Masters of Theory [electronic resource] : Cambridge and the Rise of Mathematical Physics
Warwick, Andrew.
Chicago, [Ill.] : University of Chicago Press,
c2003.
Winner of the the Susan Elizabeth Abrams Prize in History of Science.When Isaac Newton published the Principia three centuries ago, only a few scholars were capable of understanding his conceptually demanding work. Yet this esoteric knowledge quickly became accessible in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when Britain produced many leading mathematical physicists. In this book, Andrew Warwick shows how the education of these ""masters of theory"" led them to transform our understanding of everything from the flight of a boomerang to the structure of the universe. Warwick focuses on C
Description based upon print version of record.
Contents; List of Illustrations; Preface and Acknowledgments; Note on Conventions and Sources; 1. Writing a Pedagogical History of Mathematical Physics; 2. The Reform Coach: Teaching Mixed Mathematics in Georgian and Victorian Cambridge; 3. A Mathematical World on Paper: The Material Culture and Practice-Ladenness of Mixed Mathematics; 4. Exercising the Student Body: Mathematics, Manliness, and Athleticism; 5. Routh's Men: Coaching, Research, and the Reform of Public Teaching; 6. Making Sense of Maxwell's Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism in Mid-Victorian Cambridge
7. Joseph Larmor, the Electronic Theory of Matter, and the Principle of Relativity8. Transforming the Field: The Cambridge Reception of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity; 9. Through the Convex Looking Glass: A. S. Eddington and the Cambridge Reception of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity; Epilogue: Training, Continuity, and Change; Appendix A: Coaching Success, 1865-1909; Appendix B: Coaching Lineage, 1865-1909; Bibliography; Index
Winner of the the Susan Elizabeth Abrams Prize in History of Science.When Isaac Newton published the Principia three centuries ago, only a few scholars were capable of understanding his conceptually demanding work. Yet this esoteric knowledge quickly became accessible in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when Britain produced many leading mathematical physicists. In this book, Andrew Warwick shows how the education of these ""masters of theory"" led them to transform our understanding of everything from the flight of a boomerang to the structure of the universe. Warwick focuses on C
Description based on print version record.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
University of Cambridge
Mathematical physics -- History -- 19th century.
Mathematical physics - History - 19th century.
University of Cambridge -- History -- 19th century.
Engineering & Applied Sciences
Applied Physics