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Joe Satriani

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Joe Satriani

Satriani live on February 4, 2005.
Background information
Also known as Satch
Born July 15, 1956 (1956-07-15) (age 53)
Westbury, New York
Genres Instrumental rock, hard rock, heavy metal
Occupations Musician, composer, Guitar instructor
Instruments Guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals, harmonica, banjo, harp
Years active 1978–present
Labels Sony, Epic, Relativity
Associated acts Mick Jagger, Deep Purple, Steve Vai, G3, Sammy Hagar, Chickenfoot, Jason Becker, Metallica (Kirk Hammett)
Website Official website
Notable instruments
Ibanez Joe Satriani Signature model

Joseph Satriani (born July 15, 1956 in Westbury, New York) is an American multi-instrumentalist, known primarily for his work as an instrumental rock guitarist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations. His dexterity and years of dedication to his craft have earned him a reputation as a shred guitarist.[1] Early in his career, Satriani worked as a guitar instructor, and some of his former students have achieved fame with their guitar skills (Steve Vai, Tom Morello, Larry LaLonde, Kirk Hammett, Charlie Hunter, Kevin Cadogan, Alex Skolnick). Satriani has been a driving force in the music credited to other musicians throughout his career, as a founder of the ever-changing touring trio, G3, as well as performing in various positions with other musicians.

In 1988, Satriani was recruited by Mick Jagger as lead guitarist for his first solo tour.[2] Later, in 1994, Satriani was the lead guitarist for Deep Purple.[3] Satriani worked with a range of guitarists from several musical genres, including Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Eric Johnson, Larry LaLonde, Yngwie Malmsteen, Brian May, Patrick Rondat, Andy Timmons, Paul Gilbert, Adrian Legg, and Robert Fripp through the annual G3 Jam Concerts.[4] He is currently the lead guitarist for the supergroup Chickenfoot.

He is heavily influenced by blues-rock guitar icons such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore and Jeff Beck,[3][5] possessing, however, his own easily recognizable style. Since 1988, Satriani has been using his own signature guitar, the Ibanez JS Series, which is widely sold in stores.[6] He has a signature series amplifier, the Peavey JSX, and signature Vox pedals The "Satchurator" distortion pedal, The "Time Machine" delay pedal, The "Big Bad Wah" wah pedal and The "Ice 9" overdrive pedal to be released in June 2010.

Contents

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[edit] Biography

Satriani playing in Chile, 2003

Satriani was inspired to play guitar at age fourteen soon after learning of the death of Jimi Hendrix.[7] He has been said to have heard the news during a football training session, where he confronted his coach and announced that he was quitting to become a guitarist.[8] In 1974, Satriani studied music with jazz guitarist Billy Bauer and with reclusive jazz pianist Lennie Tristano. The technically demanding Tristano greatly influenced Satriani's playing. Satriani began teaching guitar, with his most notable student at the time being fellow Long Island native Steve Vai. While he was teaching Vai, he was attending Five Towns College for studies in music.

In 1978 Satriani moved to Berkeley, California to pursue a music career, and Vai moved on to study at the Berklee School of Music, soon after graduating becoming a high profile guitarist first with Frank Zappa, and after, with other bands, and a solo career of his own.

Not long after Satriani arrived in California, he resumed teaching. His students included Vai, Kirk Hammett of Metallica, David Bryson of Counting Crows, Kevin Cadogan from Third Eye Blind, Larry LaLonde of Primus / Possessed, Alex Skolnick of Testament, Rick Hunolt (ex-Exodus), Phil Kettner of Lääz Rockit, Geoff Tyson of T-Ride, and Charlie Hunter.

[edit] 1980s

When his friend and former student Steve Vai gained fame playing with David Lee Roth in 1986, Vai raved about Satriani in several interviews with guitar magazines, including Guitar World magazine. In 1987, Satriani's second album Surfing with the Alien produced popular radio hits and was the first all-instrumental release to chart so highly in many years. In 1988 Satriani helped produce the EP The Eyes of Horror for the death metal band Possessed.

In 1989, Satriani released the album Flying in a Blue Dream. "One Big Rush" was featured on the soundtrack to the Cameron Crowe movie Say Anything.... "The Forgotten Part II" was featured on a Labatt Blue commercial in Canada in 1993. "Can't Slow Down" featured in a car-chase sequence in the Don Johnson starring show Nash Bridges.

[edit] 1990s

In 1992, Satriani released The Extremist, his most critically acclaimed and commercially successful album to date. Radio stations across the country were quick to pick up on "Summer Song" which also got a major boost from being used by Sony at the time in a major commercial campaign for their Discman portable CD players [1]. "Cryin'", "Friends" and the title track were also regional hits on radio.

In late 1993, Satriani joined Deep Purple as a temporary replacement for departed guitarist Ritchie Blackmore during the band's Japanese tour. The concerts were a success, and Satriani was asked to join the band permanently but he declined, having just signed a multi-album solo deal with Sony, so Steve Morse took the guitarist slot in Deep Purple.[9]

[edit] G3

Satriani with G3 in Milan, 2004

In 1996, Satriani founded the G3, a concert tour intended to feature a power trio consisting of three instrumental rock guitarists. The original lineup featured Satriani, Vai, and Eric Johnson. The G3 (tour) has continued periodically since its inaugural version, where Satriani is the only permanent member, featuring differing second and third members. Other guitarists who have performed in such a G3 configuration include among others: Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, Yngwie Malmsteen, John Petrucci, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Robert Fripp, Andy Timmons, Uli Jon Roth, Michael Schenker, Adrian Legg and Paul Gilbert.

In 1998 Satriani recorded and released Crystal Planet, which went back to a sound more reminiscent of his late '80s work. Planet was followed up with Engines of Creation, one of his more experimental works featuring the 'Electronica' genre of music. During the subsequent tour, a pair of shows at the Fillmore in San Francisco were recorded in December 2000 and released as Live in San Francisco, a two-disc live album and DVD.

Satriani, Steve Vai, and John Petrucci, as G3 Melbourne, 2006 Photo Mandy Hall

.

[edit] 2000 and beyond

Over the next several years, Satriani regularly recorded and released evolving music, including Strange Beautiful Music in 2002 and Is There Love in Space? in 2004.

In 2006 Satriani recorded and released Super Colossal and Satriani Live!, another two-disc live album and DVD recorded May 3, 2006 at the Grove in Anaheim, CA.

On August 7, 2007 Epic/Legacy Recordings re-released Surfing with the Alien to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its release. This was a two-disc set that includes a remastered album and a DVD of a previously never-before-seen live show filmed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1988.[10]

Satriani's newest album, titled Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock, was released on April 1, 2008.[11]

Satriani will be releasing a Live DVD recording of a concert in Paris titled "Live In Paris: I Just Wanna Rock" and a companion 2 CD set on February 2, 2010.[2]

In March 2010 Satriani will be participating with other guitarists in Experience Hendrix Tribute Tour performing music written and inspired by Jimi Hendrix.[12][13]

[edit] Copyright Infringement

On December 4, 2008 Satriani filed a copyright infringement suit against Coldplay in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Satriani's suit asserts that the Coldplay song "Viva la Vida" includes "substantial original portions" of the Satriani song "If I Could Fly" from his 2004 album, Is There Love in Space?. The Coldplay song in question received two Grammy Awards for "Song of the Year."[14] Coldplay denied the allegation.[15] [16][17] They have since reached an agreement and the case has been settled.[18]

[edit] Other work

Joe Satriani with Stu Hamm in concert, Rijnhal, Arnhem (June 12, 2008)

Satriani is also credited on many other albums, including guitar duties on Alice Cooper's 1991 album Hey Stoopid, Spinal Tap's 1992 album Break Like the Wind, Blue Öyster Cult's 1988 album Imaginos, band members Stu Hamm and Gregg Bissonette's solo albums. Interestingly, he was credited with singing background vocals on the 1986 debut album by Crowded House. In 2003, he played lead guitar on The Yardbirds's CD release Birdland. In 2006 he made appearances on tracks for Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan's solo CD/DVD dual disc Gillan's Inn. On Dream Theater's 2007 album, Systematic Chaos, Satriani contributed spoken lyrics to the song "Repentance". Satriani contributed a guitar solo to Jordan Rudess' 2004 solo release Rhythm of Time.

He is featured in the Christopher Guest film, For Your Consideration, as the guitarist in the band that played for the late-night show.[19]

[edit] Chickenfoot

It was revealed on May 29, 2008 that Satriani is involved in a new hard rock band called Chickenfoot with former Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. The band features Hagar on vocals, Satriani on guitar, Anthony on bass and Smith on drums,[20]. Their debut album was released on June 5, 2009.[21] The first single and video released from this album is the track "Oh Yeah", which was also played on the Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien on June 5, 2009. Satriani received a writing credit on each of the songs featured on the band's self-titled debut album. [22] When Broken Records magazine asked Joe in volume 1 issue 3, about his new band, he enthusiastically mentioned that "it was great fun" and it gives him a "kick in the music bone" to be playing with such great talent. He said it felt quite natural to step back and play more rhythm guitar than solo guitar.

[edit] Technique and influence

Satriani is recognized as a technically advanced rock guitarist, and has been described as a virtuoso[23][24] by some publications. He has mastered many performance techniques on the instrument, including legato, two-handed tapping and arpeggio tapping, volume swells, harmonics, and extreme whammy bar effects. One of his trademark compositional traits is the use of pitch axis theory, which he applies with a variety of modes.[citation needed] During fast passages, Joe favors a legato technique (achieved primarily through hammer-ons and pull-offs) which yields smooth and flowing runs. He is also adept at other speed-related techniques such as rapid alternate picking and sweep picking, but does not often use them.

Satriani has received 14 Grammy nominations[25] and has sold more than 10 million albums worldwide.[26] Many of his fans and friends call him "Satch," short for "Satriani".

An influential guitarist himself,[27] Satriani has many influences, including jazz guitarists Django Reinhardt, Wes Montgomery, Allan Holdsworth and Charlie Christian,[28] and rock guitarists Jimi Hendrix[29], Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Ritchie Blackmore.[30]

[edit] Equipment

Satriani has endorsed Ibanez's JS Series guitars, and Peavey's JSX amplifier. Both lines were designed specifically as signature products for Satriani. The Ibanez JS100 was based on and replaced the Ibanez 540 Radius model which Satriani first endorsed. However, Satriani uses a variety of gear. Many of his guitars are made by Ibanez, including the JS1000, and JS1200. These guitars typically feature the DiMarzio PAF Pro (which he used up until 1993 in both the neck and bridge positions), the DiMarzio Fred (which he used in the bridge position from 1993 to 2005), and the Mo' Joe and the Paf Joe (which he uses in the bridge and neck positions, respectively, from 2005 to present day). The JS line of guitars is his signature line, and they feature the Edge Pro, which is Ibanez's exclusive vibrato system, although he's always used the Original Edge unit on his guitars. The guitar with which he was most often associated during the nineties was a chrome-finished guitar nicknamed "Chrome Boy" (this instrument can be seen on the Live in San Francisco DVD). However, the guitar used for most of the concert was in fact a lookalike nicknamed "Pearly", which featured Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates pickups.

Satriani uses a number of other JS models such as the JS double neck model, JS700 (primary axe on the self-titled CD and seen on the 1995 tour "Joe Satriani", which features a fixed bridge, P-90 pickups, and a matching mahogany body and neck), JS6/JS6000 (natural body) , JS1 (the original JS model), JS2000 (fixed bridge model), a variety of JS100s, JS1000s and JS1200s with custom paint work, and a large amount of prototype JSs. All double locking bridges have been the original Edge tremolo, not the newer models, which point to a more custom guitar than the "off the shelf" models. Joe played a red 7-string JS model, seen in the "G3 Live in Tokyo" DVD from 2005. He also has a prototype 24-fret version of the JS which he has used with Chickenfoot now labeled as the JS-2400.

Satriani and the band

Satriani has used a wide variety of guitar amps over the years, using Marshall Amplification for his main amplifier (notably the limited edition blue coloured 6100 LM model) up until 2001, and his Peavey signature series amps, the Peavey JSX, thereafter. The JSX began life as a prototype Peavey XXX and developed into the Joe Satriani signature Peavey model, now available for purchase in retail stores. Joe Satriani has used other amplifiers over the years in the studio, however. Those include the Peavey 5150 (used to record the song 'Crystal Planet'), Cornford, and the Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ (used to record the song 'Flying in a Blue Dream'), amongst others. He has recently switched to the Marshall JVM series.

His effects pedals include the Vox wah, Dunlop Cry Baby wah, RMC Wizard Wah, Digitech Whammy, BK Butler Tube Driver, BOSS DS-1, BOSS CH-1, BOSS CE-2, BOSS DD-2 and a standard BOSS DD-3 (used together to emulate reverb effects), BOSS BF-3, BOSS OC-2, Barber Burn Drive Unit, Fulltone Deja Vibe, Fulltone Ultimate Octave, and Electro-Harmonix POG (Polyphonic Octave Generator), the latter being featured prominently on the title cut to his 2006 Super Colossal.

Satriani has partnered with Planet Waves to create a signature line of guitar picks and guitar straps featuring his sketch art.

Although Satriani endorses the JSX, he has used many amps in the studio when recording, including the Peavey Classic. He used Marshall heads and cabinets, including live, prior to his Peavey endorsement. Most recently Satriani used the JSX head through a Palmer Speaker Simulator. Joe Satriani has also released a Class-A 5-watt tube amp called the "Mini Colossal".

He is currently working with Vox on his own line of signature effects pedals designed to deliver Satriani's trademark tone plus a wide range of new sounds for guitarists of all playing styles and ability levels. The first being a signature distortion pedal titled the "Satchurator", and recently, the "Time Machine" which will be a delay pedal, with more to follow in 2008, including a wah pedal called the "Big Bad Wah".[31] In March 3, 2010 was announced in Satriani's web page about a new Vox overdrive pedal called "Ice 9". [32]

[edit] Recurring themes

Satriani during a concert at the Rijnhal, Arnhem (June 12, 2008)

Satriani's work frequently makes references to various science fiction stories and ideas. "Surfing with the Alien", "Back to Shalla-Bal" and "The Power Cosmic 2000" refer to the comic book character Silver Surfer, while "Ice 9" refers to the secret government ice weapon in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. "Borg Sex" is a reference to Star Trek, which features a homogeneous cybernetic race known as the Borg. His albums and songs often have other-worldly titles, such as Not of this Earth, Crystal Planet, Is There Love in Space?, and Engines of Creation.

On the album Super Colossal the song titled "Crowd Chant" was originally called "Party on the Enterprise". "Party on the Enterprise" featured sampled sounds from the Starship Enterprise from the Star Trek TV show. But as Satriani explained in a podcast, legal issues regarding the samples could not be resolved and he was unable to get permission to use them.[33] Satriani then removed the sounds from the song and called it "Crowd Chant." This song is now used as goal celebration music for a number of National Hockey League teams including the Minnesota Wild.[34]

"Redshift Riders", another song on the Super Colossal album, is "based on the idea that in the future, when people can travel throughout space, they will theoretically take advantage of the cosmological redshift effect so they can be swung around large planetary objects and get across [the] universe a lot faster than normal," Satriani said in a podcast about the song.[35]

On the album Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock the song "I Just Wanna Rock", is about a giant robot on the run who happens to stumble upon a rock concert.[36]

[edit] Philanthropy

In 2006, Satriani signed on as an official supporter of Little Kids Rock, a non-profit organization that provides free musical instruments and instruction to children in underserved public schools throughout the U.S.A. Satriani has personally delivered instruments to children in the program through a charity raffle for the organization and, like Steve Vai, sits on its board of directors as an honorary member.

[edit] Awards and nominations

[edit] Nominations

Satriani has the second most Grammy Award nominations of any artist (15) without winning.[37][38]

Nominations
Year Album Category
1989 Always With Me, Always With You Best Pop Instrumental Performance
Surfing with the Alien Best Rock Instrumental Performance
1990 The Crush of Love Best Rock Instrumental Performance
1991 Flying in a Blue Dream Best Rock Instrumental Performance
1993 The Extremist Best Rock Instrumental Performance
1994 Speed of Light Best Rock Instrumental Performance
1995 All Alone Best Rock Instrumental Performance
1997 (You're) My World Best Rock Instrumental Performance
1998 Summer Song (Live) Best Rock Instrumental Performance
1999 A Train of Angels Best Rock Instrumental Performance
2001 Until We Say Goodbye Best Rock Instrumental Performance
2002 Always With Me, Always With You (Live) Best Rock Instrumental Performance from Live in San Francisco
2003 Starry Night Best Rock Instrumental Performance
2006 Super Colossal Best Rock Instrumental Performance
2008 Always With Me, Always With You (Live) Best Rock Instrumental Performance from Satriani Live!

zionisme1

gw posting artikel ini terlepas pro / kontra dengan Yahudi, gw cuman heran dan ingin tahu kondisi yang sebenarnya, lagian gw nemuin artikel ini secara kebetulan pas gw blogwalking, yang kemudian gw susun ulang sehingga lebih mudah untuk dipahami.
mungkin kalian juga tertarik dengan artikel ini…?

Dr Stephen Carr Leon menulis dari pengamatan langsung. Dirinya melihat ada beberapa hal yang menarik yang dapat ditarik sebagai bahan untuk tesis Phd-nya, yaitu, "Mengapa Yahudi Pintar?"
Sekadar anda ketahui, untuk mengumpulkan data-data seakurat mungkin tesis ini memakan waktu hampir 8 tahun.
Marilah kita mulai :

1. Persiapan awal melahirkan


Di Israel, setelah mengetahui sang ibu sedang mengandung, sang ibu akan sering :

  • menyanyi
  • bermain piano
  • membeli buku matematika dan menyelesaikan soal bersama suami

    Stephen sungguh heran karena temannya yang mengandung sering membawa buku matematika dan bertanya beberapa soal yang tak dapat diselesaikan. Kebetulan Stephen suka matematika. Stephen bertanya, “Apakah ini untuk anak kamu?” Dia menjawab, "Iya, ini untuk anak saya yang masih di kandungan, saya sedang melatih otaknya, semoga ia menjadi jenius." Hal ini membuat Stephen tertarik untuk mengikut terus perkembangannya. Tanpa merasa jenuh si calon ibu mengerjakan latihan matematika sampai genap melahirkan.

2. Pola Makan

Hal lain yang Stephen perhatikan adalah cara makan. Sejak awal mengandung dia suka sekali memakan kacang badam dan korma bersama susu. Tengah hari makanan utamanya roti dan ikan tanpa kepala bersama salad yang dicampur dengan badam dan berbagai jenis kacang-kacangan. Menurut wanita Yahudi itu, daging ikan sungguh baik untuk perkembangan otak dan kepala ikan mengandungi kimia yang tidak baik yang dapat merusak perkembangan dan penumbuhan otak anak didalam kandungan. Ini adalah adat orang orang Yahudi ketika mengandung. menjadi semacam kewajiban untuk ibu yang sedang mengandung mengonsumsi pil minyak ikan.

Ketika diundang untuk makan malam bersama orang orang Yahudi. Begitu Stephen menceritakan, “Perhatian utama saya adalah menu mereka. Pada setiap undangan yang sama saya perhatikan, mereka gemar sekali memakan ikan (hanya isi atau fillet),” ungkapnya.Biasanya kalau sudah ada ikan, tidak ada daging. Ikan dan daging tidak ada bersama di satu meja. Menurut keluarga Yahudi, campuran daging dan ikan tak bagus dimakan bersama. Salad dan kacang, harus, terutama kacang badam.Uniknya, mereka akan makan buah buahan dahulu sebelum hidangan utama.

Jangan terperanjat jika Anda diundang ke rumah Yahudi Anda akan dihidangkan buah buahan dahulu. Menurut mereka, dengan memakan hidangan kabohidrat (nasi atau roti) dahulu kemudian buah buahan, ini akan menyebabkan kita merasa ngantuk. Akibatnya lemah dan payah untuk memahami pelajaran di sekolah.

Perhatian Stephen selanjutnya adalah mengunjungi anak-anak Yahudi. Mereka sangat memperhatikan makanan, makanan awal adalah buah buahan bersama kacang badam, diikuti dengan menelan pil minyak ikan (code oil lever). Dalam pengamatan Stephen, anak-anak Yahudi sungguh cerdas. Rata rata mereka memahami tiga bahasa, Hebrew, Arab dan Inggris

3. Merokok adalah Tabu

Di Israel, merokok adalah tabu, apabila Anda diundang makan dirumah Yahudi, jangan sekali kali merokok. Tanpa sungkan mereka akan menyuruh Anda keluar dari rumah mereka. Menyuruh Anda merokok di luar rumah mereka. Menurut ilmuwan di Universitas Israel, penelitian menunjukkan nikotin dapat merusakkan sel utama pada otak manusia dan akan melekat pada gen. Artinya, keturunan perokok bakal membawa generasi yang cacat otak ( bodoh). Suatu penemuan yang dari saintis gen dan DNA Israel.

4. Pendidikan

Musik
Sejak kecil mereka telah dilatih bermain piano dan biola. Ini adalah suatu kewajiban. Menurut mereka bermain musik dan memahami not dapat meningkatkan IQ. Sudah tentu bakal menjadikan anak pintar. Ini menurut saintis Yahudi, hentakan musik dapat merangsang otak. Tak heran banyak pakar musik dari kaum Yahudi.

Matematika
Di kelas 1 hingga 6, anak anak Yahudi akan diajar matematika berbasis perniagaan. Pelajaran IPA sangat diutamakan. Di dalam pengamatan Stephen, “Perbandingan dengan anak anak di California, dalam tingkat IQ-nya bisa saya katakan 6 tahun kebelakang!!!” katanya. Segala pelajaran akan dengan mudah di tangkap oleh anak Yahudi.

Olahraga
Selain dari pelajaran tadi olahraga juga menjadi kewajiban bagi mereka. Olahraga yang diutamakan adalah memanah, menembak dan berlari. Menurut teman Yahudi-nya Stephen, memanah dan menembak dapat melatih otak fokus. Disamping itu menembak bagian dari persiapan untuk membela negara.

Sains
Selanjutnya perhatian Stephen ke sekolah tinggi (menengah). Di sini murid-murid digojlok dengan pelajaran sains. Mereka didorong untuk menciptakan produk. Meski proyek mereka kadangkala kelihatannya lucu dan memboroskan, tetap diteliti dengan serius. Apa lagi kalau yang diteliti itu berupa senjata, medis dan teknik. Ide itu akan dibawa ke jenjang lebih tinggi.

Ekonomi
Satu lagi yg di beri keutamaan ialah fakultas ekonomi. Saya sungguh terperanjat melihat mereka begitu agresif dan seriusnya mereka belajar ekonomi. Diakhir tahun diuniversitas, mahasiswa diharuskan mengerjakan proyek. Mereka harus memperaktekkanya. Anda hanya akan lulus jika team Anda (10 pelajar setiap kumpulan) dapat keuntungan sebanyak $US 1 juta!

Anda terperanjat?

Itulah kenyataannya.

Kesimpulan, pada teori Stephen adalah, melahirkan anak dan keturunan yang cerdas adalah keharusan. Tentunya bukan perkara yang bisa diselesaikan semalaman. Perlu proses, melewati beberapa generasi mungkin?

Sejarah telah membuktikan bahwa aksi-aksi heroik sang pahlawan selalu berujung dengan kematian yang membanggakan. Dan itulah yang kita tahu sampai sekarang. Tetapi, ternyata sejarah juga pernah mencatat bahwa ada beberapa kisah ksatria yang justru berakhir dengan memalukan, bahkan benar-benar memalukan.

Pastinya mereka tidak ingin kematian mereka dikenang untuk kemudian dicatat dalam sejarah. Berikut adalah daftar para ksatria yang mati dengan cara yang sangat konyol dan memalukan.

1. Pyrrhus Epirus

Cara kematian: Tewas karena dilempar genteng oleh nenek2
Pyrrhus Epirus adalah salah satu penakluk terbesar dalam sejarah. Puluhan kerajaan telah ia taklukan. Sampai pada saatnya Pyrrhus ditugaskan oleh Cleonymus untuk mengalahkan Sparta dan dijanjikan tahta Sparta.

Tapi Pyrrhus lupa akan kehebatan Spartan. Ia dikalahkan prajurit Spartan, sehingga ia pindah ke Argos. Sialnya, ketika ia memasuki kota melalui jalan-jalan sempit dengan menunggangi gajah, seorang perempuan tua yang tidak senang dengan konflik yang telah ia ciptakan, melemparkan genteng ke arahnya dari balkon. Pyrrhus tewas dalam seketika.

2. Eleazar Maccabeus - 162 SM

Cara kematian: Dibunuh oleh gajah yang ia bunuh
Kematian Eleazar Maccabeus dikisahkan dalam kitab Perjanjian Lama "I Maccabeus". Dalam Pertempuran Beth-Zakharia, Eleazar melihat musuh bebuyutannya, Raja Antiokhus V menunggang gajah. Kemudian ia berfikir untuk melakukan aksi heroik dengan membunuh gajah dan raja Antiokhus.

Eleazar melompat di bawah gajah dan menika perut gajah dengan tombak. Apa yang selanjutnya terjadi sudah ada dalam benak Anda sekalian, bukan? Gajah yang mati jatuh tepat di atas Eleazar dan membunuhnya dengan seketika.

3. Humphrey de Bohun - 1322

Cara kematian: anus tertusuk tombak
Humphrey de Bohun adalah anggota kerluarga Anglo-Norman di Inggris. Ia mendapat perintah dari Raja Edward II untuk memimpin pasukan dalam Pertempuran Boroughbridge melawan Harclay, Humphrey de Bohun tewas dengan cara yang benar-benar konyol.

Humphrey de Bohun memimpin pertarungan di sebuah jembatan kayu. Lalu salah seorang dari Harclay's pikemen bersembunyi di bawah jembatan, ia mendorong tombak ke atas jembatan diantara jepitan papan kayu. Secara tidak sengaja, tombak tersebut tepat mengenai anus Humphrey. Humphrey de Bohun tewas dan para prajuritnya panik dan melarikan diri.

4. King Edward II - 1327

Cara kematian: anus tertusuk obor [besi]
King Edward II memimpin Inggris selama 20 tahun (1307-1327). Ia lebih senang memiliki hubungan khusu dengan pria daripada dengan wanita. Setelah ia turun tahta dan dipenjarakan, istrinya Isabella (yang marah karena hubungan dekat raja dengan seorang pemuda di Royal Court) mengusulkan cara eksekusi yang sedikit aneh.

Pada malam 11 Oktober ketika sedang tertidur di penjara tiba-tiba raja ditangkap dan diseret. Sialnya, ketika memberontak leher sang raja tersangkut tempat tidur dan tercekik. Pengawal yang menyerat Raja terjatuh dan lebih sialnya lagi obor yang dibawa pengawal jatuh tepat di bagian anus raja. Raja tewas dengan seketika tanpa hukuman."

Keterangan : King Edward II adalah raja dari Humphrey de Bohun. Mereka tewas dengan cara yang sama

5. Kaisar Mughal Humayun - 1556

Cara kematian: Tersandung jubah dan jatuh dari tangga
Kaisar Mughal Humayun adalah penguasa agung yang memerintah Afghanistan, Pakistan, dan bagian utara India dari 1530-1540 dan 1555-1556. Dia adalah seorang pecinta seni dan astronomi. Namun, ia juga sangat religius dan inilah yang menyebabkan ia jatuh (benar-benar terjatuh).

Ketika ia membawa buku dari perpustakaan, Humayun mendengar panggilan doa. Kebiasaannya adalah menumpu-kan satu lutut ketika mendengar panggilan doa kapanpun dan dimanapun ia berada. dan ketika ia menekuk lutut, kakinya tersandung dalam lipatan jubah panjang.

Dia kebetulan sedang berdiri di atas sebuah tangga kecil. Humayun jatuh dari tangga dan kepalanya terbentur hingga tewas dalam seketika.

6. Julien Offray de La Mettrie - 1751

Cara kematian: kebanyakan makan
Julien Offray de La Mettrie adalah seorang dokter Perancis, filsuf dan orang jenius. Dia percaya bahwa kesenangan sensual (seperti makan dan seks) adalah satu-satunya alasan untuk hidup, sehingga ia memutuskan untuk menjalani hidupnya dengan prinsip itu.

Julien adalah seorang ateis dan percaya bahwa kehidupan di bumi ini hanya sebuah lelucon dan akan berakhir dengan kepuasan diri. Ironisnya, ia meninggal setelah makan terlalu banyak di sebuah pesta yang diadakan oleh pasien yang ia sembuhkan.
Kamis, 25 Maret 2010

TEORI POINCARE

Dugaan Poincare

November 14, 2009
by Aria Turns

Mengingat banyaknya permintaan agar saya membahas dugaan Poincare (Poincare Conjecture) maka postingan kali ini akan menjelaskan hal tersebut. Dugaan Poincare (DP) adalah satu-satunya problem dari seven millennium problem yang berhasil dipecahkan. DP dipecahkan oleh Matematikan rusia Grisha Perelman pada tahun 2003.

DP sebenarnya adalah pertanyaan yang diajukan Matematikawan Prancis Henri Poincare pada tahun 1900, pertanyaan tersebut adalah

Apakah semua 3-manifold tertutup yang simple connected itu Homeomorphic ke 3-sphere?

Apa itu “3-manifold tertutup,”simple connected” ,” Homeomorphic” dan”3-spahere”?

Mari saya jelasakan satu-satu.

3-sphere

Pertama-tama akan saya jelasakan mengenai 3-sphere. 3-sphere adalah bidang/permukaan dari bola berdimensi 4. Ada bisa bayangkan bola berdimensi 4? Jangan kwatir saya juga tidak bisa membayangkan. :mrgreen: Dengan kata lain 3-sphere adalah himpunan semua titik2 yang mempunyai jarak yang sama dati titik pusat dalam dimensi-4 ruang euclid. Begitu pula dengan 2-sphere merupakan permukaan/bidang 2-dimensi yang membungkus/ yang merupakan kulit dari bola 3-dimensi (Bola pada umunya). Jadi 3-sphere adalah objek 3-dimensi yang membungkus bola berdimensi empat. Secara umum n-sphere adalah objek n-dimensi yang membungkus bola n+1 dimensi

Homeomorphic

Dua buah benda A dan B dikatakan homeomorphic. Jika bentuk A bisa diubah ke bentuk B dengan cara ditarik, direganggkan, ditarik, dibengkokkan, dilipat tetapi tidak boleh dipotong, dilubangi, dirobek ataupun dilem. Contoh lingkaran dan elips adalah homeomorphic karean lingkaran bisa diubah menjadi elips dengan cara direganggkan. bujur-sangkar dan jejeran genjang merupakan homeomorphic. Begitu juga dengan cangkir dan donat merupakan homeomorphic

tekken from wikipedia.com

d-manifold

manilold berdimensi d atau d-manifold adalah permukaan dari objek geometri yang pada skala cukup kecil menyerupai ruang euclid berdimensi di \mathbb{R}^{d}. Konsep tersebut termotivasi dari permukaan bumi, kita tahu permukaan bumi berbentuk 2-sphere tapi dalam skala kecil merasa permukaan bumi ini merupakan bidang datar. Jadi Manifold merupakan generalisasi dari permukaan tempat kita berdiri, kita ngerasa permukaan tersebut datar padahal sebenernya tidak

contoh manifold

d=1 : kurva, garis lurus, parabola, dll

d=2 : bidang, 2-sphere, permukaan cangkir, permukaan donat, semua permukaan objek2 geometri dimensi 3

d=3 : 3-sphere.

Suatu d-manifold dikatakan tertutup jika memenuhi

  1. bukan garis lurus yang panjangnya tak hingga untuk 1-manifold, dan bukan bidang dengan luas tak hingga untuk 2-manifold.
  2. Tersambung /connected merupakan 1 potongan
  3. Tanpa batas contoh n-sphere

Teorema

Setiap 1-manifold tertutup homeomorphic ke lingkaran (1-sphere)

1-manifoldKetiga bentuk di atas homeomorphic.

Poincare menyadari bahwa tidak semua 2-manifold tertutup itu homeomorphic ke 2-sphere. Poincare ingin mencari tahu 2-manifold tertutup seperti apa yang homeomorphic ke 2-sphere.

simple connected

Poincare menyadari bahwa 2-sphere mempunyai sifat simple connected, yaitu setiap loop (putaran) tetutup dapat menyusut menjadi suatu titik. Perhatikan gambar

2-sphereDalam bahasa sederhana jika kita mengikatkan tali elastis pada bola (2-sphere) maka kita bisa melepaskan bola tanpa perlu merusak ikatan.

Akhirnya Poincare berkesimpulan

Teorema 2

Setiap 2-manifold tertutup yang simple connected homeomorphic ke 2-sphere.

(permukaan) donat tidaklah simple connected karena jika kita mengikatkan taki elastis yang melalui lubang tengah donat maka mustahil kita melepaskan donat tanpa merusak ikatan. Berarti donat tidak homeomorphic ke 2-sphare

Kemudian Poincare bertanya apakah Setiap 3-manifold tertutup yang simple connected homeomorphic ke 3-sphere. Sayang Poincare tidak mampu menjawab pertanyaannya sendiri. Inilah yang kita kenal dengan DP.


Henri Poincaré

Jules Henri Poincaré (1854–1912). Photograph from the frontispiece of the 1913 edition of Last Thoughts.
Born 29 April 1854(1854-04-29)
Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle
Died 17 July 1912 (aged 58)
Paris
Residence France
Nationality French
Fields Mathematician and physicist
Institutions Corps des Mines
Caen University
La Sorbonne
Bureau des Longitudes
Alma mater Lycée Nancy
École Polytechnique
École des Mines
Doctoral advisor Charles Hermite
Doctoral students Louis Bachelier
Dimitrie Pompeiu
Mihailo Petrović
Other notable students Tobias Dantzig
Known for Poincaré conjecture
Three-body problem
Topology
Special relativity
Poincaré–Hopf theorem
Poincaré duality
Poincaré–Birkhoff–Witt theorem
Poincaré inequality
Hilbert–Poincaré series
Poincaré metric
Rotation number
Coining term 'Betti number'
Chaos theory
Sphere-world
Poincaré–Bendixson theorem
Poincaré–Lindstedt method
Poincaré recurrence theorem
Influences Lazarus Fuchs
Influenced Louis Rougier
George David Birkhoff
Notable awards RAS Gold Medal (1900)
Sylvester Medal (1901)
Matteucci Medal (1905)
Bolyai Prize (1905)
Bruce Medal (1911)
Signature
Notes
He was a cousin of Pierre Boutroux.

Jules Henri Poincaré (29 April 1854 – 17 July 1912) (French pronunciation: [ˈʒyl ɑ̃ˈʁi pwɛ̃kaˈʁe][1]) was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, and a philosopher of science. Poincaré is often described as a polymath, and in mathematics as The Last Universalist, since he excelled in all fields of the discipline as it existed during his lifetime.

As a mathematician and physicist, he made many original fundamental contributions to pure and applied mathematics, mathematical physics, and celestial mechanics. He was responsible for formulating the Poincaré conjecture, one of the most famous problems in mathematics. In his research on the three-body problem, Poincaré became the first person to discover a chaotic deterministic system which laid the foundations of modern chaos theory. He is considered to be one of the founders of the field of topology.

Poincaré introduced the modern principle of relativity and was the first to present the Lorentz transformations in their modern symmetrical form. Poincaré discovered the remaining relativistic velocity transformations and recorded them in a letter to Lorentz in 1905. Thus he obtained perfect invariance of all of Maxwell's equations, an important step in the formulation of the theory of special relativity.

The Poincaré group used in physics and mathematics was named after him.

Contents

[hide]

[edit] Life

Poincaré was born on 29 April 1854 in Cité Ducale neighborhood, Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle into an influential family (Belliver, 1956). His father Leon Poincaré (1828–1892) was a professor of medicine at the University of Nancy (Sagaret, 1911). His adored younger sister Aline married the spiritual philosopher Emile Boutroux. Another notable member of Jules' family was his cousin, Raymond Poincaré, who would become the President of France, 1913 to 1920, and a fellow member of the Académie française.[2]

[edit] Education

During his childhood he was seriously ill for a time with diphtheria and received special instruction from his mother, Eugénie Launois (1830–1897).

In 1862 Henri entered the Lycée in Nancy (now renamed the Lycée Henri Poincaré in his honour, along with the University of Nancy). He spent eleven years at the Lycée and during this time he proved to be one of the top students in every topic he studied. He excelled in written composition. His mathematics teacher described him as a "monster of mathematics" and he won first prizes in the concours général, a competition between the top pupils from all the Lycées across France. His poorest subjects were music and physical education, where he was described as "average at best" (O'Connor et al., 2002). However, poor eyesight and a tendency towards absentmindedness may explain these difficulties (Carl, 1968). He graduated from the Lycée in 1871 with a Bachelor's degree in letters and sciences.

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 he served alongside his father in the Ambulance Corps.

Poincaré entered the École Polytechnique in 1873. There he studied mathematics as a student of Charles Hermite, continuing to excel and publishing his first paper (Démonstration nouvelle des propriétés de l'indicatrice d'une surface) in 1874. He graduated in 1875 or 1876. He went on to study at the École des Mines, continuing to study mathematics in addition to the mining engineering syllabus and received the degree of ordinary engineer in March 1879.

As a graduate of the École des Mines he joined the Corps des Mines as an inspector for the Vesoul region in northeast France. He was on the scene of a mining disaster at Magny in August 1879 in which 18 miners died. He carried out the official investigation into the accident in a characteristically thorough and humane way.

At the same time, Poincaré was preparing for his doctorate in sciences in mathematics under the supervision of Charles Hermite. His doctoral thesis was in the field of differential equations. It was named Sur les propriétés des fonctions définies par les équations différences. Poincaré devised a new way of studying the properties of these equations. He not only faced the question of determining the integral of such equations, but also was the first person to study their general geometric properties. He realised that they could be used to model the behaviour of multiple bodies in free motion within the solar system. Poincaré graduated from the University of Paris in 1879.

The young Henri Poincaré

[edit] Career

Soon after, he was offered a post as junior lecturer in mathematics at Caen University, but he never fully abandoned his mining career to mathematics. He worked at the Ministry of Public Services as an engineer in charge of northern railway development from 1881 to 1885. He eventually became chief engineer of the Corps de Mines in 1893 and inspector general in 1910.

Beginning in 1881 and for the rest of his career, he taught at the University of Paris (the Sorbonne). He was initially appointed as the maître de conférences d'analyse (associate professor of analysis) (Sageret, 1911). Eventually, he held the chairs of Physical and Experimental Mechanics, Mathematical Physics and Theory of Probability, and Celestial Mechanics and Astronomy.

Also in that same year, Poincaré married Miss Poulain d'Andecy. Together they had four children: Jeanne (born 1887), Yvonne (born 1889), Henriette (born 1891), and Léon (born 1893).

In 1887, at the young age of 32, Poincaré was elected to the French Academy of Sciences. He became its president in 1906, and was elected to the Académie française in 1909.

In 1887 he won Oscar II, King of Sweden's mathematical competition for a resolution of the three-body problem concerning the free motion of multiple orbiting bodies. (See #The three-body problem section below)

In 1893 Poincaré joined the French Bureau des Longitudes, which engaged him in the synchronisation of time around the world. In 1897 Poincaré backed an unsuccessful proposal for the decimalisation of circular measure, and hence time and longitude (see Galison 2003). It was this post which led him to consider the question of establishing international time zones and the synchronisation of time between bodies in relative motion. (See #Work on relativity section below)

In the year 1899, and again more successfully in 1904, he intervened in the trials of Alfred Dreyfus. He attacked the spurious scientific claims of some of the evidence brought against Dreyfus, who was a Jewish officer in the French army charged with treason by anti-Semitic colleagues.

In 1912 Poincaré underwent surgery for a prostate problem and subsequently died from an embolism on 17 July 1912, in Paris. He was 58 years of age. He is buried in the Poincaré family vault in the Cemetery of Montparnasse, Paris.

A former French Minister of Education, Claude Allègre, has recently (2004) proposed that Poincaré be reburied in the Panthéon in Paris, which is reserved for French citizens only of the highest honour.[3]

[edit] Students

Poincaré had two notable doctoral students at the University of Paris, Louis Bachelier (1900) and Dimitrie Pompeiu (1905).[4]

[edit] Work

[edit] Summary

Poincaré made many contributions to different fields of pure and applied mathematics such as: celestial mechanics, fluid mechanics, optics, electricity, telegraphy, capillarity, elasticity, thermodynamics, potential theory, quantum theory, theory of relativity and physical cosmology.

He was also a populariser of mathematics and physics and wrote several books for the lay public.

Among the specific topics he contributed to are the following:

[edit] The three-body problem

The problem of finding the general solution to the motion of more than two orbiting bodies in the solar system had eluded mathematicians since Newton's time. This was known originally as the three-body problem and later the n-body problem, where n is any number of more than two orbiting bodies. The n-body solution was considered very important and challenging at the close of the nineteenth century. Indeed in 1887, in honour of his 60th birthday, Oscar II, King of Sweden, advised by Gösta Mittag-Leffler, established a prize for anyone who could find the solution to the problem. The announcement was quite specific:

Given a system of arbitrarily many mass points that attract each according to Newton's law, under the assumption that no two points ever collide, try to find a representation of the coordinates of each point as a series in a variable that is some known function of time and for all of whose values the series converges uniformly.

In case the problem could not be solved, any other important contribution to classical mechanics would then be considered to be prizeworthy. The prize was finally awarded to Poincaré, even though he did not solve the original problem. One of the judges, the distinguished Karl Weierstrass, said, "This work cannot indeed be considered as furnishing the complete solution of the question proposed, but that it is nevertheless of such importance that its publication will inaugurate a new era in the history of celestial mechanics." (The first version of his contribution even contained a serious error; for details see the article by Diacu[7]). The version finally printed contained many important ideas which lead to the theory of chaos. The problem as stated originally was finally solved by Karl F. Sundman for n = 3 in 1912 and was generalised to the case of n > 3 bodies by Qiudong Wang in the 1990s.

[edit] Work on relativity

Marie Curie and Poincaré talk at the 1911 Solvay Conference.

[edit] Local time

Poincaré's work at the Bureau des Longitudes on establishing international time zones led him to consider how clocks at rest on the Earth, which would be moving at different speeds relative to absolute space (or the "luminiferous aether"), could be synchronised. At the same time Dutch theorist Hendrik Lorentz was developing Maxwell's theory into a theory of the motion of charged particles ("electrons" or "ions"), and their interaction with radiation. He had introduced in 1895 an auxiliary quantity (without physical interpretation) called "local time" t^\prime = t-vx^\prime/c^2, where  x^\prime = x - vt and introduced the hypothesis of length contraction to explain the failure of optical and electrical experiments to detect motion relative to the aether (see Michelson-Morley experiment).[8] Poincaré was a constant interpreter (and sometimes friendly critic) of Lorentz's theory. Poincaré as a philosopher, was interested in the "deeper meaning". Thus he interpreted Lorentz's theory and in so doing he came up with many insights that are now associated with special relativity. In The Measure of Time (1898), Poincaré said, " A little reflection is sufficient to understand that all these affirmations have by themselves no meaning. They can have one only as the result of a convention." He also argued, that scientists have to set the constancy of the speed of light as a postulate to give physical theories the simplest form.[9] Based on these assumptions he discussed in 1900 Lorentz's "wonderful invention" of local time and remarked that it arose when moving clocks are synchronised by exchanging light signals assumed to travel with the same speed in both directions in a moving frame.[10]

[edit] Principle of relativity and Lorentz transformations

He discussed the "principle of relative motion" in two papers in 1900[10][11] and named it the principle of relativity in 1904, according to which no physical experiment can discriminate between a state of uniform motion and a state of rest.[12] In 1905 Poincaré wrote to Lorentz about Lorentz's paper of 1904, which Poincaré described as a "paper of supreme importance." In this letter he pointed out an error Lorentz had made when he had applied his transformation to one of Maxwell's equations, that for charge-occupied space, and also questioned the time dilation factor given by Lorentz.[13] In a second letter to Lorentz, Poincaré gave his own reason why Lorentz's time dilation factor was indeed correct after all: it was necessary to make the Lorentz transformation form a group and gave what is now known as the relativistic velocity-addition law.[14] Poincaré later delivered a paper at the meeting of the Academy of Sciences in Paris on 5 June 1905 in which these issues were addressed. In the published version of that he wrote[15]:

The essential point, established by Lorentz, is that the equations of the electromagnetic field are not altered by a certain transformation (which I will call by the name of Lorentz) of the form:
x^\prime = k\ell\left(x + \varepsilon t\right)\!,\;t^\prime = k\ell\left(t + \varepsilon x\right)\!,\;y^\prime = \ell y,\;z^\prime = \ell z,\;k = 1/\sqrt{1-\varepsilon^2}.

and showed that the arbitrary function \ell\left(\varepsilon\right) must be unity for all \varepsilon (Lorentz had set \ell = 1 by a different argument) to make the transformations form a group. In an enlarged version of the paper that appeared in 1906 Poincaré pointed out that the combination x2 + y2 + z2c2t2 is invariant. He noted that a Lorentz transformation is merely a rotation in four-dimensional space about the origin by introducing ct\sqrt{-1} as a fourth imaginary coordinate, and he used an early form of four-vectors.[16] Poincaré’s attempt at a four-dimensional reformulation of the new mechanics was rejected by himself in 1907, because in his opinion the translation of physics into the language of four-dimensional geometry would entail too much effort for limited profit.[17] So it was Hermann Minkowski who worked out the consequences of this notion in 1907.

[edit] Mass-energy relation

Like others before, Poincaré (1900) discovered a relation between mass and electromagnetic energy. While studying the conflict between the action/reaction principle and Lorentz ether theory, he tried to determine whether the center of gravity still moves with a uniform velocity when electromagnetic fields are included.[10] He noticed that the action/reaction principle does not hold for matter alone, but that the electromagnetic field has its own momentum. Poincaré concluded that the electromagnetic field energy of an electromagnetic wave behaves like a fictitious fluid ("fluide fictif") with a mass density of E/c2. If the center of mass frame is defined by both the mass of matter and the mass of the fictitious fluid, and if the fictitious fluid is indestructible — it's neither created or destroyed — then the motion of the center of mass frame remains uniform. But electromagnetic energy can be converted into other forms of energy. So Poincaré assumed that there exists a non-electric energy fluid at each point of space, into which electromagnetic energy can be transformed and which also carries a mass proportional to the energy. In this way, the motion of the center of mass remains uniform. Poincaré said that one should not be too surprised by these assumptions, since they are only mathematical fictions.

However, Poincaré's resolution led to a paradox when changing frames: if a Hertzian oscillator radiates in a certain direction, it will suffer a recoil from the inertia of the fictitious fluid. Poincaré performed a Lorentz boost (to order v/c) to the frame of the moving source. He noted that energy conservation holds in both frames, but that the law of conservation of momentum is violated. This would allow perpetual motion, a notion which he abhorred. The laws of nature would have to be different in the frames of reference, and the relativity principle would not hold. Therefore he argued that also in this case there has to be another compensating mechanism in the ether.

Poincaré himself came back to this topic in his St. Louis lecture (1904).[12] This time (and later also in 1908) he rejected[18] the possibility that energy carries mass and also the possibility, that motions in the ether can compensate the above mentioned problems:

The apparatus will recoil as if it were a cannon and the projected energy a ball, and that contradicts the principle of Newton, since our present projectile has no mass; it is not matter, it is energy. [..] Shall we say that the space which separates the oscillator from the receiver and which the disturbance must traverse in passing from one to the other, is not empty, but is filled not only with ether, but with air, or even in inter-planetary space with some subtile, yet ponderable fluid; that this matter receives the shock, as does the receiver, at the moment the energy reaches it, and recoils, when the disturbance leaves it? That would save Newton's principle, but it is not true. If the energy during its propagation remained always attached to some material substratum, this matter would carry the light along with it and Fizeau has shown, at least for the air, that there is nothing of the kind. Michelson and Morley have since confirmed this. We might also suppose that the motions of matter proper were exactly compensated by those of the ether; but that would lead us to the same considerations as those made a moment ago. The principle, if thus interpreted, could explain anything, since whatever the visible motions we could imagine hypothetical motions to compensate them. But if it can explain anything, it will allow us to foretell nothing; it will not allow us to choose between the various possible hypotheses, since it explains everything in advance. It therefore becomes useless.

He also discussed two other unexplained effects: (1) non-conservation of mass implied by Lorentz's variable mass γm, Abraham's theory of variable mass and Kaufmann's experiments on the mass of fast moving electrons and (2) the non-conservation of energy in the radium experiments of Madame Curie.

It was Albert Einstein's concept of mass–energy equivalence (1905) that a body losing energy as radiation or heat was losing mass of amount m = E/c2 that resolved[19] Poincare's paradox, without using any compensating mechanism within the ether.[20] The Hertzian oscillator loses mass in the emission process, and momentum is conserved in any frame. However, concerning Poincaré's solution of the Center of Gravity problem, Einstein noted that Poincaré's formulation and his own from 1906 were mathematically equivalent.[21]

[edit] Poincaré and Einstein

Einstein's first paper on relativity was published three months after Poincaré's short paper,[15] but before Poincaré's longer version.[16] It relied on the principle of relativity to derive the Lorentz transformations and used a similar clock synchronisation procedure (Einstein synchronisation) that Poincaré (1900) had described, but was remarkable in that it contained no references at all. Poincaré never acknowledged Einstein's work on Special Relativity. Einstein acknowledged Poincaré in the text of a lecture in 1921 called Geometrie und Erfahrung in connection with non-Euclidean geometry, but not in connection with special relativity. A few years before his death Einstein commented on Poincaré as being one of the pioneers of relativity, saying "Lorentz had already recognised that the transformation named after him is essential for the analysis of Maxwell's equations, and Poincaré deepened this insight still further ...."[22]

[edit] Assessments

Poincaré's work in the development of special relativity is well recognised[19], though most historians stress that despite many similarities with Einstein's work, the two had very different research agendas and interpretations of the work.[23] Poincaré developed a similar physical interpretation of local time and noticed the connection to signal velocity, but contrary to Einstein he continued to use the ether-concept in his papers and argued that clocks in the ether show the "true" time, and moving clocks show the local time. So Poincaré tried to bring the relativity principle in accordance with classical physics, while Einstein developed a mathematically equivalent kinematics based on the new physical concepts of the relativity of space and time.[24][25][26][27][28] While this is the view of most historians, a minority go much further, such as E.T. Whittaker, who held that Poincaré and Lorentz were the true discoverers of Relativity.[29]

[edit] Character

Photographic portrait of H. Poincaré by Henri Manuel

Poincaré's work habits have been compared to a bee flying from flower to flower. Poincaré was interested in the way his mind worked; he studied his habits and gave a talk about his observations in 1908 at the Institute of General Psychology in Paris. He linked his way of thinking to how he made several discoveries.

The mathematician Darboux claimed he was un intuitif (intuitive), arguing that this is demonstrated by the fact that he worked so often by visual representation. He did not care about being rigorous and disliked logic. He believed that logic was not a way to invent but a way to structure ideas and that logic limits ideas.

[edit] Toulouse' characterisation

Poincaré's mental organisation was not only interesting to Poincaré himself but also to Toulouse, a psychologist of the Psychology Laboratory of the School of Higher Studies in Paris. Toulouse wrote a book entitled Henri Poincaré (1910). In it, he discussed Poincaré's regular schedule:

  • He worked during the same times each day in short periods of time. He undertook mathematical research for four hours a day, between 10 a.m. and noon then again from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.. He would read articles in journals later in the evening.
  • His normal work habit was to solve a problem completely in his head, then commit the completed problem to paper.
  • He was ambidextrous and nearsighted.
  • His ability to visualise what he heard proved particularly useful when he attended lectures, since his eyesight was so poor that he could not see properly what the lecturer wrote on the blackboard.

These abilities were offset to some extent by his shortcomings:

  • He was physically clumsy and artistically inept.
  • He was always in a rush and disliked going back for changes or corrections.
  • He never spent a long time on a problem since he believed that the subconscious would continue working on the problem while he consciously worked on another problem.

In addition, Toulouse stated that most mathematicians worked from principles already established while Poincaré started from basic principles each time (O'Connor et al., 2002).

His method of thinking is well summarised as:

"Habitué à négliger les détails et à ne regarder que les cimes, il passait de l'une à l'autre avec une promptitude surprenante et les faits qu'il découvrait se groupant d'eux-mêmes autour de leur centre étaient instantanément et automatiquement classés dans sa mémoire."("Accustomed to neglecting details and to looking only at mountain tops, he went from one peak to another with surprising rapidity, and the facts he discovered, clustering around their center, were instantly and automatically pigeonholed in his memory.") Belliver (1956)

[edit] Attitude towards Cantor

Poincaré was dismayed by Georg Cantor's theory of transfinite numbers, and referred to it as a "disease" from which mathematics would eventually be cured.[30]

[edit] View on economics

Poincaré saw mathematical work in economics and finance as peripheral. In 1900 Poincaré commented on Louis Bachelier's thesis "The Theory of Speculation", saying: "M. Bachelier has evidenced an original and precise mind [but] the subject is somewhat remote from those our other candidates are in the habit of treating." (Bernstein, 1996, pp. 199–200) Bachelier's work explained what was then the French government's pricing options on French Bonds and anticipated many of the pricing theories in financial markets used today.[31]

[edit] Honours

Awards

Named after him

[edit] Philosophy

Poincaré had philosophical views opposite to those of Bertrand Russell and Gottlob Frege, who believed that mathematics was a branch of logic. Poincaré strongly disagreed, claiming that intuition was the life of mathematics. Poincaré gives an interesting point of view in his book Science and Hypothesis:

For a superficial observer, scientific truth is beyond the possibility of doubt; the logic of science is infallible, and if the scientists are sometimes mistaken, this is only from their mistaking its rule.

Poincaré believed that arithmetic is a synthetic science. He argued that Peano's axioms cannot be proven non-circularly with the principle of induction (Murzi, 1998), therefore concluding that arithmetic is a priori synthetic and not analytic. Poincaré then went on to say that mathematics cannot be deduced from logic since it is not analytic. His views were similar to those of Immanuel Kant (Kolak, 2001, Folina 1992). He strongly opposed Cantorian set theory, objecting to its use of impredicative definitions.

However Poincaré did not share Kantian views in all branches of philosophy and mathematics. For example, in geometry, Poincaré believed that the structure of non-Euclidean space can be known analytically. Poincaré held that convention plays an important role in physics. His view (and some later, more extreme versions of it) came to be known as "conventionalism". Poincaré believed that Newton's first law was not empirical but is a conventional framework assumption for mechanics. He also believed that the geometry of physical space is conventional. He considered examples in which either the geometry of the physical fields or gradients of temperature can be changed, either describing a space as non-Euclidean measured by rigid rulers, or as a Euclidean space where the rulers are expanded or shrunk by a variable heat distribution. However, Poincaré thought that we were so accustomed to Euclidean geometry that we would prefer to change the physical laws to save Euclidean geometry rather than shift to a non-Euclidean physical geometry.[citation needed]

[edit] Free Will

Poincaré's famous lectures before the Société de Psychologie in Paris (published as Science and Hypothesis, The Value of Science, and Science and Method) were cited by Jacques Hadamard as the source for the idea that creativity and invention consist of two mental stages, first random combinations of possible solutions to a problem, followed by a critical evaluation.[32]

Although he most often spoke of a deterministic universe, Poincaré said that the subconscious generation of new possibilities involves chance.

"It is certain that the combinations which present themselves to the mind in a kind of sudden illumination after a somewhat prolonged period of unconscious work are generally useful and fruitful combinations… all the combinations are formed as a result of the automatic action of the subliminal ego, but those only which are interesting find their way into the field of consciousness… A few only are harmonious, and consequently at once useful and beautiful, and they will be capable of affecting the geometrician's special sensibility I have been speaking of; which, once aroused, will direct our attention upon them, and will thus give them the opportunity of becoming conscious… In the subliminal ego, on the contrary, there reigns what I would call liberty, if one could give this name to the mere absence of discipline and to disorder born of chance.