Intellectual Mastery of Nature: Theoretical Physics from Ohm to Einstein : The Torch of Mathematics 1800-1870 - Hardcover

Jungnickel, Christa; McCormmach, Russell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226415813 ISBN 13: 9780226415819

Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr, 1986

Synopsis

Christina Jungnickel and Russell McCormmach have created in these two volumes a panoramic history of German theoretical physics. Bridging social, institutional, and intellectual history, they chronicle the work of the researchers who, from the first years of the nineteenth century, strove for an intellectual mastery of nature.Volume 1 opens with an account of physics in Germany at the beginning of the nineteenth century and of German physicists' reception of foreign mathematical and experimental work. Jungnickel and McCormmach follow G. S. Ohm, Wilhelm Weber, Franz Neumann, and others as these scientists work out the new possibilities for physics, introduce student laboratories and instruction in mathematical physics, organize societies and journals, and establish and advance major theories of classical physics. Before the end of the nineteenth century, German physics and its offspring, theoretical physics, had acquired nearly their present organizational forms. The foundations of the classical picture of the physical world had been securely laid, preparing the way for the developments that are the subject of volume 2.

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Reviews

This is a two-volume history of the German contribution to the development of the field of theoretical physics. Throughout, the authors concentrate on the people rather than the technical nature of their work. The first volume traces the change from the early 1800s, when physics research in Germany was largely ignored, underfunded, and almost entirely experimental, to 1870, when the first chairs in theoretical physics were established. The book emphasizes the lives, working conditions and influence of such physicists as Ohm, Kirchhoff, and Helmholtz and mathematicians including Gauss, Dirichlet, and Riemann. The second volume covers the golden age of theoretical physics in Germany. Basically the information is organized according to the activities at such major centers as Gottingen, Berlin, and Munichwith an excursion to Austria to describe the work of Boltzman. The influence of Helmholtz, Hertz, and Einstein, among others, is emphasized. Since during the 19th and early 20th centuries Germany became the leading continental center for scientific inquiry, this work is of significance to scholars in the history of science. Recommended for large university libraries. Harold D. Shane, Mathematics Dept., Baruch Coll., CUNY
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr
• Publication date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226415813
• ISBN 13: 9780226415819
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 368