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The Dialectic Relation Between Physics and Mathematics in the XIXth CenturyThe Interaction of Physics, Mechanics and Mathematics in Joseph Liouville’s Research

The Dialectic Relation Between Physics and Mathematics in the XIXth Century: The Interaction of... [As many of his contemporaries did, Joseph Liouville often emphasized the importance of physics for mathematical research. His own works provide a host of examples of interactions between mathematics and physics. This paper analyses some of them. It is shown how Laplacian physics gave rise to Liouville’s theory of differentiation of arbitrary order, how Kelvin’s research on electrostatics gave rise to Liouville’s theorem about conformal mappings and how the theory of heat conduction gave rise to Sturm-Liouville theory. It will be shown how the problem of the shape of the planets was an important inspiration for Liouville’s far reaching studies of Lamé functions and spectral theory of a particular type of integral operators. Finally the interactions between Liouville’s work on mechanics and differential geometry will be discussed.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

The Dialectic Relation Between Physics and Mathematics in the XIXth CenturyThe Interaction of Physics, Mechanics and Mathematics in Joseph Liouville’s Research

Part of the History of Mechanism and Machine Science Book Series (volume 16)
Editors: Barbin, Evelyne; Pisano, Raffaele

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References (27)

Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Copyright
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
ISBN
978-94-007-5379-2
Pages
79 –96
DOI
10.1007/978-94-007-5380-8_4
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[As many of his contemporaries did, Joseph Liouville often emphasized the importance of physics for mathematical research. His own works provide a host of examples of interactions between mathematics and physics. This paper analyses some of them. It is shown how Laplacian physics gave rise to Liouville’s theory of differentiation of arbitrary order, how Kelvin’s research on electrostatics gave rise to Liouville’s theorem about conformal mappings and how the theory of heat conduction gave rise to Sturm-Liouville theory. It will be shown how the problem of the shape of the planets was an important inspiration for Liouville’s far reaching studies of Lamé functions and spectral theory of a particular type of integral operators. Finally the interactions between Liouville’s work on mechanics and differential geometry will be discussed.]

Published: Sep 4, 2012

Keywords: Fractional Calculus; Fractional Differential Equation; Arbitrary Order; Celestial Mechanic; Rational Mechanic

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