consequently to the dependence of the velocity of electromagnetic waves in gravitational field. It appeared that Abrahams model was correct as his ideas were at first supported by experiments, particularly work carried out by Wilhelm Kaufmann. However later work favoured the theory developed by lorentz and Einstein Abraham opposed relativity all his life. At first he objected both to the postulates on which relativity was based and also to the fact that he felt that the experimental evidence did not support the theory. However by 1912 Abraham, who despite his objections, was one of those who best understood relativity theory, was prepared to accept that the theory was logically sound. In spite of this, he did not accept that the theory accurately described the physical world Abraham had been a strong believer in the existence of the aether and that an electron was a perfectly rigid sphere with a charge distributed evenly over its surface. He was not going to give up these beliefs easily particularly since he felt that his views were based on common sense. He hoped that further astronomical data would support the aether theory and show that relativity was not in fact a good description of the real world Many people would still agree with Abraham that his version of the world was more in line with common sense. However, mathematics and physics during the 20th ve examine both the large scale structure and the small scale structme ense"when century showed that the world we inhabit is at variance with"common se Abrahams objections were not based on misunderstanding of the theory of relativity he was simply unwilling to accept postulates he considered contrary to his classical common sense Minkowski(1864-1909 Hermann Minkowski was born in Aleksotas, Russia(now Kaunas, Lithuania), but moved to Konigsberg at the age of eight. Except for three semesters at the Universities of Berlin, he attained his higher education at Konigsberg, where he achieved his doctorate in 1885 In 1883, at the age of 18 and while still a student at Konigsberg Minkowski entered the Paris Academy of Sciences competition. Eisenstein had provided formulas for the number of representations of an integer as a sum of five squares of integers but no proof, and the goal of the competition was to prove the topic. Minkowski produced a manuscript of 140 pages, reconstructing the entire theory of quadratic forms in n variables with integral coefficients from the sparse indications Eisenstein's work provided. He won the prize jointly with H. J Smith, who had published an outline for such a proof in 1867 After receiving his doctorate, Minkowski taught at the universities of Bonn Gottingen, Konigsberg and Zurich. In Zurich, he was one of Einsteins teachers and described Einstein as a "lazy dog", who"never bothered about mathematics at all 66 consequently to the dependence of the velocity of electromagnetic waves in a gravitational field. It appeared that Abraham’s model was correct as his ideas were at first supported by experiments, particularly work carried out by Wilhelm Kaufmann. However later work favoured the theory developed by Lorentz and Einstein. Abraham opposed relativity all his life. At first he objected both to the postulates on which relativity was based and also to the fact that he felt that the experimental evidence did not support the theory. However by 1912 Abraham, who despite his objections, was one of those who best understood relativity theory, was prepared to accept that the theory was logically sound. In spite of this, he did not accept that the theory accurately described the physical world. Abraham had been a strong believer in the existence of the aether and that an electron was a perfectly rigid sphere with a charge distributed evenly over its surface. He was not going to give up these beliefs easily particularly since he felt that his views were based on common sense. He hoped that further astronomical data would support the aether theory and show that relativity was not in fact a good description of the real world. Many people would still agree with Abraham that his version of the world was more in line with common sense. However, mathematics and physics during the 20th century showed that the world we inhabit is at variance with “common sense” when we examine both the large scale structure and the small scale structure. Abraham’s objections were not based on misunderstanding of the theory of relativity; he was simply unwilling to accept postulates he considered contrary to his classical common sense. Minkowski (1864–1909) Hermann Minkowski was born in Aleksotas, Russia (now Kaunas, Lithuania), but moved to Königsberg at the age of eight. Except for three semesters at the Universities of Berlin, he attained his higher education at Königsberg, where he achieved his doctorate in 1885. In 1883, at the age of 18 and while still a student at Königsberg, Minkowski entered the Paris Academy of Sciences’ competition. Eisenstein had provided formulas for the number of representations of an integer as a sum of five squares of integers, but no proof, and the goal of the competition was to prove the topic. Minkowski produced a manuscript of 140 pages, reconstructing the entire theory of quadratic forms in n variables with integral coefficients from the sparse indications Eisenstein’s work provided. He won the prize jointly with H. J. Smith, who had published an outline for such a proof in 1867. After receiving his doctorate, Minkowski taught at the universities of Bonn, Göttingen, Königsberg and Zurich. In Zurich, he was one of Einstein's teachers, and described Einstein as a “lazy dog”, who "never bothered about mathematics at all