The Language of Physics: the Calculus and the Development of Theoretical Physics in Europe, 1750-1914 Softcover Reprint of the Original 1st Ed. 1999 edition

Description for Sales People: This work is the first explicit examination of the key role that mathematics has played in the development of theoretical physics and will undoubtedly challenge the more conventional accounts of its historical development. Although mathematics has long been regarded as the "language" of physics, the connections between these independent disciplines have been far more complex and intimate than previous narratives have shown. The author convincingly demonstrates that practices, methods, and language shaped the development of the field, and are a key to understanding the mergence of the modern academic discipline. Mathematicians and physicists, as well as historians of both disciplines, will find this provocative work of great interest. Review Quotes: "Garber discusses an interesting part of scientific development, using examples of theoretical physics and their historical steps." ---Mathematical Reviews "Garber argues her case convincingly... A very valuable addition to the existing literature on the history of modern physics. The book is also well written... Those who make an effort to follow the argument will gain many new insights and obtain a fresh outlook at the mathematization of physics in the 18th and 19th centuries." ---Physics WorldReview Quotes:"Garber discusses an interesting part of scientific development, using examples of theoretical physics and their historical steps." ---Mathematical Reviews "Garber argues her case convincingly... A very valuable addition to the existing literature on the history of modern physics. The book is also well written... Those who make an effort to follow the argument will gain many new insights and obtain a fresh outlook at the mathematization of physics in the 18th and 19th centuries." ---Physics WorldJacket Description/Back: This work is the first explicit examination of the key role that mathematics has played in the development of theoretical physics and will undoubtedly challenge the more conventional accounts of its historical development. Although mathematics has long been regarded as the "language" of physics, the connections between these independent disciplines have been far more complex and intimate than previous narratives have shown. This study encompasses engagements across discipline boundaries and many nations rom the ear of Euler and Bernoulli o that of Hilbert and Einstein. At all times physicists and mathematicians retained their distinct sets of disciplinary standards and goals. Interactions within historical ears are handled using the standards of the time to define mathematics and physics. In this context, the works of Lagrange, Laplace, Fourier, Jacobi, William Thomson, Maxwell, Helmholtz, and many others are discussed, and by 1870, it is evident that the essentials of modern theoretical physics are in place. The epilogue, spanning the decades from 1870 to the First World War, deals with the decline of these interactions and the building of new connections. It is particularly significant that these new patterns of interactions became paradigmatic for the rest of the twentieth century. The unique perspectives concerning the history of theoretical physics will undoubtedly cause some raised eyebrows, as the author convincingly demonstrates that practices, methods, and language shaped the development of the field, and are a key to understanding the mergence of the modern academic discipline. Mathematicians and physicists, as well as historians of both disciplines, will find this provocative work of great interest. Table of Contents: I: Introduction.- Mathematics and Modern Physics.- Modern Physics.- Earlier Historical Approaches to Modern Physics.- Mathematics as Language.- Organization of the Text.- I: Eighteenth-Century Science.- II: Vibrating Strings and Eighteenth-Century Mechanics.- Mathematics from Physics.- Ignoring Physics.- Eighteenth-Century Mechanics and the History of Physics.- III: Eighteenth-Century Physics and Mathematics: A Reassessment.- Physics as Experimental Philosophy.- The Practice of Mathematics.- The Intellectual Geography of Physics and Mathematics.- The Social Geography of Physics and Mathematics.- II: Transitions, 1790 1830.- IV: Empirical Literalism: Mathematical Versus Experimental Physics in France, 1790 1830.- Changes in Social Geography, 1790 1830.- Experimental Physics.- Electricity and Magnetism.- Heat.- Light and Elasticity.- French Mathematics and Physics c. 1830: Some Conclusions.- V: On the Margins: Experimental Physics and Mathematics in the German States, 1790 1830.- Prologue.- Physics and Mathematics in the German States, 1790 1830.- University Reform and Career Opportunities.- Changes in Physics in the 1820s.- Changes in Mathematics in the 1820s.- VI: On the Margins: Experimental Philosophy and Mathematics in Britain, 1790 1830.- Social Institutions.- Natural Philosophy and the Universities.- Intellectual Organization of Research, 1800 1820.- Mathematics in Britain, 1790 1820.- Natural Philosophy and Mathematics in the 1820s.- III: Transformations, 1830 1870.- VII: From Natural Philosophy and Mixed Mathematics to Theoretical and Experimental Physics: Britain, 1830 1870.- Keywords.- The Crucial Turn: the 1830s.- Cambridge University, the Cambridge Mathematical Journal, and Theoretical Physics.- William Thomson.- George Gabriel Stokes.- James Clerk Maxwell.- VIII: Physics and Mathematics in the German States, 1830 1870.- Mathematical Physics as Mathematics.- The Transformation of Physics: The First Generation.- Franz Neumann.- Wilhelm Weber.- Clausius and Helmholtz.- IV: Conclusions and Epilogue.- IX: Physics About 1870 and the Decline of French Physics.- The Decline of French Physics.- Some Conclusions.- X: Epilogue: Forging New Relationships: 1870 1914.- The Limitations of Autonomy.- Mathematics in Physics.- Beyond the Calculus.- Physicists Versus Mathematicians."Publisher Marketing: This study began as an attempt to understand mechanics in the nineteenth century. The terms mechanics and mechanical world view were being used as general descriptions of nineteenth-century physicists' assumptions and interpretations of nature. However, there were no studies of the particulars of these assumptions or the range and content of these interpretations. Rene Dugas' work on classical mechanics focused on France. The search for the particulars of these forms of "mechanics" led me to explore precisely what mechanics meant to physicists of a century and more ago. However, none of Lagrange's, Hamilton's, or Jacobi's "mechanics," while ele gant, fits easily within the history of physics. Lagrange reduced mechanics to an exercise in analysis; Hamilton and Jacobi used mechanics to explore solutions to partial differential equations. They were mathematicians doing mathematics. As I went deeper into the matter it became obvious that, in the nineteenth century, there were two kinds of mechanics, each containing a variety of forms, one physical, the other mathematical. There were a group of men using mechanics to understand nature and another group using the equations of mechanics to explore the calcu lus. However, when tracing these two traditions back into the eighteenth century, physics disappeared altogether."

Contributor Bio:  Garber, Elizabeth Elizabeth Garber is the author of two books of poetry, Listening Inside the Dance: A Life in Maine Infused with Tango (2005) and Pierced by the Seasons: Living a Life on the Coast of Maine (2004) and a chapbook The Mayor and Other Stories of Small Town Life (2007). Three of her poems have been read by Garrison Keiller on The Writer's Almanac and Feastings was included in his Good Poems for Hard Times. As 2007 Poet Laureate of Belfast, Maine, she coordinated monthly poetry readings, and wrote a weekly poetry column published in three Midcoast papers highlighting Maine poets. She is the founder of the Illumiated Sea Press supporting the independent publishing of fine Maine poets, including Baron Wormser, former Poet Laureate of Maine. For six years, she's helped put on The Belfast Poetry Festival including the Poetry and Art Walk. Garber graduated from the Stonecoast Low Residency MFA program in Creative Writing. Her chapter, Stones, from her unfinished memoir The Architect's Daughter, won the Maine Writer's and Publishers Alliance 2009 Literary Award fro unpublished Non-Fiction.