Paul Wolfson, West Chester University

Philadelphia Area Seminar on the History of Mathematics, Villanova University

Friday, December 10, 2010, 3:00 am EST

Time: 6:00 p.m.

Place: Room 103, Mendel Science Center, Villanova University


Abstract: Almost immediately after Einstein published his first paper on relativity in 1905, others reworked some of his arguments in a more geometrical language. Minkowski's was, of course, the broadest and most successful effort, but beginning in 1909, Sommerfeld and Varicak developed a geometric representation of relativistic velocities. In this talk Paul Wolfson shall discuss these developments and explain the setting in which Felix Klein unified them.

Date
Fri, Dec 10 2010, 3am | 0 seconds
Andrew W. Mellon

Image of Andrew W. Mellon. Mellon, who served as the Secretary of the Treasury and ambassador of the United States to the Court of St. James, was a patron of the arts and sciences. Image courtesy of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.