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Eddington next promoted the theory of relativity to the English-speaking world in his ''Mathematical Theory of Relativity'' (1923).  As the title suggests, this theory was more a mathematical vision of how the universe should be, rather than what it actually was.  When a reporter asked Eddington whether only three people even understood the theory, Eddington supposedly retorted, "Who's the third?"   

Eddington next promoted the theory of relativity to the English-speaking world in his ''Mathematical Theory of Relativity'' (1923).  As the title suggests, this theory was more a mathematical vision of how the universe should be, rather than what it actually was.  When a reporter asked Eddington whether only three people even understood the theory, Eddington supposedly retorted, "Who's the third?"   

But Eddington did not fare well after that.  He strongly opposed a theory about massive [[star]]s known as [[white dwarf|white dwarves]] put forth by Indian physicist [[Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar]], but Eddington was proven wrong and Chandrasekhar later won a Nobel Prize for his work.  Eddington finally lost all credibility when he first insisted that a physical constant (the fine structure constant) measured to be close to 1/136 must precisely equal 1/136 to make the math easier, but when later measurements suggested a value closer to 1/137 Eddington insisted that it must precisely equal to 1/137 instead.  He was wrong both times.   

But Eddington did not fare well after that.  He strongly opposed a theory about massive [[star]]s known as [[white dwarf|white dwarves]] put forth by Indian physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, but Eddington was proven wrong and Chandrasekhar later won a Nobel Prize for his work.  Eddington finally lost all credibility when he first insisted that a physical constant (the fine structure constant) measured to be close to 1/136 must precisely equal 1/136 to make the math easier, but when later measurements suggested a value closer to 1/137 Eddington insisted that it must precisely equal to 1/137 instead.  He was wrong both times.   

==References==

==References==

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[[Category:Astronomers|Eddington, Arthur]]

[[Category:Astronomers|Eddington, Arthur]]