The mathematical physics in the style of Gabriel Lamé: the advent of the "physique mathématique" in Emile Mathieu's Treatrise

• Autores: Evelyne Barbin, René Guitart
• Localización: The Circulation of Science and Technology: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science. Barcelona, 18-20 November 2010 / coord. por Antoni M. Roca Rosell, 2012, ISBN 978-84-9965-108-8, págs. 518-519
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • As a resumption of Poisson’s project of a complete his Traité de Physique mathématique, Lamé provided an introduction to Physique mathématique through a series of papers in the period 1830-1840, and later in four books edited between 1852 and 1861. In the introductions of these books he explained that the Physique mathématique has been a creation of the beginning of the 19th century, by men like Laplace, Fourier, Fresnel, Poisson, Cauchy. He strongly claimed for the unity of pure and applied mathematics. He emphasized on the technical unity of mathematics for physics, because there is always almost the same equation to solve:

    Poisson’s or Laplace’s equation. At the level of the explanation of phenomena, another unit has to be associated to this technical unity: for Lamé it is the existence of aether. His main technical inventions are the calculus of curvilinear coordinates and especially with ellipsoidal coordinates, and his famous ‘Lamé’s equation’, deeply studied by Hermite later. Lamé’s project was re-opened by Mathieu, in some sense a student of Lamé, which put explicitly his work (entitled Traité de Physique mathématique) under the patronage of Fourier, Poisson and Lamé.