he's out.

No-one likes to admit it, but

the reality is a tiny fraction different

from that which

Newton predicts it should be.

But by how much?

The length of a fingertip

in millions of miles, but still out.

- Agnes, um... Mercury?

- Merkur.

- Merkur.

- What are you doing?

I'm going to write to Albert Einstein.

Every theory must make predictions

about the real world.

I want to ask Einstein

what his theory predicts for Mercury.

Handel.

Technically good,

but essentially shallow.

Wagner?

Indescribably offensive.

I feel only a deep disgust for Wagner.

Mozart?

Mozart...

In Mozart, I see a reflection

of the inner beauty of the universe.

We've been talking about music.

Yes.

All day.

When I should have been working.

Is it because you are stuck?

You said

you knew nothing about physics.

Let's keep it that way.

This is the senior common room.

She's a woman.

Do you know, Haber,

I think you could be right.

Quick! What shall we do?

God knows!

Anything might happen.

You should eat more.

You're too thin.

This is like the potato salad my mother

made me when I was a child, only...

What?

Not as good.

Ah, I bought you a present.

Albert?

This Englishman

has asked me a question.

One tiny part of the universe

is behaving badly.

The orbit of Mercury

is outside the law. Why?

If I could make my thinking on gravity

fit with Mercury's bad behaviour...

...then it would take me

a long way... towards...

Towards what?

The first step

towards a new way of thinking.

A whole new way.

Are you unstuck?

I have a lot of work to do.

Are you asking me to go?

Have you seen Planck?

Max! Max! Max!

My son...

I am more sorry than I can say.

Do you miss your boys?

But you will see them again.

You know, Max,

I love science twice as much

in times such as these.

It takes one away from all the confusions

and stupidities and horrors...

...and their emotional consequences.

You've been very kind.

Now I must go home.

No.

- No?

- No.

I need your help.

- With what?

- Mercury and mathematics.

If we get this result...

where will we publish?

lf?

What's the matter with you?

If we get the result

May I ask you

a very serious question?

What if God were to say

you were mistaken?

If he said, "Stop, Newton is right."

Then I would thank God

for his point of view

and we would agree to differ

and I would be left

feeling very sorry for God.

So you DO believe in God?

I cannot conceive of a God who has a will

of the kind we experience in ourselves.

And life after death?

Neither can I conceive of an individual

who survives his own physical death.

There's our answer

for Mercury's orbit.

And perhaps the first step

to disproving Newton.

Eddington. England...

Arthur? What is it?

It fits.

Einstein's thinking and the real orbit

of Mercury - it's the same.

You know what this could mean,

Winnie?

Einstein's beginning

to close in on gravity.

I need to talk to you.

Where's Sir Oliver?

Not now.

Chlorine gas, made in Berlin.

What?

The Cambridgeshires -

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