Science Journals

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident: Arthur Schopenhauer -- In questions of science the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual: Galileo Galilei -- Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it: Albert Einstein -- When you have eliminated the impossible, what ever remains, however improbable must be the truth: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- We all agree that your theory is crazy, but is it crazy enough? Niels Bohr -- Whenever a true theory appears, it will be its own evidence. Its test is that it will explain all phenomena: Ralph Waldo Emerson -- Since the mathematicians invaded Relativity, I do not understand it myself anymore: Albert Einstein -- I would say that the aether is a medium invented by man for the purpose of propagating his misconceptions from one place to another: W.F.G. Swann: -- Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone: Albert Einstein -- Physics is mathematical not because we know so much about the physical world, but because we know so little: Bertrand Russell -- If I could explain it to the average person, I would not have been worth the Nobel Prize: R. P. Feynman -- I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use: Galileo Galilei -- How dare we speak of the laws of chance? Is not chance the antithesis of all law?: Bertrand Russell -- Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I´m not sure about the former: Albert Einstein -- The glory of mathematics is that you don't have to say what you are talking about: Richard Feynman -- Anything is possible if you don´t know what you are talking about: Author Unknown -- In life, everything is relative - except Einstein´s theory: Leonid S. Sukhorukov -- Don´\'t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you´ll have to ram them down people´s throats: Howard Aiken --A day will come undoubtedly when the ether will be discarded as useless: H. Poincaré -- First they tell you you´re wrong and they can prove it; then they tell you you´re right but it isn´t important; then they tell you it´s important but they knew it all along: Charles Kettering -- It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world: Aristotle -- The opposite of a true statement is a false statement. The opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth: Niels Bohr -- A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it: Max Planck -- Euclid taught me that without assumptions there is no proof. Therefore, in any argument, examine the assumptions: Eric Temple Bell -- Half this game is ninety percent mental: Yogi Berra

I primi anni della relatività in Italia e la sconfitta dei “vettorialisti” nella corrispondenza di Marcolongo

Author:

Cattani, Carlo

Category:

Journal Reprints

Sub-Category:

Relativity Theory

Language:

Italian

Date Published:

January 2004

File:

/Journal Reprints-Relativity Theory/Download/9553

Downloads:

108

Keywords:

A. Einstein, Cesare Burali-Forti and Tommaso Boggio, Guido Castelnuovo, Tullio Levi Civita, Roberto Marcolongo, Bertrand Russell, Gregorio Ricci Curbastro, G. A. Maggi, Carlo Somigliana, Fundamentals of Relativity

Filename:

Cattani_ResGate_JAN(2004)1-24.pdf

Publication:

Research Gate

Abstract:

Negli anni più fecondi della Relatività il matematico napoletano Roberto Marcolongo svolge un ruolo fondamentale nella sua diffusione (in Italia), seguendo l'impostazione (del calcolo differenziale assoluto) e le convinzioni di Tullio Levi-Civita. Tuttavia dalla sua corrispondenza1, come vedremo, si deduce che egli pose seri ostacoli allo sviluppo della formulazione invariante (o delle diadi) proposta invano da Tommaso Boggio dell’Università e Cesare Burali-Forti dell'Accademia Militare, entrambi di Torino. Marcolongo, infatti, era considerato il principale esponente dei cosìdetti “vettorialisti” ovvero di coloro che ritenevano la formulazione invariante, cioè in termini di vettori e di loro opportune generalizzazioni, come l’unica formulazione proponibile per legittimare una qualunque teoria fisica. D’altra parte, nel cercare di scoprire i punti deboli del calcolo differenziale assoluto di Levi-Civita, egli finisce per appassionarsi alla formulazione covariante e ne diventa il principale divulgatore, soprattutto in occasione delle conferenze2 tenute al Seminario Matematico di Roma nel 1919. I seguaci vettorialisti, e in particolare Boggio, cercheranno in vari modi di convincere e riportare dalla loro parte Marcolongo, ma invano.

<<< Back