Einstein's X: The Rise of Abstraction at the École Polytechnique

old_uid8867
titleEinstein's X: The Rise of Abstraction at the École Polytechnique
start_date2010/06/09
schedule17h-19h
onlineno
summaryFollowing the French Revolution, geometers and algebraists struggled for primacy in the elite national and imperial school for military engineers, the École Polytechnique. I will discuss their struggle as well as its later consequences in modern physics. In the 1900s, physicists led by Albert Einstein and Neils Bohr increasingly abandoned physical models and visualization in favor of the mechanical manipulation of algebraic signs.
responsiblesRebuschi