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Minkowski’s Modern World

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Minkowski Spacetime: A Hundred Years Later

Part of the book series: Fundamental Theories of Physics ((FTPH,volume 165))

Abstract

The phenomenal response to Minkowski’s 1908 lecture in Cologne has tested the historian’s capacity for explanation on rational grounds. What was it about Minkowki’s lecture that so schocked the sensibilities of his public? In this essay, Minkowski’s spacetime theory is considered as a solution in search of a problem. After physicists rejected his four-dimensional formalism, Minkowski made a point in Cologne of challenging their most cherished beliefs, piling provocation upon provocation in an effort to stir them from their torpor, in pure modernist style.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Nancy and H. Poincaré Archives (CNRS, UMR 7117), 91 av de la Libération, 54001, Nancy, France

    Scott Walter

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  1. Scott Walter
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  1. Liberal Arts College, Concordia University, de Maisonneuve Blvd. West 1455, Montreal, H3G 1M8, Canada

    Vesselin Petkov

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Walter, S. (2010). Minkowski’s Modern World. In: Petkov, V. (eds) Minkowski Spacetime: A Hundred Years Later. Fundamental Theories of Physics, vol 165. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3475-5_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3475-5_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-3474-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-90-481-3475-5

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