Joseph Lovering

Joseph Lovering (25 December 1813 – 18 January 1892) was an American mathematician, astronomer, physicist, and Harvard University's Hollis Professor Mathematics and Natural Philosophy from 1838 to 1888. He was elected in 1839 a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in 1873 a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and in 1881 a Member to the American Philosophical Society. He was the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for the academic year 1873–1874.

On the Velocity of Light and the Sun's Distance (1863)

• Foucault’s recent experiment on the velocity of light, though of a less popular character than his celebrated pendulum experiment to prove the earth's rotation, will, nevertheless, attract even more attention among men of science. If its results are placed beyond doubt, they will affect astronomy to a degree not possible for the pendulum experiment, unless it had come as early as the time of Galileo.
  • (September 1863) "Article XV.—On the Velocity of Light and the Sun's Distance". The American Journal of Science and Arts 36 (107): 161–172. (quote from p. 161)

• It may excite surprise in those who have heard of the accuracy of astronomy, without weighing the exact significance of the word as applied to so large a subject, that there should still be a lingering uncertainty, to the extent of three or four millions of miles, in the sun’s distance from the earth. But the error, whatever it is, is propagated from the solar system into the deepest spaces whIch the telescope has ever traversed. The sun’s distance is the measuring rod with which the astronomer metes out the distances of the fixed stars and the dimensions of stellar orbits. An error of three per cent in the sun's distance entails an error of three per cent in all these other distances and dimensions. Trifling as three per cent may seem, the correction runs up to 600,000 millions of miles in the distance of the nearest fixed star.
  • p. 172

The Mathematical and Philosophical State of the Physical Sciences (1874)

• The luminiferous æther and the undulatory theory of light have always troubled what is supposed to be the imperturbable character of the mathematics. The proof of a theory is indisputable when it can predict consequences, and call successfully upon the observer to fulfill its prophecies. It is the boast of astronomers that the law of gravitation thus vindicates itself. The undulatory theory of light has shown a wonderful facility of adaptation to each new exigency in optics, and has opened the eye of observation to see what might never have been discovered without the promptings of theory. But this doctrine, and that of gravitation also, have more than once been arrested in their swift march and obliged to show their credentials. After Fresnel and Young had secured a firm foothold for Huyghens's theory of light in mechanics and experiment, questions arose which have perplexed, if not baffled, the best mathematical skill. How is the ether affected by the gross matter which it invests and permeates? Does it move when they move? If not, does the relative motion between the ether and other matter change the length of the undulation or the time of oscillation?
  • LXVI. The mathematical and philosophical state of the physical sciences. 48. 493–507.  (quote from p. 493; from the August 1874 address delivered at Hartford, Connecticut by Prof. Lovering upon his retirement as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science)

• Maxwell cut the Gordian knot when he selected the luminiferous æther itself as the arena on which to marshal the electromagnetic forces under the symbols of his mathematics and made light a variety of electromagnetic action. ... Clear physical views must precede the application of mathematics to any subject. Maxwell and Thomson are liberal in their acknowledgments to Faraday.
  • p. 499

• It is not expected that the new views of physics will be generally accepted without vigorous opposition. A large amount of intellectual capital has been honestly invested in the fortunes of the other side. The change is recommended by powerful physical arguments, and it disenthralls the theories of science from many metaphysical difficulties which weigh heavily on some minds. On the other hand, the style of mathematics which the innovation introduces is novel and complex; and good mathematicians may find it necessary to go to school again before they can read and understand the strange analysis. It is feared, that with many, who are not easily deflected from the old ruts, the intricacies of the new mathematics will outweigh the superiority of the new physics.
• p. 500

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Joseph Lovering on Wikipedia
• Benjamin Osgood Peirce, Biographical Memoir of Joseph Lovering, 1813-1892. Vol. 6 of Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences. 1909.