Poincare, Henri. Calcul des Probabilities. Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1912. Second edition, "revue et augmentee". 333pp. Original printed wrappers. Fine copy, lovely. $250
Poincare, Henri. The Principles of Mathematical Physics. The Monist, 1905 (January). 1st edition. 24pp Original printed wrappers. Good or better condition. This is the rare offprint from The Monist for January 1905 of Henri Poincare's famous paper, coming just prior to the Annus Mirablis Einstein papers on Special Relativity later in the year. (1905 was a very good year for physics).
CONDITION NOTES The scarce wrappers here are present but detached and split at the spine. The entire textblock is becoming almost entirely disbound, hanging on to itself just barely. There are also a few chips in the wrapper covers front and back. This is no doubt in need of conservation, and our price reflects that need. Still, though, it is a bright copy and is not as scary I think as I've described.
HISTORICAL NOTES Poincare, in his opening address to the Paris Congress in 1900, asked "Does the ether really exist?" In 1904 Poincare came very close to the theory of special relativity in an address to the International Congress of Arts and Science in St Louis. He pointed out that observers in different frames will have clocks which will ... mark what on may call the local time. ... as demanded by the relativity principle the observer cannot know whether he is at rest or in absolute motion. The year that special relativity finally came into existence was 1905. June of 1905 was a good month for papers on relativity, on the 5th June Poincare communicated an important work Sur la dynamique de l'electron while Einstein's first paper on relativity was received on 30th June. Poincare stated that It seems that this impossibility of demonstrating absolute motion is a general law of nature. After naming the Lorentz transformations after Lorentz, Poincare shows that these transformations, together with the rotations, form a group. (Book ID 23234) $1,450.00
Poincare, Jules Henri. The Principles of Mathematical Physics. Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company, 1905. The Monist, Vol XV, No. 1, January, 1905 Pp 1-160 8vo. Original printed wrappers. Good or better condition. Ex-library. This is the entire issue of The Monist for January 1905, with the Poincare paper occupying pp 1-25, complete with the original wrappers--it is, however, removed from a larger bound volume and does stand for binding. This said, this is an extremely uncommon version of this significant paper, coming as it does just prior to the Annus Mirablis Einstein papers on Special Relativity later in the year. (1905 was a very good year for physics). Again, this is the entire 160pp issue of this journal, and is ex-library from the U.S. Bureau of American Ethnology (Washington DC).
CONDITION NOTES The original wrappers are still in decent shape, as they were printed on a considerably heavier stock than is normally found. The text of the paper has a few problems here and there, though the most significant is some bumping and tearing along teh top edges of the middle thirty pages or so. (This is probably worse-sounding than it is in real life). That said, this is still a solid GOOD copy, if not better. $250.00
Poincare, Henri. The Present and the future of Mathematical Physics. MacMillan Company, 1906. Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 12, Number 5, Feb 1 PPp 241-269 Slightly ex-library. Fine copy, unusually so, in the original wrappers. One library tamp on front cover, otherwise lovely. We offer the entire issue pp 223-271. This is another version of the original 1904 report at St. Louis and its publication in The Monist of 1905. It has some interesting early comments about relativity including the following brief definition. "The principle of relativity, according to which the laws of physical phenomena must be the same for a stationary observer as for one carried along in a uniform motion of translation, so that we have no means, and can have none, of determining whether or not we are being carried along in such a motion." (Book ID 23232) $350.00
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