13 Facts About Emil Cohn

At the age of 17, Emil Cohn began to study jurisprudence at the University of Leipzig.

Emil Cohn dealt with experimental physics at first, and then turned completely to theoretical physics.

Emil Cohn resigned from the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft together with other physicists like Richard Gans, Leo Graetz, George Jaffe, Walter Kaufmann, in protest at the despotism of the Nazi regime.

Emil Cohn was a baptized Protestant and was married with Marie Goldschmidt, with whom he had two daughters.

Emil Cohn lived in Hasliberg-Hohfluh at first, and from 1942 in Ringgenberg, Switzerland, where he died at the age of 90.

Emil Cohn's younger brother, Carl Emil Cohn was a successful overseas merchant from Hamburg, who worked from 1921 until 1929 as a senator in Hamburg.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Emil Cohn was one of the most respectable experts in the area of theoretical electrodynamics.

Emil Cohn was unsatisfied with the Lorentzian theory of electrodynamics for moving bodies and proposed an independent theory.

Emil Cohn maintained that one can use a frame of reference in which the fixed stars are at rest.

Emil Cohn illustrated the effects of length contraction and time dilation by using moving rods and clocks.

Emil Cohn critically remarked that the distinction between "true time" and "local time" in Lorentz's theory is artificial, because it cannot be verified by experiment.

However, Emil Cohn himself believed that the validity of Lorentz's theory is limited to optical phenomena, whereas in his own theory it is possible that mechanical clocks might indicate the "true" time.

Later in 1911, Emil Cohn accepted the relativity principle of "Lorentz and Einstein" and wrote a summary on special relativity, which was applauded by Einstein.