Einstein, 1905-2005: Poincaré Seminar 2005 (Progress in Mathematical Physics) [Hardcover]

Thibault Damour (Editor), Olivier Darrigol (Editor), Vincent Rivasseau (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 3764374357 | ISBN-13: 978-3764374358 | Publication Date: December 22, 2005 | Edition: 1

The Poincaré Seminar is held twice a year at the Institute Henri Poincaré in Paris. The goal of this seminar is to provide up-to-date information about general topics of great interest in physics. Both the theoretical and experimental results are covered, with some historical background. Particular care is devoted to the pedagogical nature of the presentation.
This volume is devoted to Einstein's 1905 papers and their legacy. After a presentation of Einstein's epistemological approach to physics, and the genesis  of special relativity, a centenary perspective is offered. The geometry of relativistic spacetime is explained in detail. Single photon experiments are presented, as  a spectacular realization of Einstein's light quanta hypothesis. A previously unpublished lecture by Einstein, which presents an illuminating point of view on statistical physics in 1910, at the dawn of quantum mechanics, is reproduced. The volume ends with an essay on the historical, physical and mathematical aspects of Brownian motion.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The Poincaré Seminar is held twice a year at the Institute Henri Poincaré in Paris. The goal of this seminar is to provide up-to-date information about general topics of great interest in physics. Both the theoretical and experimental results are covered, with some historical background. Particular care is devoted to the pedagogical nature of the presentation.
This volume is devoted to Einstein's 1905 papers and their legacy. After a presentation of Einstein's epistemological approach to physics, and the genesis of special relativity, a centenary perspective is offered. The geometry of relativistic spacetime is explained in detail. Single photon experiments are presented, as  a spectacular realization of Einstein's light quanta hypothesis. A previously unpublished lecture by Einstein, which presents an illuminating point of view on statistical physics in 1910, at the dawn of quantum mechanics, is reproduced. The volume ends with an essay on the historical, physical and mathematical aspects of Brownian motion.

Contributing authors:

Jacques Bros
Thibault Damour
Olivier Darrigol
Bertrand Duplantier
Albert Einstein
Philippe Grangier
Ugo Moschella
Clifford M. Will

Additional information (e.g. color versions of pictures) can be found at www.birkhauser.ch/3-7643-7435-7 

Product Details

• Hardcover: 301 pages
• Publisher: Birkhäuser Basel; 1 edition (December 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3764374357
• ISBN-13: 978-3764374358
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,373,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Reading, April 13, 2006

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Einstein, 1905-2005: Poincaré Seminar 2005 (Progress in Mathematical Physics) (Hardcover)

Sub-Title: Poincar Seminar 2005 (Progress in Mathematical Physics) ==In 1905 Einstein, then an unknown physicist, published three papers in a single issue of the most important physics journal in Germany. ==One of thse papers would have earned him an honorable mention in physical chemistry textbooks. One (on the basic theory of how TV picture tubes work) got him a Nobel Prize . The third was the Theory of Relativity. ==In 2005 a conference was held with the subject to be Einstein's 1905 papers. This book is a reprint of the papers given at that conference. The papers vary from a previously unpublished paper Einstein wrote in 1910. Through some reports on the current state of research in the three subjects

My favorite was a paper on how Einstein came up with his theory. There are lots of guesses:

a sudden moment of brilliant insight,
the fact that experiments over the previous twenty or so years and various theories that resolved them allowed Einstein to simply put them together ,
there's the point of view that he reached his theory by a philosophical criticism of Newton's laws ,
there's a new theory that his first wife (who was probably a better mathematician than he) was really responsible ,
the fact that tensor calculus had just been invented and was used in the proof.

The answer, of course, is that we don't know what make genius. Yes there were cracks in Newtonian physics, but all the other physicists of the time knew about them. None of them put it all together.

This is not a book for the casual reader. But for the interested reader it is fascinating.