Note 45 — Chapter XIII · EINSTEIN’S SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY

As a matter of fact the appellation “FitzGerald contraction” should also be abandoned in Einstein’s theory, since FitzGerald and Lorentz had always regarded the contraction in the light of a real physical contraction in the stagnant ether. Nevertheless, if the reader realises the difference in the two conceptions of the contraction, it will simplify matters to retain the original name.