| Description |
1 online resource (261 pages) : illustrations (some color), genealogical table |
| Contents |
The early years. 1. The Poincaré family. 1.1. The grandfather: Jacques-Nicolas Poincaré. 1.2. The uncle: Antoni Poincaré. 1.3. The father: Léon Poincaré. 1.4. Origin of the name Poincaré -- 2. Childhood and studies. 2.1. An almost-peaceful golden childhood. 2.2. Zero at the math test of the baccalaureate. 2.3. "Poincarré" at the École Polytechnique. 2.4. The École Des Mines -- the Thesis -- 3. Inspector of mines in Vesoul -- The professor and the savant. 4. From the University of Caen to the Sorbonne. 4.1. The discovery of the Fuchsian functions -- 5. From the Sorbonne to the Académie. 5.1. The discovery of a terra incognita -- 6. The prize of King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway. 6.1. From success to triumph. 6.2. A fruitful mistake. 6.3. A secret not so well-kept. 6.4. Winning recognition -- The universal thinker and the public figure. 7. French Geodesy and the fight over the meridian. 7.1. The fight over the meridian. 7.2. The geodesic mission and the French Geodesy -- 8. The controversy over the rotation of the Earth. 8.1. The origin of the controversy. 8.2. Moving the Foucault pendulum to the Panthéon. 8.3. Science and hypothesis. 8.4. The sceptical polytechnician. 8.5. Mach's mechanics. 8.6. Does the Earth rotate? -- 9. The philosophical work and its impact. 9.1. Science and hypothesis: "Latin without crying or Greek without tears". 9.2. The value of science. The 'strangest interpretations". 9.3. Science and method: the "granitic rationalism". 9.4. Last essays: "a certain embarrassment". 9.5. Poincarism, opportunism, commodism, etc. -- The committed man. 10. The Dreyfus affair. 10.1. The first Dreyfus affair: a brief overview. 10.2. Three other trials. 10.3. The second Dreyfus affair: the Rennes trial and the intervention of mathematicians 10.4. The third trial: "wise men in a shed' -- 11. The role model -- the immortal 11.1. Poincaré and the end of the world. 11.2. Poincaré and science in the twentieth-century. 11.3. Poincaré and the Martingale strategy. 11.4. Poincaré cited as a role model. 11.5. Poincaré at the Académie Française. 11.6. The price of immortality. 11.7. The reception at the Academy -- 12. Last commitments, last works. 12.1. The press and Poincaré's lectures at the Faculty of Science. 12.2. Defence of the humanities. 12.3. The new mechanics. 12.4. An educational commitment: "what things say" -- 13. To conclude: the poet of mathematics |
| Summary |
On July 17, 2012, the centenary of Henri Poincaré's death was commemorated; his name being associated with so many fields of knowledge that he was considered as the last universalist. In pure and applied mathematics, physics, astronomy, engineering and philosophy, his works have had a great impact all over the world. Poincaré acquired in his lifetime such a reputation that, both nationally and internationally, his life and career were made the object of various articles in the daily papers not only in France, but also in the USA. Some of his philosophical concepts have even caused sharp controversies in the press (as we will discover in this book). This work presents an original portrait of Henri Poincaré based on various unknown anecdotes of his life (for example, his first name was actually not Henri, but Henry; he obtained his high school diploma in sciences with a zero in mathematics, etc.) and from what was reported by the newspapers of his time |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and indexes |
| Notes |
English |
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Online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed December 3, 2013) |
| Subject |
Poincaré, Henri, 1854-1912.
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| SUBJECT |
Poincaré, Henri, 1854-1912 fast |
| Subject |
Mathematicians -- France -- Biography
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Physicists -- France -- Biography
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SCIENCE -- History.
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Mathematicians
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Physicists
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France
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| Genre/Form |
Biographies
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Biographies.
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Biographies.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| Author |
Gerini, Christian
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| ISBN |
9789814556620 |
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9814556629 |
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