Banesh Hoffmann

{{short description|American mathematician and physicist (1906-1986)}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Banesh Hoffmann

| image = banesh_hoffmann.jpg

| caption = Banesh Hoffmann, in the 1979 film Continuum, speaking about the theory of relativity

| birth_date = {{birth-date|6 September 1906}}

| birth_place = Richmond, England

| death_date = {{death-date and age|5 August 1986|6 September 1906}}

| death_place = Flushing, Queens

| citizenship = British

| fields = Special and general relativity

| workplaces = Institute for Advanced Study
Queens College

| alma_mater = University of Oxford
Princeton University

| doctoral_advisors = Howard P. Robertson
Oswald Veblen
Eugene Paul Wigner

| doctoral_students =

| thesis_title = On the spherically symmetric field in relativity

| thesis_year = 1932

| thesis_url = http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/39646501

| known_for = Einstein–Infeld–Hoffmann equations

}}

Banesh Hoffmann (6 September 1906 – 5 August 1986) was a British mathematician and physicist known for his association with Albert Einstein.

Life

Banesh Hoffmann was born in Richmond, Surrey, on 6 September 1906. He studied mathematics and theoretical physics at the University of Oxford, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and went on to earn his doctorate at Princeton University.{{cite book|editor1-last=Levens|editor1-first=R.G.C.|title=Merton College Register 1900–1964|date=1964|publisher=Basil Blackwell|location=Oxford|page=175}}

While at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Hoffmann collaborated with Einstein and Leopold Infeld on the classic paper Gravitational Equations and the Problem of Motion. Einstein's original work on general relativity was based on two ideas. The first was the equation of motion: that a particle would follow the shortest path in four-dimensions 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 mathematics department of Queens College, part of the City University of New York, where he remained until the late 1970s. He retired in the 1960s but continued to teach — in the fall a course on classical and quantum mechanics and an advanced math course for students who had taken pre-calculus, solid geometry and advanced algebra before entering college. This course was one semester and was called Math 3: the fusion of the year-long Math 1 and Math 2 courses required by Queens College but offered in a pressurized one-semester course. In the spring he taught the special and general theories of relativity.

In July 1938 he married Doris Marjorie Goodday in New York City. They had a son (Laurence) and a daughter (Deborah).

Hoffmann died on 5 August 1986. One of the Queens College mathematics department's awards for graduating seniors is named in his honor.{{cite web |url=http://www.qc.cuny.edu/Academics/Degrees/DMNS/Math/Resources/Pages/Awards.aspx |title = Queens College, City University of New York}}

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.{{cite book|editor=Dukas, Helen|editor2=Hoffmann, Banesh|title=Albert Einstein: The Human Side|year=1989|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0691023689 |postscript=; 4th printing 1989|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T5R7JsRRtoIC}}{{cite journal|author=Raman, V. V.|author-link=Varadaraja V. Raman|title=Review of Albert Einstein: The Human Side edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffmann|journal=American Journal of Physics|volume=47|issue=12|page=1107|date=December 1979|doi=10.1119/1.11587}}

Hoffmann was also the author of The Strange Story of the Quantum,{{cite journal|journal=CERN Courier|title=Review of The strange story of the quantum by Banesh Hoffmann|date=June 1965|volume=5|issue=6|pages=89–90|url=https://cds.cern.ch/record/1728735/files/vol5-issue6-p089-e.pdf}} [https://cds.cern.ch/record/1735882/files/vol5-issue6-p089-f.pdf French version] About Vectors,{{cite book|author=Hoffmann, Banesh|title=About Vectors|publisher=Dover Publications|year=1975|isbn=9780486604893 |postscript=; corrected reprint of 1966 1st edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NxXxuU4OBbUC}}{{cite journal|author=Gates Jr., L. D.|title=Review of About Vectors by Banesh Hoffmann|date=2 December 1966|journal=Science|volume=154|issue=3753|page=1159|doi=10.1126/science.154.3753.1159.b}} Relativity and Its Roots,{{cite book|author=Hoffmann, Banesh|title=Relativity and its Roots|publisher=Dover Publications|year=2012|isbn=978-0-486-40676-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rdGiTxE2RC0C|postscript=; pbk reprint of 1999 edition}}{{cite journal|author=March, Robert|title=Review of Relativity and its roots by Banesh Hoffmann|date=May 1984|volume=37|issue=5|pages=86–87|journal=Physics Today|doi=10.1063/1.2916251}} and The Tyranny of Testing. He was a member of The Baker Street Irregulars and wrote the short story "Sherlock, Shakespeare, and the Bomb," published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in February 1966.[http://www.quaggabooks.co.uk/eqmm/queen/1966.shtml List of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090330012351/http://www.quaggabooks.co.uk/eqmm/queen/1966.shtml |date=30 March 2009 }}

References

{{cite newspaper |title=Banesh Hoffmann, an author and collaborator of Einstein |author=Isabel Wilkerson |date=1986-08-06 |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/06/obituaries/banesh-hoffmann-an-author-and-collaborator-of-einstein.html |access-date=2024-08-29}}