- Banesh Hoffmann
Banesh Hoffmann (
September 6 ,1906 –August 5 ,1986 ) was a mathematician and physicist best known for his associations withAlbert Einstein .Life
Banesh Hoffmann was born in Richmond,
United Kingdom on September 6, 1906. He studied mathematics and theoretical physics at theUniversity of Oxford , where he earned his BA and went on to earn his PhD atPrinceton University .While at the
Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Hoffmann collaborated with Einstein andLeopold Infeld on the classic paper "Gravitational Equations and the Problem of Motion." Einstein’s original work ongeneral relativity was based on two ideas. The first was the equation of motion: a particle would follow the shortest path in four-dimensional space-time. The second was how matter affects the geometry of space-time. What Einstein, Infeld, and Hoffmann showed was that the equation of motion followed directly from the field equation that defined the geometry.In 1937 Hoffmann joined the math department of
Queens College , part of theCity University of New York where he remained till the late 1970s. He had officially retired in the 1960s but continued to teach one course a semester; in the fall a course onquantum mechanics and in the spring one on the Special and General theories of Relativity.Works
Hoffmann became Einstein’s biographer in 1972 when he co-authored "Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel" with Einstein's secretary
Helen Dukas . The pair collaborated again in compiling "Albert Einstein: The Human Side", a collection of quotations from Einstein's letters and other personal papers.Hoffmann was also the author of "The Strange Story of the Quantum", "The Tyranny of Testing", and "Relativity and Its Roots". He was a member of the
Baker Street Irregulars and wrote the short story, "Sherlock, Shakespeare, and the Bomb".External links
* [http://infoshare1.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/finding_aids/mathoral/pmc20.htm An interview with Hoffmann about his experience at Princeton]
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