| Description |
viii, 261 pages ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
The educational matrix / David B. Wilson -- Geologists and mathematicians / Crosbie Smith -- Mathematics and mathematical physics from Cambridge, 1815-40 / I. Grattan-Guinness -- Integral theorems in Cambridge mathematical physics, 1830-55 / J.J. Cross -- Mathematics and physical reality in William Thomson's electromagnetic theory / Ole Knudsen -- Mechanical image and reality in Maxwell's electromagnetic theory / Daniel M. Siegel -- Edinburgh philosophy and Cambridge physics / P.M. Harman -- Modifying the continuum / Jed Z. Buchwald |
| Summary |
"The contributions to physics of Lord Kelvin and James Clerk Maxwell are well known but the route which led these two Scottish scientists to their pioneering work is less well documented. 'Wranglers and physicists' provides a wide-ranging study, based on an unusually rich fund of original documents, of the intellectual milieu which nourished these classic contributions to physics. This collection of essays has a common theme in examining the role of Cambridge mathematics education in giving Cambridge physics its distinctive character. Scottish university teaching in physics, the tradition from which both Kelvin and Maxwell emerged, is examined and contrasted with that at Cambridge. An account is provided of the scope of mathematics and physics in Cambridge in the early nineteenth century, and of the key mathematical innovations in this period which were later to be of major influence. The relationship between mathematics and physics in the work of Kelvin and Maxwell is examined, as is the relationship of Cambridge mathematical physics to the theological and philosophical debates at Cambridge in the period. This book will be of great interest to all historians of science and to students of the history of eduction. Physicists with an interest in the history of their discipline will find this a fascinating collection." -- dust jacket fly-leaf |
| Analysis |
Cambridgeshire Cambridge Universities University of Cambridge Curriculum subjects Physics history |
| Notes |
Essays based on papers presented at a conference held at the University of Cambridge |
|
Includes index |
| Bibliography |
Bibliography: pages 242-256 |
| Subject |
Kelvin, William Thomson, Baron, 1824-1907 -- Congresses.
|
|
Maxwell, James Clerk, 1831-1879 -- Congresses.
|
|
Mathematics -- England -- Cambridge -- History -- Congresses.
|
|
Physics -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- England -- Cambridge -- History -- Congresses.
|
|
Physics -- England -- Cambridge -- History -- Congresses.
|
| Genre/Form |
Conference papers and proceedings.
|
| Author |
Harman, P. M. (Peter Michael), 1943-
|
| LC no. |
85001485 |
| ISBN |
0719017564 |
|
