Research Catalog

Henri Poincare : a scientific biography

Title
Henri Poincare : a scientific biography / Jeremy Gray.
Author
Gray, Jeremy, 1947-
Publication
Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2013], ©2013.

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TextUse in library JFE 14-8110Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description
xiii, 592 pages : illustrations; 24 cm
Summary
"Henri Poincaré (1854-1912) was not just one of the most inventive, versatile, and productive mathematicians of all time--he was also a leading physicist who almost won a Nobel Prize for physics and a prominent philosopher of science whose fresh and surprising essays are still in print a century later. The first in-depth and comprehensive look at his many accomplishments, Henri Poincaré explores all the fields that Poincaré touched, the debates sparked by his original investigations, and how his discoveries still contribute to society today. Math historian Jeremy Gray shows that Poincaré's influence was wide-ranging and permanent. His novel interpretation of non-Euclidean geometry challenged contemporary ideas about space, stirred heated discussion, and led to flourishing research. His work in topology began the modern study of the subject, recently highlighted by the successful resolution of the famous Poincaré conjecture. And Poincaré's reformulation of celestial mechanics and discovery of chaotic motion started the modern theory of dynamical systems. In physics, his insights on the Lorentz group preceded Einstein's, and he was the first to indicate that space and time might be fundamentally atomic. Poincaré the public intellectual did not shy away from scientific controversy, and he defended mathematics against the attacks of logicians such as Bertrand Russell, opposed the views of Catholic apologists, and served as an expert witness in probability for the notorious Dreyfus case that polarized France. Richly informed by letters and documents, Henri Poincaré demonstrates how one man's work revolutionized math, science, and the greater world"--
Subjects
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Call Number
JFE 14-8110
ISBN
  • 9780691152714 (hardback)
  • 0691152713 (hardback)
LCCN
2012019641
OCLC
788266487
Author
Gray, Jeremy, 1947-
Title
Henri Poincare : a scientific biography / Jeremy Gray.
Imprint
Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2013], ©2013.
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Research Call Number
JFE 14-8110
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