Author: Ernst Gehrcke
Publisher: GogLiB
ISBN: 8897527590
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 420
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Book Description
Why study Einstein’s relativity from a cultural point of view—the theory as well as the universal consensus it receives? On the one hand, every human phenomenon can be looked at from this point of view, but here we are faced with something special: the American magazine Time, which every December dedicates a cover to the “person of the year”, on the latest issue in 1999 named the “person of the century”, and who was this person, if not Einstein? From 1919 in a sensational way, but the signs of the phenomenon began to be observed already around 1910, the author of a theory that is almost impossible to make understandable to those who are not specialists enjoys generalized consensus among specialists and a popularity by the public of the whole world which has remained unchanged until the present. No one expressed this better than Chaplin, once he was acclaimed in public in the company of Einstein: “They cheer me because they all understand me, and they cheer you because no one understands you.” The little-known contemporary Gehrcke, if we have the patience to follow him, could lead the way to understand something of this. Ernst Gehrcke (1878-1960) was an academic physicist, a good connoisseur of Kant’s philosophy, a technologist of electromagnetism, inventor of instruments for measuring interference, an editor of monumental manuals on optics and radiology, an expert in palaeontology and prehistory (some photographs available on the Internet show him intent on ordering geological samples and lithic finds), and in addition to all this he was the first to think that it was necessary to study relativity from a cultural point of view. In this book we will read his attempts in this direction, which began in 1912, when general relativity did not yet exist, but special relativity had already inflamed with enthusiasm some students and physicists of the new generation, in Germany and beyond.
Author: Jeffrey Crelinsten
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691171076
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 429
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Book Description
Einstein's Jury is the dramatic story of how astronomers in Germany, England, and America competed to test Einstein's developing theory of relativity. Weaving a rich narrative based on extensive archival research, Jeffrey Crelinsten shows how these early scientific debates shaped cultural attitudes we hold today. The book examines Einstein's theory of general relativity through the eyes of astronomers, many of whom were not convinced of the legitimacy of Einstein's startling breakthrough. These were individuals with international reputations to uphold and benefactors and shareholders to please, yet few of them understood the new theory coming from the pen of Germany's up-and-coming theoretical physicist, Albert Einstein. Some tried to test his theory early in its development but got no results. Others--through toil and hardship, great expense, and perseverance--concluded that it was wrong. A tale of international competition and intrigue, Einstein's Jury brims with detail gleaned from Crelinsten's far-reaching inquiry into the history and development of relativity. Crelinsten concludes that the well-known British eclipse expedition of 1919 that made Einstein famous had less to do with the scientific acceptance of his theory than with his burgeoning public fame. It was not until the 1920s, when the center of gravity of astronomy and physics shifted from Europe to America, that the work of prestigious American observatories legitimized Einstein's work. As Crelinsten so expertly shows, the glow that now surrounds the famous scientist had its beginnings in these early debates among professional scientists working in the glare of the public spotlight.
Author: Danian Hu
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674015388
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 284
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Book Description
This is the first extensive study in English or Chinese of China’s reception of the celebrated physicist and his theory of relativity. In a series of biographical studies of Chinese physicists, Hu describes the Chinese assimilation of relativity and explains how Chinese physicists offered arguments and theories of their own.
Author: Gerald Holton
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400855438
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 473
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Book Description
Based on papers presented at the Jerusalem Einstein Centennial Symposium in March 1979, this volume sets forth an articulated sequence of chapters on the impact of Einstein's work, not only in science but in humanistic studies and problems such as international security in the nuclear age. Originally published in 1982. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Author: Peter L. Galison
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691177902
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 384
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Book Description
More than fifty years after his death, Albert Einstein's vital engagement with the world continues to inspire others, spurring conversations, projects, and research, in the sciences as well as the humanities. Einstein for the 21st Century shows us why he remains a figure of fascination. In this wide-ranging collection, eminent artists, historians, scientists, and social scientists describe Einstein's influence on their work, and consider his relevance for the future. Scientists discuss how Einstein's vision continues to motivate them, whether in their quest for a fundamental description of nature or in their investigations in chaos theory; art scholars and artists explore his ties to modern aesthetics; a music historian probes Einstein's musical tastes and relates them to his outlook in science; historians explore the interconnections between Einstein's politics, physics, and philosophy; and other contributors examine his impact on the innovations of our time. Uniquely cross-disciplinary, Einstein for the 21st Century serves as a testament to his legacy and speaks to everyone with an interest in his work. The contributors are Leon Botstein, Lorraine Daston, E. L. Doctorow, Yehuda Elkana, Yaron Ezrahi, Michael L. Friedman, Jürg Fröhlich, Peter L. Galison, David Gross, Hanoch Gutfreund, Linda D. Henderson, Dudley Herschbach, Gerald Holton, Caroline Jones, Susan Neiman, Lisa Randall, Jürgen Renn, Matthew Ritchie, Silvan S. Schweber, and A. Douglas Stone.
Author: Matthew Stanley
Publisher: Viking
ISBN: 1524745413
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 402
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Book Description
"Stanley is a storyteller par excellence."--The Washington Post Kirkus Review starred review; Publishers Weekly starred review; Booklist starred review The birth of a world-changing idea in the middle of a bloodbath Einstein's War is a riveting exploration of both the beauty of scientific creativity and enduring horrors of human nature. These two great forces battle in a story that culminates with a victory now a century old, the mind-bending theory of general relativity. Few recognize how the Great War, the industrialized slaughter that bled Europe from 1914 to 1918, shaped Einstein's life and work. While Einstein never held a rifle, he formulated general relativity blockaded in Berlin, literally starving. He lost fifty pounds in three months, unable to communicate with his most important colleagues. Some of those colleagues fought against rabid nationalism; others were busy inventing chemical warfare--being a scientist trapped you in the power plays of empire. Meanwhile, Einstein struggled to craft relativity and persuade the world that it was correct. This was, after all, the first complete revision of our conception of the universe since Isaac Newton, and its victory was far from sure. Scientists seeking to confirm Einstein's ideas were arrested as spies. Technical journals were banned as enemy propaganda. Colleagues died in the trenches. Einstein was separated from his most crucial ally by barbed wire and U-boats. This ally was the Quaker astronomer and Cambridge don A. S. Eddington, who would go on to convince the world of the truth of relativity and the greatness of Einstein. In May of 1919, when Europe was still in chaos from the war, Eddington led a globe-spanning expedition to catch a fleeting solar eclipse for a rare opportunity to confirm Einstein's bold prediction that light has weight. It was the result of this expedition--the proof of relativity, as many saw it--that put Einstein on front pages around the world. Matthew Stanley's epic tale is a celebration of how bigotry and nationalism can be defeated and of what science can offer when they are.
Author: Jimena Canales
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400865778
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 488
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Book Description
The explosive debate that transformed our views about time and scientific truth On April 6, 1922, in Paris, Albert Einstein and Henri Bergson publicly debated the nature of time. Einstein considered Bergson's theory of time to be a soft, psychological notion, irreconcilable with the quantitative realities of physics. Bergson, who gained fame as a philosopher by arguing that time should not be understood exclusively through the lens of science, criticized Einstein's theory of time for being a metaphysics grafted on to science, one that ignored the intuitive aspects of time. The Physicist and the Philosopher tells the remarkable story of how this explosive debate transformed our understanding of time and drove a rift between science and the humanities that persists today. Jimena Canales introduces readers to the revolutionary ideas of Einstein and Bergson, describes how they dramatically collided in Paris, and traces how this clash of worldviews reverberated across the twentieth century. She shows how it provoked responses from figures such as Bertrand Russell and Martin Heidegger, and carried repercussions for American pragmatism, logical positivism, phenomenology, and quantum mechanics. Canales explains how the new technologies of the period—such as wristwatches, radio, and film—helped to shape people’s conceptions of time and further polarized the public debate. She also discusses how Bergson and Einstein, toward the end of their lives, each reflected on his rival’s legacy—Bergson during the Nazi occupation of Paris and Einstein in the context of the first hydrogen bomb explosion. The Physicist and the Philosopher is a magisterial and revealing account that shows how scientific truth was placed on trial in a divided century marked by a new sense of time.
Author: Albert Einstein
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 180
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Book Description
This tribute to Einstein's genius opens with a brief essay by Hanoch Gutfreund, a chronology of Einstein's life, a selection of quotes by Einstein, and, to introduce the manuscript, a detailed description of the manuscript, its contents, publication history, and provenance.
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004334017
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 339
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Book Description
This volume claims that interdisciplinarity and translation constitute the two main ‘challenges’ for cultural studies today. These conceptual issues (‘inter’ and ‘trans’) express themselves within specific historical and ‘cultural’ contexts. Interdisciplinarity is linked with the ongoing process of the institutionalisation of cultural studies in national academies, but also increasingly internationally, comparatively and to a certain extent even globally (cf. cultural studies of ‘global culture’). Translation concerns cultural studies both as an object or product and as a subject or producer of translation processes. Cultural studies is the result of translation, translates and is being translated. The essays in this volume therefore relate these various ongoing cultural, linguistic and institutional translation processes to political and ethical issues of internationalisation and globalisation. The contributions draw their originality and strength from strategically crossing, disciplinary and national boundaries. They deliberately ignore the question of what may be ‘proper’ (to) cultural studies, and instead problematise the notions of ‘propriety’ and ‘belonging’. As a ‘reading practice’ cultural studies, in these pages, is performed through adaptations and combinations of theory and critical practice. The volume should be of interest to everyone concerned with cultural studies’ role in promoting intellectual debate within an increasingly international and ‘globalised’ public sphere.
Author: Christopher Herbert
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226327327
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322
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Book Description
One of the articles of faith of twentieth-century intellectual history is that the theory of relativity in physics sprang in its essentials from the unaided genius of Albert Einstein; another is that scientific relativity is unconnected to ethical, cultural, or epistemological relativisms. Victorian Relativity challenges these assumptions, unearthing a forgotten tradition of avant-garde speculation that took as its guiding principle "the negation of the absolute" and set itself under the militant banner of "relativity." Christopher Herbert shows that the idea of relativity produced revolutionary changes in one field after another in the nineteenth century. Surveying a long line of thinkers including Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin, Alexander Bain, W. K. Clifford, W. S. Jevons, Karl Pearson, James Frazer, and Einstein himself, Victorian Relativity argues that the early relativity movement was bound closely to motives of political and cultural reform and, in particular, to radical critiques of the ideology of authoritarianism. Recuperating relativity from those who treat it as synonymous with nihilism, Herbert portrays it as the basis of some of our crucial intellectual and ethical traditions.
