Herbert Dingle

Herbert Dingle (2 August 1890 – 4 September 1978) was an English astronomer and philosopher.

Herbert Dingle

Quotes

Relativity for All, London, 1922

• Between the Charybdis of inaccuracy and the Scylla of abstruseness, the course is narrow and the sea is rough.
  • Preface, page vi

• Matter, space, and time ... according to the relativist, are types of relations between events.
  • page 12

• It is the event that is the immediate entity of perception; Nature is the sum-total of events, and every instrument of thought that our minds employ can be traced back to its ultimate origin in events.
  • pages 12–13

• The numerical side of the theory of relativity is derived from the failure of all attempts to detect the relative motion of matter and ether.
  • page 23

• The aim of the scientist is to express, in as simple a statement as possible, the principles underlying the order and arrangement of phenomena.
  • page 39

• A ray of light, passing close to a heavy body, should, on Einstein's assumption, suffer a slight chance of direction, as if it were pulled towards the body. According to Newton's principles, there seems to be no reason why the light should be bent at all. It is possible, however, that light possesses the equivalent of weight in a material body, and, if so, the gravitational force should cause a bending similar to that predicted by the theory of relativity, but of only half the amount.
  • page 60

• A great idea invariably creates as many problems as it solves: that is a sign of its greatness.
  • page 63

Modern Astrophysics, London, 1924

• A science in its infancy is the least satisfactory, and, at the same time, the most profitable theme for a general description.
  • Preface, page v

• It is as though a star throws the whole secret history of its being into its spectrum, and we have only to learn how to read it aright in order to solve the most abstruse problems of the physical Universe.
  • Introduction, page xxv

• What parts of the interior or the atmosphere give rise to the various phenomena, or indeed, if these regions have any parts at all, are questions which we ask of the stars in vain.
  • Chapter XIV, page 182