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Einstein's Articles in "Annalen der Physik" - http://einstein-annalen.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/home
Website by the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Berlin) presenting the seminal articles on relativity and other subjects that Einstein published in the physics journal "Annalen der Physik"; also includes four introductory essays based on recent historical studies. |
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Einstein's Time - http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/essay-einsteins-time.htm
A discussion of the differences in perspective between Einstein and Poincaré between Peter Galison (Harvard) and Graham Burnett (Princeton); main focus are the notions of time and simultaneity. |
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Einstein's Discovery of Relativity - http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/essay-einstein-relativity.htm
Essay by John Stachel (Boston University) which gives a concise account of Einstein's biography at the turn of the century, and attempts to reconstruct how he developed the special theory of relativity. |
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History of General Relativity - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_general_relativity
Wikipedia article on the development of relativity. Includes sections about observational tests and alternative theories. |
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History of Special Relativity - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_special_relativity
Wikipedia article on the genesis and development of special relativity and its precursors. |
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Relativity Priority Dispute - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_priority_dispute
Wikipedia article about the various contributors to special and general relativity, and about the contentious questions of who has priority on the different ideas and concepts involved, and in how far Einstein was influenced by his contemporaries and predecessors. |
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Olinto De Pretto - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olinto_De_Pretto
Wikipedia article about the Italian industrialist and claims that he published the famous formula E=mc² two years before Einstein did. |
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A Note on Relativity before Einstein - http://eprint.uq.edu.au/archive/00002307/01/larmor.pdf
The first presentation of the Lorentz transformations, including the crucial time dilation, belongs to Larmor (c. 1897). |
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Of Pots and Holes: Einstein’s Bumpy Road to General Relativity - http://www.tc.umn.edu/~janss011/pdf%20files/potsandholes.pdf
Article tracing the history of general relativity, by the historian of science Michel Janssen (University of Minnesota). |
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Scott Walter's Homepage - http://www.univ-nancy2.fr/DepPhilo/walter/
Contains articles of the historian of science Scott Walter (Université de Nancy 2), including those on the history of special relativity, with a special focus on contributors other than Einstein (such as Poincaré, and Minkowski). |
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Henri Poincaré and Relativity Theory - http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0408077
Identifies the contributions made to the special theory of relativity by Poincaré and argues that the theory "has been created not by A. Einstein only but even to a greater extent by Poincaré." By A. A. Logunov. |
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Einstein and Hilbert: The Creation of General Relativity - http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0504179
Discusses the correspondence between the two, their priority dispute, and their amicable resolution of it. By Ivan T. Todorov. |
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Lost in Einstein's Shadow - http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/2006/2/lost-in-einsteins-shadow
American Scientist magazine article describes the people whose work paved the way for the special theory of relativity. By Tony Rothman; also includes link to PDF version. |
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Einstein, Nordström and the Early Demise of Scalar, Lorentz Covariant Theories of Gravitation - http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/papers/Nordstroem.pdf
About the development of general relativity, Einstein's early rejection of Lorentz-covariant theories of gravity, and Nordström's attempts at formulating just such a model. By J. D. Norton (University of Pittsburgh). |
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History Topic: Special Relativity - http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Special_relativity.html
Concise summary of the history of special relativity, from Maxwell and Lorentz to Einstein; from the MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive (University of St. Andrews). |