Bracco, Christian (Author)
Provost, Jean-Pierre (Author)
Henri Poincaré wrote only one scientific paper on the new mechanics, the so-called Palermo memoir (or On the dynamics of the electron ), which we have recently analyzed in this journal. But he discussed this topic on several occasions in his popular writings, which have been used to present his point of view on relativity. These texts have sometimes given rise to serious criticisms concerning his understanding of relativity, on account of his additional hypothesis of length contraction, or his claims that one may revert to Newtonian mechanics so as not to disturb [our] habits . So it is natural to consider the question of the connections between the scientific works (the Palermo memoir), the popular works (those dealing with science and its methods) and Poincaré's philosophy of science. If Poincaré's philosophy with regard to mathematics and geometry has been extensively and carefully studied, this does not seem to be the case as regards mechanics. We argue that the general texts should be read in relation to Poincaré's involvement in the 1902 Georges Leygues reform pertaining to science teaching at the secondary-school level. We show that in these texts Poincaré is merely describing and illustrating by way of a few personal pedagogical comments the historical approach of Hendrik Antoon Lorentz ; he is not referring to his own theoretical contributions. We moreover emphasize that the conclusions at the end of his conference only concern teaching. Finally, we discuss the important 1912 conference Space and time (in Last thoughts), which reveals the strong influence of the physical relativity of Lorentz on Poincaré's vision of geometry (the recourse to physical laws instead of instruments for defining the relevant group) and brings out the true meaning of the relativity principle (the existence of multiple and independent small worlds). This conference makes it possible to imagine what would have been Poincaré's attitude towards general relativity, which appeared only three years after his death.
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