Overview

"In 1917 Albert Einstein created the first model of the universe based on general relativity, his new theory of gravitation. This was a static model, however, and it was only in 1930 that non-static solutions (containing the famous ""Big Bang"" theory) were finally admitted. Einstein was led to cosmology after a series of controversial discussions with the Dutch astronomer Willem De Sitter. De Sitter's ingenuity forced Einstein to face the question of what his general theory actually said about the world, over and above the achievements of mathematical formalism. This Einstein-De Sitter controversy has borne an indelible imprint on modern cosmological science, for it was in trying to come to grips with its actual significance that two other great minds, Eddington and Weyl, turned cosmology into a complete re-consideration of the nature of time. This early history of the science of the Universe shows how and why the relativistic way of thinking remains a unique contribution to the most fundamental questions which have always haunted the modern philosophy of nature - the issues of creating and becoming."

Full Product Details

Author:   Pierre Kerszberg
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Clarendon Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.00cm , Height: 2.90cm , Length: 23.00cm
Weight:   0.818kg
ISBN:  

9780198518761

ISBN 10:   0198518765
Pages:   412
Publication Date:   01 October 1989
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

"Part 1 Cosmological enquiries into the nature of physical science: Newtonian versus Einsteinian questions; variations on a non-Euclidean theme. Part 2 From a universal physics to a physics of the universe: Einstein's 1916 thought experiment and the problem of relative rotation; antinomy of Mach's principle and the general relativity principle; De Sitter's early critique of the principle of relativity and the nature of boundary conditions. Part 3 The almost full and the almost empty: the changing picture of general relativity from September 1916 to February 1917 - first reactions to the cosmological considerations. Part 4 Matter without motion or motion without matter: difficulties with cosmic time in De Sitter's static universe; beyond the limits of both the Newtonian and the Riemannian world views; Weyl and his critics - the geometrical versus the physical approach; Eddington's solution of 1923 - its foundations and limits. Part 5 The construction of a principle: Eddington's solution reconsidered; Weyl's principle physicalized - the adventure of non-static cosmology; Weyl's principle and the ""many-universes"" problem."

Reviews

<br> No other book covers this specialized topic in such detail as Kerszberg's. A recommended acquisition for undergraduate academic libraries and for philosophers, historians of science, astronomers, and physicists. --Choice<p><br> Kerszberg brings a welcome emphasis to the invention, rather than the discovery, of cosmological models, and his treatment of the rise of relativistic cosmology independent of observational input is well founded. --ISIS<p><br>

No other book covers this specialized topic in such detail as Kerszberg's. A recommended acquisition for undergraduate academic libraries and for philosophers, historians of science, astronomers, and physicists. --Choice<br> Kerszberg brings a welcome emphasis to the invention, rather than the discovery, of cosmological models, and his treatment of the rise of relativistic cosmology independent of observational input is well founded. --ISIS<br>

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