Re: Book about mathematical sloppiness by physicists?

On Jan 28, 7:16=A0am, "Edward C. Jones" <edcjo...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Does anyone know of a book that discusses the ways that physicists are
sloppy with mathematics?

Tho' I'm not aware of any book addressing your question specifically,
a couple of places I'd look are:

1) D'Abro "The Rise of the New Physics" 2 Vols p/back, (1951),
available 2/H on Amazon at remarkably low prices; Vol 2 has more about
physicists and goes into a lot of the background to the development of
C20th physics. (Vol 1 is more on the classical mathematicians who laid
the groundwork for theoretical physics). It might cover some of your
area of interest.

2) Hadamard "(On) The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical
Field". Hadamard surveyed mathematicians and theoretical physicists
in the 1930s, asking how they thought about mathematics. It's still in
print and well worth the read (if memory serves, I think I recall
reading that Einstein claimed to think "with his muscles", which when
you think about trying mentally to model curved spaces, might not be a
bad approach).It's a while since I've looked at it, but it might
offfer some hints.

Otherwise, look out for any 'snippy' biographies by physicists who
didn't get on with other physicists. Apparently Fritz Zwicky didn't
get on well with colleagues, and Pauli could be a bit acerbic (as
could Dirac in a less disenchanting way, tho' I can't conceive of
Dirac ever being sloppy.)

Hope this helps

Paul

.

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