Einstein and Poincaré: The “fine structure” of special relativity. (Einstein et Poincaré: La “structure fine” de la relativité restreinte.) (French) Zbl 0957.01013

Pierseaux, Yves

Rev. Quest. Sci. 170, No. 3, 283-302 (1999).

This discusses the two writers’ different relativity principles; their Lorentz transformations; the rigid and deformable rods; measurement-unit-identity and contraction; rest time versus true and local times; events; and brings out the differences between them and their implications, particularly about the dependence of the length scale on position and velocity.

Reviewer: James J.Cross (Parkville)

MSC:

01A60	History of mathematics in the 20th century
83-03	History of relativity and gravitational theory

Keywords:

Einstein; Poincaré; special relativity; axiomatics