Masters of Theory: Cambridge and the Rise of Mathematical Physics

587 Pages·2003·2.72 MB·English

by  Andrew Warwick

Masters of Theory

Masters of Theory
Cambridge and the Rise of Mathematical Physics
ANDREW WARWICK
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
Andrew Warwick is senior lecturer in the history of science at Imperial College, Lon-
don. He is coeditor ofTeaching the History of ScienceandHistories of the Electron:The
Birth of Microphysics.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2003 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2003
Printed in the United States of America
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 1 2 3 4 5
isbn:0-226-87374-9 (cloth)
isbn:0-226-87375-7 (paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Warwick, Andrew.
Masters of theory : Cambridge and the rise of mathematical physics /
Andrew Warwick.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn0-226-87374-9 (cloth : alk. paper) — isbn0-226-87375-7 (pbk :
alk. paper)
1. Mathematical physics—History—19th century. 2. University of
Cambridge—History—19th century. I. Title.
qc19.6 .w37 2003
530.15(cid:2)09426(cid:2)59(cid:2)09034—dc21
2002153732
(cid:2)(cid:3) The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1992.
Contents
List of Illustrations (cid:2) vii
Preface and Acknowledgments (cid:2) ix
Note on Conventions and Sources (cid:2) xiii
1 Writing a Pedagogical History of Mathematical Physics (cid:2) 1
2 The Reform Coach Teaching Mixed Mathematics in Georgian and
Victorian Cambridge (cid:2) 49
3 A Mathematical World on Paper The Material Culture and Practice-
Ladenness of Mixed Mathematics (cid:2) 114
4 Exercising the Student Body Mathematics, Manliness, and
Athleticism (cid:2) 176
5 Routh’s Men Coaching, Research, and the Reform of Public
Teaching (cid:2) 227
6 Making Sense of Maxwell’s Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism
in Mid-Victorian Cambridge (cid:2) 286
7 Joseph Larmor, the Electronic Theory of Matter, and the Principle
of Relativity (cid:2) 357
8 Transforming the Field The Cambridge Reception of Einstein’s Special
Theory of Relativity (cid:2) 399
9 Through the Convex Looking Glass A. S. Eddington and the Cambridge
Reception of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity (cid:2) 443
Epilogue: Training, Continuity, and Change (cid:2) 501
Appendix A: Coaching Success, 1865–1909 (cid:2) 512
Appendix B: Coaching Lineage, 1865–1909 (cid:2) 524
Bibliography (cid:2) 527
Index (cid:2) 549

Illustrations
1.1. Derivation of the Poynting Vector 5
1.2. Poynting’s 1876 Examination Script (investigation) 19
1.3. Poynting’s 1876 Examination Script (problem) 20
1.4. Pages from Newton’s copy of Barrow’s 1655 Latin edition of Euclid’s
Elements 31
2.1. Cambridge University Senate House 54
2.2. William Hopkins 81
2.3. Title Page of J. M. F. Wright’sThe Private Tutor 83
2.4. The “Star of Cambridge” Stagecoach 91
2.5. A College Lecture 93
3.1. Smith’s Prize Questions 121
3.2. A Disputation 123
3.3. Written Examination in Trinity College 124
3.4. Examination Script by William Garnett 165
4.1. “Keeping an Exercise” 193
4.2. Boat Races on the river Cam, 1837 195
4.3. “Training” 196
4.4. St. John’s College Rugby Team, 1881 199
4.5. The Order of Merit in theTimesnewspaper, 1909 203
4.6. Reading the Order of Merit 204
4.7. Presentation of the Senior Wrangler 207
4.8. Ceremony of the Wooden Spoon 209
vii
viii illustrations
4.9. Parading the Wooden Spoon outside the Senate House 210
4.10. The Trinity First Boat 220
5.1. Edward John Routh 232
5.2. Syllabus of the Mathematical Tripos, 1873 239
5.3. The Senior Wrangler in his Rooms 245
5.4. Robert Rumsey Webb 248
5.5. Robert Webb’s Coaching Notes 250
5.6. Francis S. Macaulay 259
5.7. Title Page of Wolstenholme’sMathematical Problems 262
5.8. Professorial and Intercollegiate Lectures in Mathematics,
1880–1881 268
5.9. Robert Herman 283
6.1. Pedagogical Geography of Mid-Victorian Cambridge 290
6.2. Routh’s Lecture Notes on Electrostatics 308
6.3. Examination Script by George Pitt 312
6.4. Examination Script by Joseph Ward 314
6.5. Routh’s Team for the Mathematical Tripos of 1880 316
6.6. W. D. Niven 318
6.7. Examination Question, 1886 341
7.1. A Torchlight Procession in Belfast 365
7.2. Tripos Questions, 1901 and 1902 378
7.3. Jeans’sMathematical Theory,Articles 257, 258 383
8.1. Ebenezer Cunningham 410
8.2. Harry Bateman, P. E. Marrack, and Hilda Hudson 417
8.3. Jeans’sMathematical Theory,Articles 226, 227 419
8.4. Jeans’sMathematical Theory,Articles 231, 232 420
8.5. Lecture notes by L. H. Thomas 438
9.1. A. S. Eddington (1904) 450
9.2. Alice through the Convex Looking Glass 466
9.3. Lecture notes by L. H. Thomas 481
9.4. Tripos Problems, 1927 and 1929 488
Preface and Acknowledgments
This study offers a new account of the rise of modern mathematical physics.
The history of the mathematical sciences has until recently played a rela-
tively minor role in the development of social and cultural studies of sci-
ence. As an eminent historian in this field remarked to me a few years ago,
the project of writing a cultural history of mathematical physics sounded to
many like a contradiction in terms. Taking Cambridge University as my ex-
ample, I contend in this study that mathematical physics has a necessarily
rich culture which is most effectively made visible through the history of
training, the mechanism by which that culture has been reproduced and ex-
panded for more than two hundred years. We tend to think of “theories” as
collections of propositions or fundamental mathematical equations, but
this is how they appear to those who have already mastered the physicist’s
craft. It takes special aptitude and more than a decade’s education to make
human beings who can see a theory in a jumble of mathematical squiggles,
and I am interested in how that shared vision is produced.
My approach is naturalistic in that it explores theory not in terms of
method or logic but through the experience of the student struggling to be-
come its master. Nor do I treat theorizing as a uniquely cerebral process.
Historiansofexperimentnowspeakroutinelyofmachines,technicians,and
embodied practical skills, but what of the material technology and skilled
practices of theoreticians? Cambridge undergraduates in the late eighteenth
ix