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Re: reason for "s=distance traveled".



From: ANHEP1::JLU "JACK L. URETSKY (C) 1996; HEP DIV., ARGONNE NATIONAL LAB, ARGONNE, IL 60439" 26-AUG-1997 12:43:14.93
To: SMTP%"twayburn@juno.com"
CC: JLU
Subj: Re: reason for "s = distance traveled"

Hi Tom-
Yes, but:
The Sommerfeld lectures were published in '42 and were based
upon notes from a few decades earlier. All of this was long before
Goldstein.
Anyway, you can take my posting as presenting the best evidence
that I have available here. I decline to conjecture.
Minkowski died the year after his 1908 lecture, so a conjectural
answer to your question is, "Just barely."
Regards,
Jack
**********************************************************
Jack, In contrast to Sommerfeld, Vol. I, Goldstein uses ds for length
element on pp. 34, 36, and 44 at least. So, I do not have to exclude
*all* physicists from my putative set of traditionalists. On p. 82, he
sets s to be the impact parameter, which indicates he may be through with
*this* tradition. Minkowski worries me, though. Had he met that girl
yet? Regards / Tom