Die Mechanik In Ihrer Entwickelung, Historisch-Kritisch Dargestellt Mach, Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Astronomy, Relativity Theory,Classical Physics, Mechanics, Optics

MACH'S PRINCIPLE. First edition, a copy with outstanding provenance, of "Mach's most important work, in which he presents his criticism of the epistemological and methodological basis of scientific inquiry. In his analysis of the conceptual basis of Newtonian physics, he introduces what Einstein later named the 'Mach principle': the inertia of an isolated body can have no meaning and can be expressed only by its relationship to the inertial frame. This critique of Newtonian mechanics influenced the development of Einstein's gravitational theory. The work is divided into five parts, the development of the principles of statics, development of the principles of dynamics, the application of the principles, formal development of mechanics, and mechanics and other sciences. An appendix lists the most significant practitioners of mechanics and their works" (Bibliotheca Mechanica, p. 208). Einstein wrote of Mach's influence on his own work on several occasions. In a letter to Carl Seelig (April 8, 1952), he recalled that "My attention was drawn to Ernst Mach's Science of Mechanics by my friend Besso while a student, around the year 1897. The book exerted a deep and persisting impression upon me . owing to its physical orientation toward fundamental concepts and fundamental laws" (quoted in Holton, Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought: Kepler to Einstein, 1973). In his obituary of Mach (Physikalische Zeitschrift, 1916), Einstein paid him this tribute: "I can say with certainty that the study of Mach and Hume has been directly and indirectly a great help in my work." "Published in 1883 and widely read ever since, [the present work] argues fiercely for the primacy of empirical facts and the need to understand the contingent historical nature of progress in science. Mach was strongly antimetaphysical and questioned the foundations of all knowledge. Physical concepts are not immutable and should always be based on universally observed connections within phenomena. Newton had given a circular definition of mass; Mach replaced it with an operational definition based on the observed accelerations that interacting bodies impart to each other. Einstein recognized the key importance of Mach's approach in his own celebrated operational definition of simultaneity in the special theory of relativity in 1905" (Encyclopedia of Philosophy). 'Mach's principle' was so called by Einstein, who "found the hypothesis helpful in formulating his theory of general relativity-i.e., it was suggestive of a connection between geometry and matter-and attributed the idea to Mach, unaware that the English philosopher George Berkeley had proposed similar views during the 1700s. (Berkeley had argued that all motion, both uniform and nonuniform, was relative to the distant stars.) Einstein later abandoned the principle when it was realized that inertia is implicit in the geodesic equations of motion and need not depend on the existence of matter elsewhere in the universe" (Britannica). RBH lists only three copies in the last half-century. Provenance: Richard Dedekind (1831-1916), German mathematician (signature on front flyleaf). Dedekind made important contributions to number theory, abstract algebra, the axiomatic foundations of arithmetic, and the definition of the real numbers through the notion of 'Dedekind cut'; Herbert McLean Evans (1882-1971), American anatomist, embryologist, and book collector (bookplate); Bern Dibner (1897-1988), electrical engineer, industrialist, and historian of science and technology (bookplate); donated by Dibner to the Burndy Library (bookplate). "Austrian physicist Ernst Mach (1838-1916) is best known for his 1883 book Die Mechanik in ihrer Entwickelung (The Science of Mechanics), a work widely credited with helping instigate a reconsideration of the Newtonian worldview that led to the formulation of special and general relativity in the early 20th century. Mach's first critiques of mechanics had been published as early as 1868 and