Geometry of Relativistic Velocities

Time: 6:00 p.m.

Place: Room 103, Mendel Science Center, Villanova University

Abstract: Almost immediately after Einstein published his first paper on relativity in 1905, others reworked some of his arguments in a more geometrical language. Minkowski's was, of course, the broadest and most successful effort, but beginning in 1909, Sommerfeld and Varicak developed a geometric representation of relativistic velocities. In this talk Paul Wolfson shall discuss these developments and explain the setting in which Felix Klein unified them.