Masters of theory

Cambridge and the rise of mathematical physics

Andrew Warwick

586 pages, parution le 26/09/2003

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Résumé

When Isaac Newlun published the Prinicpia three centuries ago, only a few scholars were capable of understanding his conceptually demanding work. Yet this esoteric knowledge quickly became accessible in the nineteenth and early twenlieth centuries when Britain produced many leading mathematical physicists. In this book, Andrew Warwick shows how the education of these "masters of theory" led them to transform our understanding of everything from the flight of a boomerang to the structure of the universe.

Warwick focuses on Cambridge University, where many of the best physicists trained. He begins by tracing the dramatic changes in undergraduate education there since ihe eighteenth century, especially the gradual emergence of the private tutor as the most important teacher of mathematics. Next he explores the material culture of mathematics instruction, showing how the humble pen and paper so crucial to this study transformed everything from classroom teaching to final examinations. Balancing their intense intellectual work with strenuous physical exercise, the students themselves-known as the "Wranglers"-helped foster the competitive spirit that drove them in the classroom and informed the Victorian ideal of a manly student. Finally, by investigating several historical cases, such as the reception of Albert Einstein's special and general theories of relativity, Warwick shows how the production, transmission, and reception of new knowledge was profoundly shaped by the skills taught to Cambridge undergraduates.

Drawing on a wealth of new archival evidence and illustration, Masters of Theory examines the origins of a cultural tradition within which the complex world of theoretical physics was made commonplace.

A remarkable story that has not been previously told. Warwick is to be commended for a truly extraordinary research effort that has resulted in a radically new picture of the development of English mathematical physics in the nineteenth century. Masters of Theory is more descriptive than technical and it can he read comfortably by those without post-secondary mathematics training.

JOAN L. RICHARDS, author of Angles of Reflection

Writing a Pedagogical History of Mathematical Physics
The Reform Coach: Teaching Mixed Mathematics in Georgian and Victorian Cambridge
A Mathematical World on Paper: The Material Culture and Practice-Ladenness of Mixed Mathematics
Exercising the Student Body: Mathematics, Manliness, and Athleticism
Routh's Men: Coaching, Research, and the Reform of Public Teaching
Making Sense of Maxwell's Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism in Mid-Victorian Cambridge
Joseph Larmor, the Electronic Theory of Matter, and the Principle of Relativity
Transforming the Field: The Cambridge Reception of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity
Through the Convex Looking Glass: A. S. Eddington and the Cambridge Reception of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity
Epilogue: Training, Continuity, and Change
Appendices
Bibliography
Index

L'auteur - Andrew Warwick

ANDREW WARWICK is senior lecturer in the history of science at Imperial College, London, and coeditor of Teaching the History of Science and Histories of the Electron: The Birth of Microphysics.

Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	The University of Chicago Press
Auteur(s)	Andrew Warwick
Parution	26/09/2003
Nb. de pages	586
Format	15 x 23
Couverture	Broché
Poids	795g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780226873756
ISBN13	978-0-226-87375-6