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Einstein and the art of coarse mathematics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2016

J. A. Glenn*
Affiliation:
British Campus, University of Evansville, Harlaxton College, Grantham, Lincs

Extract

It is now widely accepted that the first or “kinematic” part of Einstein’s 1905 paper on Relativity [1] can be made accessible to interested non-specialist students. This part is mathematically straightforward, although its first readers found it conceptually puzzling. “From this”, remarks Einstein, as he follows one of the simpler results of applying the Lorentz transformation to our measures of space and time, “there ensues the following peculiar consequence…” It was these “peculiar consequences” that repelled many physicists of his own day. Later, the challenge to intuition caught public imagination and led to the many popular and semi-popular introductions to the Special Theory. Today there are also several accounts available at a mathematical level appropriate to sixth form or college students.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Mathematical Association 1982

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References

1. Einstein, A., Paper III in The principle of relativity. Dover (1952).Google Scholar
2. Hollingdale, S. H., Einstein, Albert, Bull. I.M.A. 15, 43 (1979).Google Scholar
3. Holton, G., Thematic origins of scientific thought: Kepler to Einstein. Harvard University Press (1973).Google Scholar
4. Caunt, G. W., Introduction to infinitesimal calculus. Oxford (1914).Google Scholar
5. Lorentz, H. A., Paper II in The principle of relativity.Google Scholar
6. Rosser, W. G. V., An introduction to the theory of relativity. Butterworth (1964).Google Scholar