PhilosophersHermann Minkowski
Hermann Minkowski
The mathematician who joined space and time into a single four-dimensional space-time.
Rationalism1864 · 1909 GermanyAleksotas (near Kaunas, now in Lithuania)
Life
German mathematician (1864-1909), born near Kaunas (now Lithuania), professor at Zurich and then Göttingen, and a former teacher of Einstein. In 1908 he showed that special relativity can be formulated in a four-dimensional space-time, in which space and time are no longer separate. The idea fed the debate on the reality of time and of the future. He matters for the question of time.
Main works
1909
Raum und Zeit
The 1908 lecture presenting four-dimensional space-time.
1896
Geometrie der Zahlen
A mathematical work that founded the geometry of numbers.
In his own words
« From now on, space by itself and time by itself are to sink fully into shadows, and only a kind of union of the two is to keep independence. »
Von Stund′ an sollen Raum für sich und Zeit für sich völlig zu Schatten herabsinken und nur noch eine Art Union der beiden soll Selbständigkeit bewahren.