Henri Poincare (eBook)

A Scientific Biography

Jeremy Gray (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2012
608 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4008-4479-1 (ISBN)

Infos

Jeremy Gray is professor of the history of mathematics at the Open University, and an honorary professor at the University of Warwick. His most recent book is Plato's Ghost: The Modernist Transformation of Mathematics (Princeton).

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A comprehensive look at the mathematics, physics, and philosophy of Henri PoincareHenri Poincare (1854-1912) was not just one of the most inventive, versatile, and productive mathematicians of all time-he was also a leading physicist who almost won a Nobel Prize for physics and a prominent philosopher of science whose fresh and surprising essays are still in print a century later. The first in-depth and comprehensive look at his many accomplishments, Henri Poincare explores all the fields that Poincare touched, the debates sparked by his original investigations, and how his discoveries still contribute to society today.Math historian Jeremy Gray shows that Poincare's influence was wide-ranging and permanent. His novel interpretation of non-Euclidean geometry challenged contemporary ideas about space, stirred heated discussion, and led to flourishing research. His work in topology began the modern study of the subject, recently highlighted by the successful resolution of the famous Poincare conjecture. And Poincare's reformulation of celestial mechanics and discovery of chaotic motion started the modern theory of dynamical systems. In physics, his insights on the Lorentz group preceded Einstein's, and he was the first to indicate that space and time might be fundamentally atomic. Poincare the public intellectual did not shy away from scientific controversy, and he defended mathematics against the attacks of logicians such as Bertrand Russell, opposed the views of Catholic apologists, and served as an expert witness in probability for the notorious Dreyfus case that polarized France.Richly informed by letters and documents, Henri Poincare demonstrates how one man's work revolutionized math, science, and the greater world.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 25.11.2012
• Zusatzinfo: 39 b/w illus.
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Geometrie / Topologie
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Geschichte der Mathematik
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie
• Themenwelt: Technik ► Bauwesen
• Schlagworte: Abelian integral • Acta Mathematica • Addition theorem • Ad hoc hypothesis • Algebra • Algebraic Curve • Analogy • analytic continuation • asymptotic expansion • Axiom • Axiom of reducibility • Bernhard Riemann • Bessel function • Betti number • Big O notation • C0 • Calculation • Cantor's Diagonal Argument • Celestial mechanics • chaos theory • classical electromagnetism • Complex Analysis • conjecture • Continuous spectrum • Contradiction • Conventionalism • counterexample • David Hilbert • differential equation • Dirichlet problem • Disquisitiones Arithmeticae • Divergent series • elliptic function • Emission theory • Enrico Betti • Equation • Euclidean Geometry • Évariste Galois • Felix Hausdorff • Felix Klein • For All Practical Purposes • Geometry • Gustav Jaumann • hamiltonian mechanics • Henri Lebesgue • Hermann Weyl • hilbert space • H-Theorem • hypothesis • idealization • Initial Value Problem • J. J. Thomson • Jordan Curve Theorem • Joseph Bertrand • kinetic theory of gases • linear differential equation • Linear map • Line (geometry) • Logic • logicism • Mathematical Induction • Mathematical Physics • Mathematical Sciences • mathematician • Mathematics • Maxwell's equations • Minkowski space • Modern Physics • Natural number • Newtonian Potential • Nominalism • Non-Euclidean geometry • nonlinear system • Number Theory • Periodic function • Perturbation theory (quantum mechanics) • Philipp Lenard • philosophy of mathematics • physicist • Pierre Duhem • polynomial • Potential Theory • power series • Probability • Pure Mathematics • quadratic form • renormalization • Richard's paradox • Riemannian Geometry • Riemann Mapping Theorem • Riemann surface • Russell's paradox • scientific notation • Special case • Special relativity • Theorem • theory • The Principles of Mathematics • Variable (mathematics) • Weierstrass preparation theorem
• ISBN-10: 1-4008-4479-7 / 1400844797
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4008-4479-1 / 9781400844791