General relativity in the making, 1916--1918: Rudolf J. Humm in Göttingen and Berlin
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: General relativity in the making, 1916--1918: Rudolf J. Humm in Göttingen and Berlin
zbMATH Open document ID: 1440.01012
author: David E. Rowe
published in: Mathematische Semesterberichte
publication date: 2020-04-07T00:00:00Z
review text: This is a surprisingly interesting biographical sketch of Rudolf Humm. Primarily known as a novelist in his home country of Switzerland, Humm actually studied physics in Berlin and Göttingen in the years 1916--1918, that is in what Jürgen Renn and Hanoch Gutfreund have designated ``the formative years of general relativity''. The paper draws on Humm's extensive diaries, which offer fascinating and novel glimpses into the atmosphere of the time and into the thoughts of some of the major protagonists, such as David Hilbert (who is something of a bad guy in the story), Felix Klein (especially his historical work on mathematics), and Albert Einstein (Humm's recollections provide Einstein's most extensive early remarks on the problem of quantum gravity that I know of). No historical thesis is put forth, besides the claim that Humm is an interesting historical character, a claim that anyone who reads this wonderful little paper will certainly endorse.
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A60
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A70
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 83-03
zbMATH DE Number: 7187501
reviewed by: A. S. Blum
MaRDI profile type: Publication
full work available at URL: s00591-019-00261-4
OpenAlex ID: W2970958926
cites work: Einstein meets Hilbert: At the crossroads of physics and mathematics
cites work: On Emmy Noether's role in the relativity revolution
cites work: Mathematik, Naturwissenschaften und Technik als Bestandteile der Kultur der Gegenwart
cites work: Felix Klein
DOI: 10.1007/S00591-019-00261-4
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 7187501