MINKOWSKI, HERMANN.

Ueber die Annährung an eine reelle Grösse durch rationale Zahlen.

Leipzig, B.G. Teubner, 1901. 8vo. No wrappers. In: "Mathematische Annalen. Begründet durch Rudolf Friedrich Alfred Clebsch. 54. Band. 1. Heft." Entire issue offered with titlepage to vol. 54. IV,124 pp. Minkowski's paper: pp. 91-124.

First printing of one of Minkowski's importent papers on the geometrical theory of numbers.

"Minkowski was always interested in mathematical physics but did not work in that field until the last years of his life, when he participated in the movement of ideas that led to the theory of relativity. He was the first to conceive that the relativity principle formulated by Lorentz and Einstein led to the abandonment of the concept of space and time as separate entities and to their replacement by a fourdimensional “space-time,” of which he gave a precise definition and initiated the mathematical study; it became the frame of all later developments of the theory and led Einstein to his bolder conception of generalized relativity."(DSB).

Also with PAUL STÄCKEL "Friedrich Ludwig Wachter, ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der nichteuklidischen Geometrie", pp. 40-90.

Order-nr.: 47458