Hermann Minkowski's approach to physics (Q1018002)

This account of Minkowski's (1864--1909) approach to physics follows his career path from Bonn to Königsberg and Zürich, and finally to Göttingen, and is divided into three sections. In the first section, Minkowski's formal education (home schooling, a school in Kaunas, Altstädtisches Gymnasium in Königsberg, university in Königsberg, three terms in Berlin, habilitation in Bonn) is summarized, and his interest in mechanics is characterized based on correspondence and manuscript lecture notes, until his arrival in Göttingen in 1902. The second section ``2. Göttingen I: Mechanics and electrons'' covers Minkowski's activities in mechanics and physics from 1902 until his lectures on heat radiation in 1907. The final section ``3. Göttingen II: From black-body theory to spacetime'' treats these lectures, and Minkowski's contributions to relativity theory, until his lecture ``Raum und Zeit'' at the annual meeting of the German Association for Natural Scientists and Physicians in Cologne, on September 1908 (published in 1909).