Space-Time Theories Before Einstein (1716379431)
Travel through thousands of years to discover the revolutionary space-time theories of: Ocellus Lucanus, John Locke, David Hume, Henry More, Isaac Newton, Samuel Clarke, Thomas Reid, Jean Le Rond D'Alembert, Roger Joseph Boscovich, Joseph Louis Lagrange, Georg Simon Kl gel, Arthur Schopenhauer, Gustav Theodor Fechner, William Rowan Hamilton, Eugen Karl D hring, Woldemar Voigt, Henri Bergson, Rudolf Mewes, H. G. Wells, James H. Hyslop, G. F. Fitzgerald, Joseph Larmor, H. A. Lorentz, Melchior Pal gyi, George Stuart Fullerton, Henri Poincar , Rudolf Mehmke, Paul Langevin, Roberto Marcolongo, Lady Victoria Welby, R. Hargreaves and Hermann Minkowski. Space-time theories have been quite common in folk-lore, philosophy, mathematics, religion, science, science fiction, psychology, and are even inherent in some languages. The first two chapters provide a thorough documentation of the evolution and completion of the four-dimensional special theory of relativity before Einstein reiterated the same equations and concepts. The relevant portions of the books and papers of Einstein's predecessors are republished in the original English, French, German and Italian. Surprisingly, Einstein initially rejected the space-time theories of Poincar and Minkowski and harshly criticized the concept of space-time. He had to be persuaded of their worth before he hesitantly adopted these fully developed theories years later.