As Alan explained, Einstein had not stated this law of motion in his popular account. Alan might just possibly have guessed it for himself. On the other hand, he could very well have found it in another work which was published in 1928, and which he was reading by 1929 – The Nature of the Physical World by Sir Arthur Eddington. Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge, Eddington had worked on the physics of the stars and the development of the mathematical theory of relativity. This influential book, however, was one of his popular works, in which he set out to convey the great change in the scientific world-picture that had taken place since 1900. Its rather impressionistic account of relativity did state the law of motion, although without proof, and might have supplied its form to Alan. Certainly, in one way or another, Alan had done more than study a book, for he had put several ideas together for himself.

艾伦说，爱因斯坦并未在他的著作中阐述他的运动定律。这可能是艾伦自己推导的，也可能是他从一本1928年出版的书里看到的。他是在1929年读的这本书《物理世界的本质》，作者是阿瑟.爱丁顿爵士。爱丁顿是剑桥大学天文学教授，研究天体物理学和相对论数学理论。这本影响深远的书，是他最有名的作品之一，他在这本书中，展示了1900年以来科学界的巨大进展。书中对相对论进行了深入的介绍，也谈到了运动定律，虽然没有证明，但也许为艾伦提供了思路。当然，艾伦所做的并不是阅读一本书，他是在为自己收集想法。

This study arose out of his own initiative, and Eperson did not know about it. He was thinking quite independently of his environment, which offered him little but nagging and scolding. He had had to look to his totally bewildered mother for a little encouragement. But then something new happened to put him into contact with the world.

这项探究，完全是艾伦自发的，爱普森不知道这件事。艾伦与自己所处的环境，一直小心地保持着距离，这个环境带给他的，只有没完的唠叨和斥责。他只能从他完全困惑了的母亲那里，得到些许安慰和鼓励。但是，接下来发生的事，使艾伦与这个世界，开始产生联系了。

There was a boy in another house – Ross's house, in fact – whose name was Morcom. As yet he was nothing but 'Morcom' to Alan, although later23 he became 'Christopher'. Alan had first noticed Christopher Morcom early in 1927, and had been very struck by him, partly because he was surprisingly small for his form. (He was a year older than Alan and a year ahead in the school, but fair-haired and slight.) It was also, however, because he 'wanted to look again at his face, as he felt so attracted.' Later in 1927 Christopher had been away from school and then had returned looking, Alan noticed, very thin in the face. He shared with Alan a passion for science, but he was a very different person. The institutions that were for Alan such stumbling-blocks had been for Christopher Morcom the instruments of almost effortless advance, the source of scholarships, prizes and praise. He again returned late to school this term, but when he arrived Alan was waiting for him.

罗斯的学院有一个男孩，名叫克里斯朵夫.默卡。1927年初，艾伦第一次见到这个男孩，吃了一惊，一是因为他比同龄人矮很多，他比艾伦大一岁，而且比他早一年上学，但是很瘦小，头发是金色的；二是因为艾伦“好想再看一眼他的脸，太有魅力了”。1927年，克里斯朵夫从学校离开了一阵，回来后，艾伦发现他的脸看起来更瘦了。他和艾伦分享对科学的热爱，但他是个与艾伦不同的人。体制对艾伦来说，就是意味着羁绊，但对克里斯朵夫，却意味着奖学金、奖项、荣誉和赞赏。这学期他又回到学校，他到达的时候，艾伦在迎接他。