Henri Poincaré: Electrons to Special Relativity

Henri Poincaré: Electrons to Special Relativity
Author: Bruce D Popp
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2020-08-04
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030480399

Produced by an award-winning translator of Henri Poincaré, this book contains translations of several seminal articles by Poincaré and discusses the experimental and theoretical investigations of electrons that form their context. In the 1950s, a dispute ignited about the origin of the theory of special relativity and thrust considerable notoriety on a paper written by Henri Poincaré in 1905. Accordingly, Part I presents the relevant translations of Poincaré’s work showing that radiation carries momentum and the covariance of the equations of electrodynamics, the continuity equation for charge, and the spacetime interval. Part II then discusses investigations by Thomson, Becquerel, and Kaufmann of electrons in diverse contexts; contributions of Abraham, Lorentz and Poincaré to a theory of electrons that includes Lorentz transformations and explains the dependence of mass on velocity; and finally, Poincaré’s exploration of the relativity principle, electron stability, and gravitation while rejecting absolute motion (ether) and an electromagnetic origin of mass. Part III contains the 1904 article by H. A. Lorentz presenting his transformations.This book will be a fascinating read to graduate-level students, physicists, and science historians who are interested in the development of electrodynamics and the classical, relativistic theory of electrons at the beginning of the 20th century.

The Principles of Mathematical Physics

The Principles of Mathematical Physics
Author: Henri Poincaré
Publisher: Good Press
Total Pages: 34
Release: 2021-04-10
Genre: History
ISBN:

You will marvel at these principles of mathematical physics written by Henri Poincare, one of the most famous French mathematicians. Contents: History of Mathematical Physics, The Present Crisis of Mathematical Physics, The Future of Mathematical Physics.

Einstein's Pathway to the Special Theory of Relativity

Einstein's Pathway to the Special Theory of Relativity
Author: Galina Weinstein
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2015-06-18
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1443878898

This book pieces together the jigsaw puzzle of Einstein’s journey to discovering the special theory of relativity. Between 1902 and 1905, Einstein sat in the Patent Office and may have made calculations on old pieces of paper that were once patent drafts. One can imagine Einstein trying to hide from his boss, writing notes on small sheets of paper, and, according to reports, seeing to it that the small sheets of paper on which he was writing would vanish into his desk-drawer as soon as he heard footsteps approaching his door. He probably discarded many pieces of papers and calculations and flung them in the waste paper basket in the Patent Office. The end result was that Einstein published nothing regarding the special theory of relativity prior to 1905. For many years before 1905, he had been intensely concerned with the topic; in fact, he was busily working on the problem for seven or eight years prior to 1905. Unfortunately, there are no surviving notebooks and manuscripts, no notes and papers or other primary sources from this critical period to provide any information about the crucial steps that led Einstein to his great discovery. In May 1905, Henri Poincaré sent three letters to Hendrik Lorentz at the same time that Einstein wrote his famous May 1905 letter to Conrad Habicht, promising him four works, of which the fourth one, Relativity, was a rough draft at that point. In the May 1905 letters to Lorentz, Poincaré presented the basic equations of his 1905 “Dynamics of the Electron”, meaning that, at this point, Poincaré and Einstein both had drafts of papers relating to the principle of relativity. The book discusses Einstein’s and Poincaré’s creativity and the process by which their ideas developed. The book also explores the misunderstandings and paradoxes apparent in the theory of relativity, and unravels the subtleties and creativity of Einstein.

Last Thoughts

Last Thoughts
Author: Henri Poincaré
Publisher: MultiMedia Publishing
Total Pages: 99
Release: 1900
Genre: Science
ISBN: 6060332919

Henri Poincaré is a mathematician, physicist, philosopher and engineer, born April 29, 1854 in Nancy and died July 17, 1912 in Paris. He has carried out works of major importance in optics and in infinitesimal calculus. His advances on the problem of the three bodies make him a founder of the qualitative study of systems of differential equations and chaos theory; he is also a major precursor of the theory of special relativity and the theory of dynamical systems. Henri Poincaré is considered one of the last great universal scholars, mastering all branches of mathematics of his time and some branches of physics. This book gathers here various articles and lectures that Henri Poincaré himself intended to form the fourth volume of his works of philosophy of science. All the previous ones had already appeared in this collection. It would be useless to recall their prodigious success. The most illustrious of modern mathematicians has been an eminent philosopher, one of those whose books profoundly influence human thought. It is probable that if Henri Poincaré himself had published this volume, he would have modified certain details, removed some repetitions. But it seemed to us that the respect due to the memory of this great death forbade any editing of his text.

Science and Method

Science and Method
Author: Henri Poincaré
Publisher: Cosimo, Inc.
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2010-01-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1616402547

Henri Poincare's Science and Method is an examination of the process scientists go through when determining which of the countless facts before them will be most useful in advancing scientific knowledge. In this highly readable text-first published in 1908 and here presented in a 1914 translation by Francis Maitland-Poincare investigates mathematics, logic, physics, mechanics, and astronomy and discusses how the methods of selection differ with each field. Topics discussed include: [ the selection of facts [ the future of mathematics [ chance [ the relativity of space [ mathematics and logic [ mechanics and radium [ mechanics and optics [ the new mechanics and astronomy [ the Milky Way and the theory of gases [ and much more.

Frontiers of Physics, 1900-1911

Frontiers of Physics, 1900-1911
Author: Arthur I. Miller
Publisher:
Total Pages: 293
Release: 1986-01-01
Genre: Electrodynamics
ISBN: 9783764332037

These selected essays by Arthur I. Miller explore the rich traditions in electrodynamics, electrical engineering, and mathematics on which the physicists of 1905 based their conceptions.

Galileo Unbound

Galileo Unbound
Author: David D. Nolte
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2018-07-12
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0192528505

Galileo Unbound traces the journey that brought us from Galileo's law of free fall to today's geneticists measuring evolutionary drift, entangled quantum particles moving among many worlds, and our lives as trajectories traversing a health space with thousands of dimensions. Remarkably, common themes persist that predict the evolution of species as readily as the orbits of planets or the collapse of stars into black holes. This book tells the history of spaces of expanding dimension and increasing abstraction and how they continue today to give new insight into the physics of complex systems. Galileo published the first modern law of motion, the Law of Fall, that was ideal and simple, laying the foundation upon which Newton built the first theory of dynamics. Early in the twentieth century, geometry became the cause of motion rather than the result when Einstein envisioned the fabric of space-time warped by mass and energy, forcing light rays to bend past the Sun. Possibly more radical was Feynman's dilemma of quantum particles taking all paths at once — setting the stage for the modern fields of quantum field theory and quantum computing. Yet as concepts of motion have evolved, one thing has remained constant, the need to track ever more complex changes and to capture their essence, to find patterns in the chaos as we try to predict and control our world.