scholarly journals Whittaker's Contributions to the Theory of Relativity

1958 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. L. Synge
Keyword(s):  
Space Time ◽  
Geometrical Approach ◽  
Analytical Dynamics ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
Modern Analysis ◽  
Mind's Eye

Ten papers deal with the theory of relativity, and all are concerned in some way with electromagnetism. Those who know Whittaker through his Modern Analysis and Analytical Dynamics will recognise in these papers the same mastery over complicated situations which enabled him to disdain the support of notational refinements, that same elegance, brevity and persuasive charm which make difficult arguments seem easier than they really are. The new element which emerges is the strongly geometrical approach; but he remains true to the Lagrange tradition and draws no diagrams of space-time, although these must surely have been before his mind's eye and would have helped his readers.

scholarly journals John Lighton Synge. 23 March 1897 — 30 March 1995

2008 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 401-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petros S. Florides
Keyword(s):  
Academic Career ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Theoretical Physics ◽  
Geometrical Approach ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
Theoretical Physicist ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Vast Range

John Lighton Synge was arguably the greatest Irish mathematician and theoretical physicist since Sir William Rowan Hamilton(1806–65). He was a prolific researcher of great originality and versatility, and a writer of striking lucidity and ‘clarity of expression'. He made outstanding contributions to a vast range of subjects, and particularly to Einstein's theory of relativity. His approach to relativity, and theoretical physics in general, is characterized by his extraordinary geometrical insight. In addition tobringing clarity and new insights to relativity, his geometrical approach profoundly influenced the development of the subject since the 1960s. His crusade in his long academic career was ‘to make space–time a real workshop for physicists, and not a museum visited occasionally with a feeling of awe‘ (31)*.

Related to Relativity

2019 ◽  
pp. 265-284
Author(s):  
Steven J. Osterlind
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
General Relativity ◽  
Special Relativity ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
Albert Einstein ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
Scientific Exploration ◽  
Richard Burton ◽  
Time Continuum

This chapter provides the context for the early twentieth-century events contributing to quantification. It was the golden age of scientific exploration, with explorers like David Livingstone, Sir Richard Burton, and Sir Ernest Shackleton, and intellectual pursuits, such as Hilbert’s set of unsolved problems in mathematics. However, most of the chapter is devoted to discussing the last major influencer of quantification: Albert Einstein. His life and accomplishments, including his theory of relativity, make up the final milestone on our road to quantification. The chapter describes his time in Bern, especially in 1905, when he published several famous papers, most particularly his law of special relativity, and later, in 1915, when he expanded it to his theory of general relativity. The chapter also provides a layperson’s description of the space–time continuum. Women of major scientific accomplishments are mentioned, including Madame Currie and the mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani.

The Unchanging Universe

2020 ◽  
pp. 72-86
Author(s):  
Demetris Nicolaides
Keyword(s):  
Space Time ◽  
Sense Perception ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Time Continuum ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Block Universe

Heraclitus declares the being (that which exists, nature) but identifies it with becoming, but Parmenides declares just the Being; only what is, is, what is not, is not. All “follows” from that: change, he argues, is logically impossible and so what is, is one and unchangeable! This dazzling absolute monism is in daring disagreement with sense perception, but curiously it has found a well-known genius as a supporter. Emboldened by his theory of relativity, Einstein considers the universe as a four-dimensional “block” (a space-time continuum like a loaf of bread) which, remarkably, contains all moments of time (of past, present, and future) always, and where change is an illusion. He said, “For we convinced physicists, the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however persistent.” In the block universe, the past is not gone, it is present; and the future, like the present, is, well, present, too.

Mathematical Models of Spacetime in Contemporary Physics and Essential Issues of the Ontology of Spacetime

1998 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Maciej Gos
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Mathematical Models ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
Time Arrow ◽  
Time Singularities ◽  
Time Quantum ◽  
Theory Of Gravitation ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Definition Of

The general theory of relativity and field theory of matter generate an interesting ontology of space-time and, generally, of nature. It is a monistic, anti-atomistic and geometrized ontology — in which the substance is the metric field — to which all physical events are reducible. Such ontology refers to the Cartesian definition of corporeality and to Plato's ontology of nature presented in the Timaeus. This ontology provides a solution to the dispute between Clark and Leibniz on the issue of the ontological independence of space-time from distribution of events. However, mathematical models of space-time in physics do not solve the problem of the difference between time and space dimensions (invariance of equations with regard to the inversion of time arrow). Recent research on space-time singularities and asymmetrical in time quantum theory of gravitation will perhaps allow for the solution of this problem based on the structure of space-time and not merely on thermodynamics.

State of the field in relation to the conservation, absorption and release of energy

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Мизин ◽  
Sergey Mizin
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Albert Einstein ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Physical Field ◽  
Geometrical Approach ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
Approach Theory ◽  
Complete Set ◽  
State Of The Field

Review article includes a fairly complete set of evidence for the transition from the axioms of the theory of relativity, Albert Einstein to a generalized theory of quasi-classical physical field as the "continuum": non-geometrical approach to field theory. Please submit evidence of infidelity and the inapplicability approach Theory of Relativity, and then systematically submitted to substitute results of the theory of physical field. Fully justified timeliness and completeness of such a transition.

Time, Topology, and the Twin Paradox

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean‐Pierre Luminet
Keyword(s):  
High Speed ◽  
Reference Frames ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Flat Space ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Twin Paradox ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
Apparent Paradox ◽  
Curved Space ◽  
Gravitational Fields

This chapter notes that the twin paradox is the best-known thought experiment associated with Einstein's theory of relativity. An astronaut who makes a journey into space in a high-speed rocket will return home to find he has aged less than his twin who stayed on Earth. This result appears puzzling, as the homebody twin can be considered to have done the travelling with respect to the traveller. Hence, it is called a “paradox”. In fact, there is no contradiction, and the apparent paradox has a simple resolution in special relativity with infinite flat space. In general relativity (dealing with gravitational fields and curved space-time), or in a compact space such as the hypersphere or a multiply connected finite space, the paradox is more complicated, but its resolution provides new insights about the structure of space–time and the limitations of the equivalence between inertial reference frames.

Newton, Einstein and Barth on time and eternity

2014 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 436-449
Author(s):  
Li Qu
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Dimensional Space ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Einstein Equations ◽  
Historical Event ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
Newtonian Theory ◽  
Absolute Time ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Holy Spirit

AbstractFor two hundred years after 1687, Newton's notion of absolute time dominated the world of physics. However, Newtonian metaphysical absolute time is so ideal that it may only be realised and actualised by God. In the early twentieth century, Einstein breaks this dominant understanding of time fundamentally by his Special Theory of Relativity and General Theory of Relativity. In the Einsteinian paradigm, we are forced to think no longer of space and time but rather to look at a four-dimensional space-time continuum, in which time appears to be more space-like than temporal. The Newtonian theory implies that there is an absolute, dominant point from which the universe can be observed, whereas Einstein argues for the opposite: there can be no vantage perspective and no universal present by which God can divide past and future.Barth takes a trinitarian approach to interpret the concept of time. For Barth, the Father is coeternal with the Son and the Holy Spirit. The eternal immanent Trinity acts concretely as the temporal economic Trinity, thus the triune God is pre-, supra- and post- to us. In actual temporality, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit transcend time concretely in our history and penetrate time absolutely from divine eternity. God's eternity is both transcendent and immanent to human time.Such a trinitarian temporality might serve as a ‘dynamic privileged perspective’ since time, energy and movement are all created by God from eternity. On the one hand, the triune Creator transcends his creature and its creaturely form – time absolutely; on the other hand, even when God enters time and moves together with the time ‘uniformly’ in the Son and the Holy Spirit, he becomes concretely simultaneous with all time. Also the Barthian perspective might provide something which is lacking in Einstein's relative time, i.e. the direction of time from the past to the future. Since every historical event in Einsteinian four-dimensional continuum is posited as a static space-time slice and Einstein equations are time-reversible, there is no ontological difference between time dimensions at all. However, in Barth's trinitarian opinion, such extraordinary events as the creation, resurrection and Pentecost are ontologically superior to other events in human history because they do change our temporality in an absolute way. Penetrated by the trinitarian eternity, those discrete space-time slices also become communicable and hence take genuine temporal characteristics, i.e. the past, present and future.

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