Einstein's Italian Mathematicians

Einstein's Italian Mathematicians PDF Author: Judith R. Goodstein
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 1470428466
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
In the first decade of the twentieth century as Albert Einstein began formulating a revolutionary theory of gravity, the Italian mathematician Gregorio Ricci was entering the later stages of what appeared to be a productive if not particularly memorable career, devoted largely to what his colleagues regarded as the dogged development of a mathematical language he called the absolute differential calculus. In 1912, the work of these two dedicated scientists would intersect—and physics and mathematics would never be the same. Einstein's Italian Mathematicians chronicles the lives and intellectual contributions of Ricci and his brilliant student Tullio Levi-Civita, including letters, interviews, memoranda, and other personal and professional papers, to tell the remarkable, little-known story of how two Italian academicians, of widely divergent backgrounds and temperaments, came to provide the indispensable mathematical foundation—today known as the tensor calculus—for general relativity.

Einstein's Italian Mathematicians

Einstein's Italian Mathematicians PDF Author: Judith R. Goodstein
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 1470428466
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 231

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the first decade of the twentieth century as Albert Einstein began formulating a revolutionary theory of gravity, the Italian mathematician Gregorio Ricci was entering the later stages of what appeared to be a productive if not particularly memorable career, devoted largely to what his colleagues regarded as the dogged development of a mathematical language he called the absolute differential calculus. In 1912, the work of these two dedicated scientists would intersect—and physics and mathematics would never be the same. Einstein's Italian Mathematicians chronicles the lives and intellectual contributions of Ricci and his brilliant student Tullio Levi-Civita, including letters, interviews, memoranda, and other personal and professional papers, to tell the remarkable, little-known story of how two Italian academicians, of widely divergent backgrounds and temperaments, came to provide the indispensable mathematical foundation—today known as the tensor calculus—for general relativity.

Italian Mathematics Between the Two World Wars

Italian Mathematics Between the Two World Wars PDF Author: Angelo Guerraggio
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3764375124
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
This book describes Italian mathematics in the period between the two World Wars. It analyzes the development by focusing on both the interior and the external influences. Italian mathematics in that period was shaped by a colorful array of strong personalities who concentrated their efforts on a select number of fields and won international recognition and respect in an incredibly short time. Consequently, Italy was considered a third mathematical power after France and Germany.

Vector

Vector PDF Author: Robyn Arianrhod
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226821110
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Book Description
A celebration of the seemingly simple idea that allowed us to imagine the world in new dimensions—sparking both controversy and discovery. The stars of this book, vectors and tensors, are unlikely celebrities. If you ever took a physics course, the word “vector” might remind you of the mathematics needed to determine forces on an amusement park ride, a turbine, or a projectile. You might also remember that a vector is a quantity that has magnitude and (this is the key) direction. In fact, vectors are examples of tensors, which can represent even more data. It sounds simple enough—and yet, as award-winning science writer Robyn Arianrhod shows in this riveting story, the idea of a single symbol expressing more than one thing at once was millennia in the making. And without that idea, we wouldn’t have such a deep understanding of our world. Vector and tensor calculus offers an elegant language for expressing the way things behave in space and time, and Arianrhod shows how this enabled physicists and mathematicians to think in a brand-new way. These include James Clerk Maxwell when he ushered in the wireless electromagnetic age; Einstein when he predicted the curving of space-time and the existence of gravitational waves; Paul Dirac, when he created quantum field theory; and Emmy Noether, when she connected mathematical symmetry and the conservation of energy. For it turned out that it’s not just physical quantities and dimensions that vectors and tensors can represent, but other dimensions and other kinds of information, too. This is why physicists and mathematicians can speak of four-dimensional space-time and other higher-dimensional “spaces,” and why you’re likely relying on vectors or tensors whenever you use digital applications such as search engines, GPS, or your mobile phone. In exploring the evolution of vectors and tensors—and introducing the fascinating people who gave them to us—Arianrhod takes readers on an extraordinary, five-thousand-year journey through the human imagination. She shows the genius required to reimagine the world—and how a clever mathematical construct can dramatically change discovery’s direction.

Einstein's Mistakes: The Human Failings of Genius

Einstein's Mistakes: The Human Failings of Genius PDF Author: Hans C. Ohanian
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393337685
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
“A thought-provoking critique of Einstein’s tantalizing combination of brilliance and blunder.”—Andrew Robinson, New Scientist Never before translated into English, the Manimekhalai is one of the great classics of Indian culture.

The Gravity of Math

The Gravity of Math PDF Author: Steve Nadis
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 154160430X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
One of the preeminent mathematicians of the past half century shows how physics and math were combined to give us the theory of gravity and the dizzying array of ideas and insights that has come from it Mathematics is far more than just the language of science. It is a critical underpinning of nature. The famed physicist Albert Einstein demonstrated this in 1915 when he showed that gravity—long considered an attractive force between massive objects—was actually a manifestation of the curvature, or geometry, of space and time. But in making this towering intellectual leap, Einstein needed the help of several mathematicians, including Marcel Grossmann, who introduced him to the geometrical framework upon which his theory rest. In The Gravity of Math, Steve Nadis and Shing-Tung Yau consider how math can drive and sometimes even anticipate discoveries in physics. Examining phenomena like black holes, gravitational waves, and the Big Bang, Nadis and Yau ask: Why do mathematical statements, derived solely from logic, provide the best descriptions of our physical world? The Gravity of Math offers an insightful and compelling look into the power of mathematics—whose reach, like that of gravity, can extend to the edge of the universe.

Einstein Himself

Einstein Himself PDF Author: Anthony McAuliffe
Publisher: Anthony McAuliffe
ISBN: 0645804207
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 662

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Book Description
A more critical look at the man known today by most as one of the greatest scientists of all time. A unique and thought-provoking narrative quite at odds with the generally-accepted dogma. How exactly did Einstein rise to become so revered today? This is also the story of Mileva Maric, a little-known woman who just so happened to be Einstein’s first wife. When Einstein presented his famous ‘Annus Mirabilis’ or ‘Wonder Year’ papers in 1905, Mileva was of equal training in the fields of mathematics and physics and indeed, more accomplished than Einstein in many other disciplines. “He seems more an intuitive physicist,” stated Chaim Weizmann, a promoter of Einstein. “He is not an experimental physicist and though he is able to detect fallacies in the conceptions of physical science, he must turn his general outlines of theory over to someone else to work out.” Historians report that Einstein collaborated with other scientists from 1907. In 1905, there was Mileva.

Relativity

Relativity PDF Author: Albert Einstein
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691191816
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
After completing the final version of his general theory of relativity in November 1915, Albert Einstein wrote a book about relativity for a popular audience. This new edition of Einstein's book features an authoritative English translation of the text along with an introduction and a reading companion that examines the evolution of Einstein's thinking and casts his ideas in a broader present-day context. A special chapter explores the history of and the stories behind the early foreign-language editions in light of the reception of relativity in different countries. This edition also includes a survey of the introductions from these editions, covers from selected early editions, a letter from Walther Rathenau to Einstein discussing the book, and a revealing sample from Einstein's handwritten manuscript--

The Philosophy and Physics of Noether's Theorems

The Philosophy and Physics of Noether's Theorems PDF Author: James Read
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108486231
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 387

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Book Description
A centenary volume that celebrates, extends and applies Noether's 1918 theorems with contributions from world-leading researchers.

Model and Mathematics: From the 19th to the 21st Century

Model and Mathematics: From the 19th to the 21st Century PDF Author: Michael Friedman
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030978338
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
This open access book collects the historical and medial perspectives of a systematic and epistemological analysis of the complicated, multifaceted relationship between model and mathematics, ranging from, for example, the physical mathematical models of the 19th century to the simulation and digital modelling of the 21st century. The aim of this anthology is to showcase the status of the mathematical model between abstraction and realization, presentation and representation, what is modeled and what models. This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.

Cultural Studies on Einstein’s Relativity

Cultural Studies on Einstein’s Relativity PDF 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.