Tales of Mathematicians and Physicists by Simon Gindikin, Alan Shuchat

By Simon Gindikin, Alan Shuchat

Simon Gindikin did a very good activity during this new version of his ebook. I acquired conversant in his study recently while studying an essay on Penrose's Twistor idea within the "Mathematical Intelligencer" via Springer relationship from early 80's.Eventually i discovered out the 1st variation of his e-book, which was once already fairly delightful.The ebook, in addition to being choked with witty old evidence, comprises additionally a number of attention-grabbing difficulties to enhance one's mathematical culture.I'm particulary type of the bankruptcy on Huygens and his mechanical works,Poincare's principles on non-euclidean geometry and eventually and the above pointed out article on twistor theory(which may be integrated on a direction on analytical/projective geometry, example).As my traditional cliche, "Two thumbs up!".

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He decided to guess the law first from general considerations, and then to verify it experimentally. No one had done this before, but gradually this way of doing research has become one of the leading methods of establishing truth in science. Now let us see how Galileo tried to guess the law. ” But since the velocity grows according to the distance traveled, what could be simpler than assuming it is proportional to the distance: v = cs, where c is a constant. This was wrong from the start; after all, it would imply that free fall begins with zero velocity, while the velocity is apparently large from the very beginning.

It is instructive to see how Galileo kept time, with music and his pulse (it seems that Cardano was the first to suggest this method). We in the 20th century, who are accustomed to wristwatches, should not overlook such difficulties. Rather precise clocks were constructed immediately afterwards, based on Galileo’s discovery of the pendulum’s property (we will have a chance to talk about pendulum clocks later). Incidentally, in laboratory experiments which we will discuss below, Galileo used slowly dripping streams of water to measure time (a variation on water clocks).

Cardano finds a description in Horace that resembles him very much. A rather long discussion with references ends in saying that one must have “four changes of clothes: one warm, one very warm, one light, and one very light. Thus, one gets fourteen different combinations. . ” He describes his gait, stating that the reason for its unevenness is his constant reflection. He discusses his attitude towards religion and philosophy, stressing the influence of Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, and especially Avicenna.

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