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9780801884221 Add to Cart Academic Inspection Copy

Concepts of Simultaneity:

From Antiquity to Einstein and Beyond
  • ISBN-13: 9780801884221
  • Publisher: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
    Imprint: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
  • By Max Jammer
  • Price: AUD $132.00
  • Stock: 2 in stock
  • Availability: Order will be despatched as soon as possible.
  • Local release date: 14/01/2007
  • Format: Hardback (230.00mm X 150.00mm) 320 pages Weight: 600g
  • Categories: Science: general issues [PD]
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Max Jammer's Concepts of Simultaneity presents a comprehensive, accessible account of the historical development of an important and controversial concept—which played a critical role in initiating modern theoretical physics—from the days of Egyptian hieroglyphs through to Einstein's work in 1905, and beyond. Beginning with the use of the concept of simultaneity in ancient Egypt and in the Bible, the study discusses its role in Greek and medieval philosophy as well as its significance in Newtonian physics and in the ideas of Leibniz, Kant, and other classical philosophers. The central theme of Jammer's presentation is a critical analysis of the use of this concept by philosophers of science, like Poincaré, and its significant role in inaugurating modern theoretical physics in Einstein's special theory of relativity. Particular attention is paid to the philosophical problem of whether the notion of distant simultaneity presents a factual reality or only a hypothetical convention. The study concludes with an analysis of simultaneity's importance in general relativity and quantum mechanics.

PrefaceIntroduction1. Terminological Preliminaries2. The Concept of Simultaneity in Antiquity3. Medieval Conceptions of Simultaneity4. The Concept of Simultaneity in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries5. The Concept of Simultaneity in Classical Physics6. The Transition to the Relativistic Conception of Simultaneity7. Simultaneity in the Special Theory of Relativity8. The Reception of the Relativistic Conception of Simultaneity9. The Conventionality Thesis10. The Promulgation of the Conventionality Thesis11. Symmetry and Transitivity of Simultaneity12. Arguments against the Conventionality Thesis13. Clock Transport Synchrony14. Recent Debates on the Conventionality of Simultaneity15. Simultaneity in General Relativity and in Quantum MechanicsEpilogueIndex

""Jammer's book is a significant contribution to the literature on the physics of time and merits the attention of both physicists and philosophers of science.""

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