Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This biography gives an insider view of 20th century German science in the making. The discovery by Max von Laue in 1912 of interference effects demonstrated the wave-like nature of X-rays and the atomic lattice structure of crystals. This major advance for research on solids earned him the Nobel Prize two years later, the ultimate acclaim as an exceptional theoretician. As an early supporter of Einstein's relativity theory, he published fundamental papers on light scattering as well as on matter waves and superconductivity. Laue may be counted among the few persons of influence in Germany who - as Einstein put it - managed to "stay morally upright" under Nazism. It is thus surprising that this is the first extensive biography of this famous scientist. Jost Lemmerich could hardly have been better equipped to describe German physics and physicists in the 1920s. His copiously illustrated historical account is based as much on scientific material as on private correspondence, creating a fascinating and convincingly detailed portrait.

Chemical and physical crystallography --- Rocks. Minerals --- kristallografie --- kristallen --- Astronomer --- Astronomer --- Physicists

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The intention of this book is to shine a bright light on the intellectual context of Euler's contributions to physics and mathematical astronomy. Leonhard Euler is one of the most important figures in the history of science, a blind genius who introduced mathematical concepts and many analytical tools to help us understand and describe the universe. Euler also made a monumental contribution to astronomy and orbital mechanics, developing what he called astronomia mechanica. Orbital mechanics of artificial satellites and spacecraft is based on Euler's analysis of astromechanics. However, previous books have often neglected many of his discoveries in this field. For example, orbital mechanics texts refer to the five equilibrium points in the Sun-Earth-Moon system as Lagrange points, failing to credit Euler who first derived the differential equations for the general n-body problem and who discovered the three collinear points in the three-body problem of celestial mechanics. These equilibrium points are essential today in space exploration; the James Webb Space Telescope (successor to the Hubble), for example, now orbits the Sun near L2, one of the collinear points of the Sun-Earth-Moon system, while future missions to study the universe will place observatories in orbit around Sun-Earth and Earth-Moon equilibrium points that should be properly called Euler-Lagrange points. In this book, the author uses Euler's memoirs, correspondence, and other scholarly sources to explore how he established the mathematical groundwork for the rigorous study of motion in our Solar System. The reader will learn how he studied comets and eclipses, derived planetary orbits, and pioneered the study of planetary perturbations, and how, old and blind, Euler put forward the most advanced lunar theory of his time.

Mathematical analysis --- Mathematics --- Space research --- Astronomy --- Classical mechanics. Field theory --- Geophysics --- zwaartekracht --- analyse (wiskunde) --- wiskunde --- ruimte (astronomie) --- ruimtevaart --- mechanica --- Astronomer --- Physicists --- Celestial mechanics. --- Euler, Leonhard,

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

During his lifetime, Kurt Gödel was not well known outside the professional world of mathematicians, philosophers and theoretical physicists. Early in his career, for his doctoral thesis and then for his Habilitation (Dr.Sci.), he wrote earthshaking articles on the completeness and provability of mathematical-logical systems, upsetting the hypotheses of the most famous mathematicians/philosophers of the time. He later delved into theoretical physics, finding a unique solution to Einstein’s equations for gravity, the ‘Gödel Universe’, and made contributions to philosophy, the guiding theme of his life. This book includes more details about the context of Gödel’s life than are found in earlier biographies, while avoiding an elaborate treatment of his mathematical/scientific/philosophical works, which have been described in great detail in other books. In this way, it makes him and his times more accessible to general readers, and will allow them to appreciate the lasting effects of Gödel’s contributions (the latter in a more up-to-date context than in previous biographies, many of which were written 15–25 years ago). His work spans or is relevant to a wide spectrum of intellectual endeavor, and this is emphasized in the book, with recent examples. This biography also examines possible sources of his unusual personality, which combined mathematical genius with an almost childlike naiveté concerning everyday life, and striking scientific innovations with timidity and hesitancy in practical matters. How he nevertheless had a long and successful career, inspiring many younger scholars along the way, with the help of his loyal wife Adele and some of his friends, is a fascinating story in human nature.

Mathematical logic --- History of philosophy --- Pure sciences. Natural sciences (general) --- Mathematics --- History --- wetenschapsgeschiedenis --- filosofie --- geschiedenis --- wiskunde --- logica --- Astronomer --- Physicists --- Mathematics. --- History. --- Mathematical logic. --- Astronomers --- Science --- Philosophy --- History of Mathematical Sciences. --- Mathematical Logic and Foundations. --- Biographies of Physicists and Astronomers. --- History of Science. --- History of Philosophy. --- Biography. --- Matemàtics --- Gödel, Kurt. --- Àustria