1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. Hermann Minkowski

Hermann Minkowski Quotes

Hermann Minkowski was a German mathematician and professor at Königsberg, Zürich and Göttingen. He created and developed the geometry of numbers and used geometrical methods to solve problems in number theory, mathematical physics, and the theory of relativity.

Minkowski is perhaps best known for his work in relativity, in which he showed in 1907 that his former student Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity could be understood geometrically as a theory of four-dimensional space–time, since known as the "Minkowski spacetime". Wikipedia  

✵ 22. June 1864 – 12. January 1909
Hermann Minkowski photo

Works

Space and Time
Space and Time
Hermann Minkowski
Hermann Minkowski: 11 quotes12 likes

Famous Hermann Minkowski Quotes

“The word postulate of relativity… appears to me very stale… I should rather like to give this statement the name Postulate of the absolute world”

Hermann Minkowski Space and Time

or briefly, world-postulate
Space and Time (1909), Tr. Ganesh Prasad in: Bulletin of the Calcutta

“By laying down the relativity postulate from the outset, sufficient means have been created for deducing henceforth the complete series of Laws of Mechanics from the principle of conservation of energy (and statements concerning the form of the energy) alone.”

Hermann Minkowski The Fundamental Equations for Electromagnetic Processes in Moving Bodies

The Fundamental Equations for Electromagnetic Processes in Moving Bodies (1907)

“The rigid electron is in my view a monster in relation to Maxwell's equations, whose innermost harmony is the principle of relativity.”

Hermann Minkowski

as quoted by Dennis Overbye, Einstein in Love: A Scientific Romance (2001)

“Many authors say that classical mechanics stand in opposition to the relativity postulate, which is taken to be the basic of the new Electro-dynamics”

Hermann Minkowski The Fundamental Equations for Electromagnetic Processes in Moving Bodies

The Fundamental Equations for Electromagnetic Processes in Moving Bodies (1907)

“The assumption of the contraction of the electron in Lorentz's theory must be introduced at an earlier stage than Lorentz has actually done.”

Hermann Minkowski The Fundamental Equations for Electromagnetic Processes in Moving Bodies

The Fundamental Equations for Electromagnetic Processes in Moving Bodies (1907)

“The views of space and time which I wish to lay before you have sprung from the soil of experimental physics, and therein lies their strength. They are radical. Henceforth, space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality.”

Hermann Minkowski

Address to the 80th Assembly of German Natural Scientists and Physicians, (Sep 21, 1908)

Hermann Minkowski Quotes

“It came as a tremendous surprise, for in his student days Einstein had been a lazy dog… He never bothered about mathematics at all.”

Hermann Minkowski

as quoted in a conversation with Max Born about the development of the theory of relativity, by Carl Seelig, Albert Einstein: A Documentary Biography (1956)

“It would be very unsatisfactory if the new way of looking at the time-concept, which permits a Lorentz transformation, were to be confined to a single part of Physics.”

Hermann Minkowski The Fundamental Equations for Electromagnetic Processes in Moving Bodies

The Fundamental Equations for Electromagnetic Processes in Moving Bodies (1907)

“Oh, that Einstein, always cutting lectures… I really would not believe him capable of it.”

Hermann Minkowski

as quoted by Dennis Overbye, Einstein in Love: A Scientific Romance (2001) referring to the development of the theory of relativity

“The whole world appears resolved into such world-lines. And I should like to say beforehand that, according to my opinion, it would be possible for the physical laws to find their fullest expression as correlations of these world-lines.”

Hermann Minkowski Space and Time

Space and Time (1909), Tr. Ganesh Prasad in: Bulletin of the Calcutta

“H. A. Lorentz has found out the Relativity theorem and has created the Relativity postulate as a hypothesis that electrons and matter suffer contractions in consequence of their motion according to a certain law. A. Einstein has brought out the point very clearly, that this postulate is not an artificial hypothesis but is rather a new way of comprehending the time-concept, which is forced upon us by observation of natural phenomena.”

Hermann Minkowski The Fundamental Equations for Electromagnetic Processes in Moving Bodies

The Fundamental Equations for Electromagnetic Processes in Moving Bodies (1907)

Similar authors

Wilhelm Röntgen photo
Wilhelm Röntgen6
German physicist None
Pierre Curie photo
Pierre Curie1
French physicist None
Jean Paul photo
Jean Paul16
German novelist None
Ludwig Börne photo
Ludwig Börne1
German writer None
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel photo
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel106
German philosopher None
Otto von Bismarck photo
Otto von Bismarck35
German statesman, Chancellor of Germany None
Bettina von Arnim photo
Bettina von Arnim1
German writer None
Arthur Schopenhauer photo
Arthur Schopenhauer261
German philosopher None
Theodor Mommsen photo
Theodor Mommsen65
German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, po… None
Ludwig Feuerbach photo
Ludwig Feuerbach36
German philosopher and anthropologist None