How to structure a history of space-time for a BSc project

[pachelbel]

Non-maths general question on history of space time :)

Hello,

I'm doing a Bsc project on space-time and was hoping to receive some advice on how others would structure the history of the topic. I know this is a broad question but what I'm struggling with is how to narrow down the relevant contributors, I don't want to miss out key people involved in its evolution but I also don't want to unnecessarily take up words.

For instance I was thinking of explaining the history in this order:

Galileo
Newton/Leibniz
Mach
Lorentz
Einstein

But then I feel like I should involve for example Michael Faraday & Maxwell's Energy/speed of light contribution or should I just sub-heading that under Einstein where relevant?

I'm new to this forum so I hope this question is appropriate for this section.

Appreciate any help I can get, thanks! :)

 

[member 553083]

The short answer is that it depends on the scope of your project. If you're looking for a broad overview, then including Galileo, Newton/Leibniz, Mach, Lorentz and Einstein is a good start. However, if your project is more focused, then you could expand on other contributors such as Michael Faraday and Maxwell. You could also include notable figures such as Henri Poincaré, Hermann Minkowski, and Karl Schwarzschild. It may also be worth mentioning some of the philosophical implications of space-time, such as the block universe theory and the concept of spacetime as an arena for physical events.