Overview
This volume is dedicated to the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of Hermann Minkowski's paper ""Raum und Zeit"" in 1909 [1]. The paper presents the textofthetalkMinkowskigaveatthe80thMeetingoftheGermanNaturalScientists and Physicians in Cologne on September 21, 1908. Minkowski's work on the spacetime representation of special relativity had a huge impact on the twentieth century physics, which can be best expressed by merely stating what is undeniable - that modern physics would be impossible wi- out the notion of spacetime. It is suf cient to mention as an example only the fact that general relativity would be impossible without this notion; Einstein succeeded to identifygravitywith the curvatureofspacetime onlywhen he overcamehis initial hostile reactionto Minkowski'sfour-dimensionalrepresentationof special relativity and adopted spacetime as the correct relativistic picture of the world. While there exists an unanimous consensus on the mathematical signi cance of spacetime for theoretical physics, for a hundred years there has been no consensus on the nature of spacetime itself. The rst sign of this continuing controversy was Sommerfeld's remark in his notes on Minkowski's article [2]: ""What will be the epistemologicalattitudetowardsMinkowski'sconceptionofthetime-spaceproblem is another question, but, as it seems to me, a question which does not essentially touch his physics"".
Full Product Details
Author: Vesselin Petkov
Publisher: Springer
Imprint: Springer
Edition: 2010 ed.
Volume: 165
Dimensions:
Width: 15.50cm
, Height: 1.90cm
, Length: 23.50cm
Weight: 0.563kg
ISBN: 9789400731844
ISBN 10: 9400731841
Pages: 326
Publication Date: 05 May 2012
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
From the reviews: This book celebrates the 100th anniversary of Minkowski's work on four-dimensional spacetime ... . In this work Minkowski introduces spacetime as a new fundamental concept from which space and time can be derived. ... All in all this is a very impressive work, not only because of the groundbreaking new ideas and the great impact it has had. It is also nicely written and the language is a very pleasant contrast to the dry style most publications use nowadays. (Michael Keyl, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1220, 2011)
From the reviews: This book celebrates the 100th anniversary of Minkowski's work on four-dimensional spacetime ... . In this work Minkowski introduces spacetime as a new fundamental concept from which space and time can be derived. ... All in all this is a very impressive work, not only because of the groundbreaking new ideas and the great impact it has had. It is also nicely written and the language is a very pleasant contrast to the dry style most publications use nowadays. (Michael Keyl, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1220, 2011) Vesselin Petkov, the editor of the volume, has succeeded in assembling a number of interesting, enlightening, and thought-provoking papers, all of them authored by competent experts in their fields, which illuminate various aspects of the concept of Minkowski spacetime. The collection transcends the disciplinary boundaries of theoretical physics, history of science, and philosophical reflection in a most productive way. (Tilman Sauer, Metascience, February, 2013)
