JF Ptak Science Books
Wolfgang Pauli. Relativitatstheorie. Verlag und Druck von B.G. Teubner, Leipzig/Berlin, 1921. (539) - 775pp.
¶ First edition, off-print, of Pauli's excellent monograph, which was published as the article on relativity theory in the highly estimated "Encyclopädie der Mathematischen Wissenschaften". $300
Fine copy, though the gilt lettering on the spine has faded.
"[Felix] Klein had requested Sommerfeld to write an article on relativity theory for the Encyklopädie [der mathematischen Wissenschaften]. Sommerfeld ventured to entrust the task to Pauli, who although scarcely twenty years old had published several papers on the subject . Pauli soon completed a monograph of about 250 pages, which critically presented the mathematical foundations of the theory as well as its physical significance. He took thorough account of the already very considerable literature on the subject, but at the same time clearly put forth his own interpretation. Despite the necessary brevity of discussion, the monograph is a superior introduction to the special and general theories of relativity . it is the first comprehensive presentation of the mathematical and physical ideas of Einstein, who himself never wrote a large work about his theory. Sommerfeld was elated by this performance and wrote to Einstein that Pauli's article was 'simply masterful'--and so it has remained to the present day. Pauli showed here for the first time his art of presenting science, which marks everything he wrote"--Dictionary of Science Biography.
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