From Newton to Hawking

A History of Cambridge University's Lucasian Professors of Mathematics
Erscheinungsjahr 2005
ISBN: 978-0-521-66310-6
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 512 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 933 g

Cambridge University's Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics is one of the most celebrated academic positions in the world. Since its foundation in 1663, the chair has been held by seventeen men who represent some of the best and most influential minds in science and technology. Principally a social history of mathematics and physics, the story of these great natural philosophers and mathematical physicists is told here by some of the finest historians of science. The journey begins with the search for a benefactor able to establish a 'mathematicus professor honorarius', and travels through the life and work of the professors, exploring aspects from the heroic to the absurd. Covering both the great similarities and the extreme differences in mathematical physics over the last four centuries, this informative work offers interesting perspectives on world-famous scientists including Isaac Newton, Charles Babbage, G. G. Stokes, Paul Dirac and Stephen Hawking.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Knox, Kevin

Noakes, Richard

Knox, Kevin C.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Hawking, Stephen W.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Human- und Sozialwissenschaften
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
• Mathematik | Informatik Mathematik Mathematik Allgemein Geschichte der Mathematik
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Physik Allgemein Geschichte der Physik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of illustrations; List of contributors; Foreword Stephen Hawking; Preface; Timeline of the Lucasian professorship; Introduction: 'Mind almost divine' Kevin C. Knox and Richard Noakes; 1. Isaac Barrow and the foundation of the Lucasian professorship Mordechai Feingold; 2. 'Very accomplished mathematician, philosopher, chemist': Newton as Lucasian professor Rob Iliffe; 3. Making Newton easy: William Whiston in Cambridge and London Stephen D. Snobelen and Larry Stewart; 4. Sensible Newtonians: Nicholas Saunderson and John Colson John Gascoigne; 5. The negative side of nothing: Edward Waring, Isaac Milner and Newtonian values Kevin C. Knox; 6. Paper and brass: the Lucasian professorship 1820-39 Simon Schaffer; 7. Arbiters of Victorian science: George Gabriel Stokes and Joshua King David B. Wilson; 8. 'That universal 'thereal plenum': Joseph Larmor's natural history of physics Andrew Warwick; 9. Paul Dirac: the purest soul in an atomic age Helge Kragh; 10. Is the end in sight for the Lucasian chair? Stephen Hawking as Millennium Professor Hélène Mialet; Appendix. The statutes of the Lucasian professorship: a translation Ian Stewart; Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Knox, Kevin C.
Kevin Knox is Historian at the Institute Archives, Caltech. He has held positions as Visiting Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Ahmanson Postdoctoral Instructor in the Humanities at Caltech.

Noakes, Richard
Richard Noakes is a British Academy-Royal Society Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the History of Science, in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge University. He previously held a Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield.