Minkowski is perhaps best known for his work in relativity , in which he showed in 1907 that his former student Albert Einstein 's special theory of relativity ( 1905 ) , could be understood geometrically as a theory of four-dimensional space -- time , since known as the `` Minkowski spacetime '' .
Minkowski is perhaps best known for his work in relativity , in which he showed in 1907 that his former student Albert Einstein 's special theory of relativity ( 1905 ) , could be understood geometrically as a theory of four-dimensional space-time , since known as the `` Minkowski spacetime '' .