The Absolute Relations of Time and Space

Robb, Alfred A.

Published by University Press, Cambridge, 1921

About this Item

8vo (22 cm), X, 80 pp. Publisher's cloth-backed boards, gilt-lettered spine (binding slightly rubbed and dusted; endpapers toned). Second issue. Alfred Arthur Robb (1873-1936), sometimes called the 'Euclid of relativity', was an Irish physicist noted for his axiomatic and geometrical treatment of space-time. In this rigorous mathematical and philosophical treatise he challenges the interpretation of relativity advanced by Albert Einstein. Drawing partly on debates following the null results of ether experiments discussed at the 1902 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Robb proposes an alternative framework for understanding space and time. Rejecting Einstein's conclusion that simultaneity is relative to the observer, which he believed threatened the objective reality of the physical universe, he develops instead an 'absolute' theory based on the notion of 'after-relations'. The work presents a formal mathematical treatment of temporal order, congruence, coordinate systems, and gravitation while avoiding the relativity principle, and stands as an interesting early critique of Einsteinian physics that attempts to reconcile modern mathematical methods with classical conceptions of absolute time and space.

Seller Inventory # 009624

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Absolute Relations of Time and Space
• Publisher: University Press, Cambridge
• Publication Date: 1921
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Science
  • Physics