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History and Philosophy of Physics papers — page 123

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Pascual Jordan's legacy and the ongoing research in quantum field theory
Pascual Jordan's path-breaking role as the protagonist of quantum field theory (QFT) is recalled and his friendly dispute with Dirac's particle-based relativistic quantum theory is presented…
Bert SchroerOct 21, 2010
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Professor C. N. Yang and Statistical Mechanics
Professor Chen Ning Yang has made seminal and influential contributions in many different areas in theoretical physics. This talk focuses on his contributions in statistical mechanics, a field in…
F. Y. WuOct 9, 2010
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Comets in Australian Aboriginal Astronomy
We present 25 accounts of comets from 40 Australian Aboriginal communities, citing both supernatural perceptions of comets and historical accounts of bright comets. Historical and ethnographic…
Duane W. Hamacher, Ray P. NorrisOct 5, 2010
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Astronomical Symbolism in Australian Aboriginal Rock Art
Traditional Aboriginal Australian cultures include a significant astronomical component, perpetuated through oral tradition and ceremony. This knowledge has practical navigational and calendrical…
Ray P. Norris, Duane W. HamacherSep 24, 2010
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Australian Aboriginal Geomythology: Eyewitness Accounts of Cosmic Impacts?
Descriptions of cosmic impacts and meteorite falls are found throughout Australian Aboriginal oral traditions. In some cases, these texts describe the impact event in detail, sometimes citing the…
Duane W. Hamacher, Ray P. NorrisSep 22, 2010
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The scientific legacy of J. P. Elliott
James Philip Elliott, one of the towering figures of nuclear physics of the second half of the twentieth century, died on the 21st of October 2008. Obituaries appeared in the British press but…
P. Van IsackerSep 20, 2010
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When Everything hinges On Gravitation
Newton's basic ideas developed and evolved throughout his career and changed in sometimes surprisingly profound ways. In this paper I propose an outline of the evolution of Newton's…
Karin VerelstSep 15, 2010
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Evolution of National Nobel Prize Shares in the 20th Century
We analyze the evolution of cumulative national shares of Nobel Prizes since 1901, properly taking into account that most prizes were divided among several laureates. We rank by citizenship at the…
Juergen SchmidhuberSep 14, 2010
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Una controversia historica al servicio de una situacion de aprendizaje: una reconstruccion didactica basada en Dialogo sobre los dos maximos sistemas del mundo de Galileo
It is difficult for the common sense to admit that an object dropped from the top of the mast of a ship moving at a constant velocity falls down at the bottom of the mast because it keeps inside the…
Cecile de HossonSep 3, 2010
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FAPP and Non-FAPP
This is a pedagogical discussion of the foundations of the quantum theory.
Jeremy BernsteinAug 25, 2010
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History of Scientists? Elimination of Naive Beliefs about Movement - The testing of the theories of Galileo in his lifetime on board of a galley -
Throughout the early history of Science the heliocentric world model was refused because it contradicted the thoughts of Aristotle and the medieval "Impetus" theory of movement. Even…
Matthias R. RischAug 25, 2010
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The Kantian Framework of Complementarity
A growing number of commentators have, in recent years, noted the important affinities in the views of Immanuel Kant and Niels Bohr. While these commentators are correct, the picture they present of…
Michael E. CuffaroAug 17, 2010
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Failed theories of superconductivity
Almost half a century passed between the discovery of superconductivity by Kamerlingh Onnes and the theoretical explanation of the phenomenon by Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer. During the intervening…
Joerg SchmalianAug 3, 2010
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The Stern Gerlach Experiment
We present a history and analysis of this experiment.
Jeremy BernsteinJul 14, 2010
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A Chorus of Bells
An account of some of the life and work of John Bell
Jeremy BernsteinJul 5, 2010
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Memories of Murray and the Quark Model
Life at Caltech with Murray Gell-Mann in the early 1960's is remembered. Our different paths to quarks, leading to different views of their reality, are described.
George ZweigJul 3, 2010
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Georg de Buquoy - Founder of Mathematical Economy with South Bohemian Roots
Georg de Buquoy, Lord de Vaux, lived in Nove Hrady, Prague and Cerveny Hradek for most of his productive life. From his extensive scientific contributions, both theoretical and experimental, we…
Dalibor Stys, Miroslav ValcihovaJul 3, 2010
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Accelerators Beyond The Tevatron?
Following the successful operation of the Fermilab superconducting accelerator three new higher energy accelerators were planned. They were the UNK in the Soviet Union, the LHC in Europe, and the SSC…
Joseph LachJun 30, 2010
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Fundamental Science and Improvement of the Quality of Life---Space Quantization to MRI
How the fundamental and purely quantum mechanical concept of space quantization and intrinsic spin led to totally unanticipated practical improvements to the Quality of Life such as Magnetic…
M. J. TannenbaumJun 29, 2010
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"Astronomy" or "astrology": a brief history of an apparent confusion
The modern usage of the words astronomy and astrology is traced back to distinctions, largely ignored in recent scholarship. Three interpretations of celestial phenomena (in a geometric, a…
A. LosevJun 27, 2010
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P.A.M. Dirac and the Discovery of Quantum Mechanics
Dirac's contributions to the discovery of non-relativistic quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, prior to his discovery of the relativistic wave equation, are described.
Kurt GottfriedJun 23, 2010
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Science for Peace in the Benefit of Humankind. The Hippocratic Oath for Scientists concept
This article shows the importance that has had the scientific research, the technological development and the innovation processes in increasing the lethality of the available weapons during the last…
Guillermo A. LemarchandJun 17, 2010
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Moving Charge Distributions in Classical Electromagnetism and the FitzGerald-Lorentz Contraction
In [Eur. J. Phys. 25 (2004) 123-126], Dragan V. Red zić is led to the FitzGerald-Lorentz contraction by comparing electromagnetic images of a moving point charge and a moving conducting…
Patrick MoylanJun 10, 2010
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Scientific Metaphors in the journalistic discourse
Scientific education and divulgation not only amplify people's vocabulary and repertory of scientific concepts but, at the same time, promote the diffusion of certain conceptual and cognitive…
Osame Kinouchi, Angélica A. MandráJun 6, 2010
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The Problem of the Observer in Physics
This paper has been withdrawn by the author. In this short paper I present a new approach to the problem of measurement, based on the difference between language (reality) and meta-language…
Davide BondoniJun 1, 2010
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