The language of physics : the calculus and the development of theoretical physics in Europe, 1750-1914
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The language of physics : the calculus and the development of theoretical physics in Europe, 1750-1914
Birkhäuser, c1999
- : US
Available at 11 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
: US ISBN 9780817640392
Description
This work is the first explicit examination of the key role that mathematics has played in the development of theoretical physics and will undoubtedly challenge the more conventional accounts of its historical development. Although mathematics has long been regarded as the "language" of physics, the connections between these independent disciplines have been far more complex and intimate than previous narratives have shown. The author convincingly demonstrates that practices, methods, and language shaped the development of the field, and are a key to understanding the mergence of the modern academic discipline. Mathematicians and physicists, as well as historians of both disciplines, will find this provocative work of great interest.
Table of Contents
I: Introduction.- Mathematics and Modern Physics.- Modern Physics.- Earlier Historical Approaches to Modern Physics.- Mathematics as Language.- Organization of the Text.- I: Eighteenth-Century Science.- II: Vibrating Strings and Eighteenth-Century Mechanics.- Mathematics from Physics.- Ignoring Physics.- Eighteenth-Century Mechanics and the History of Physics.- III: Eighteenth-Century Physics and Mathematics: A Reassessment.- Physics as Experimental Philosophy.- The Practice of Mathematics.- The Intellectual Geography of Physics and Mathematics.- The Social Geography of Physics and Mathematics.- II: Transitions, 1790-1830.- IV: "Empirical Literalism": Mathematical Versus Experimental Physics in France, 1790-1830.- Changes in Social Geography, 1790-1830.- Experimental Physics.- Electricity and Magnetism.- Heat.- Light and Elasticity.- French Mathematics and Physics c. 1830: Some Conclusions.- V: On the Margins: Experimental Physics and Mathematics in the German States, 1790-1830.- Prologue.- Physics and Mathematics in the German States, 1790-1830.- University Reform and Career Opportunities.- Changes in Physics in the 1820s.- Changes in Mathematics in the 1820s.- VI: On the Margins: Experimental Philosophy and Mathematics in Britain, 1790-1830.- Social Institutions.- Natural Philosophy and the Universities.- Intellectual Organization of Research, 1800-1820.- Mathematics in Britain, 1790-1820.- Natural Philosophy and Mathematics in the 1820s.- III: Transformations, 1830-1870.- VII: From Natural Philosophy and "Mixed Mathematics" to Theoretical and Experimental Physics: Britain, 1830-1870.- Keywords.- The Crucial Turn: the 1830s.- Cambridge University, the Cambridge Mathematical Journal, and Theoretical Physics.- William Thomson.- George Gabriel Stokes.- James Clerk Maxwell.- VIII: Physics and Mathematics in the German States, 1830-1870.- Mathematical Physics as Mathematics.- The Transformation of Physics: The First Generation.- Franz Neumann.- Wilhelm Weber.- Clausius and Helmholtz.- IV: Conclusions and Epilogue.- IX: Physics About 1870 and the "Decline" of French Physics.- The "Decline" of French Physics.- Some Conclusions.- X: Epilogue: Forging New Relationships: 1870-1914.- The Limitations of Autonomy.- Mathematics in Physics.- Beyond the Calculus.- Physicists Versus Mathematicians.
- Volume
-
ISBN 9783764340391
Description
This is an account of the development of theoretical physics from the mid-18th century to 1914. The focus is on mathematics, as the language around which theoretical physics developed. The work further concerns the interaction and intimate connections around these two independent disciplines.
by "Nielsen BookData"