Skip to content

History and Philosophy of Physics papers — page 131

physics.hist-phBrowse archive

On Boltzmann's genius and thermodynamics
A recent essay [1] reminds us of how richly Boltzmann deserves to be admiringly commemorated for the originality of his ideas on the occasion of his 150th birthday. Without any doubt, the scientific…
Elias P. GyftopoulosOct 11, 2007
Learn
The History of the Particle Data Group at KEK in the 1970s
This submission has been withdrawn by arXiv admins because there was an erroneous author included in the original version.
Kouji Hirata, Fumiyo UchiyamaOct 5, 2007
Learn
Einstein's Lost Battles and Neglected Achievements
We analyze some of Einstein's failures to accomplish tasks which he posed to himself, notably deterministic interpretation of Quantum mechanics and formulation of the Unified theory of physical…
Petar GrujicSep 28, 2007
Learn
Pascual Jordan's resolution of the conundrum of the wave-particle duality of light
In 1909, Einstein derived a formula for the mean square energy fluctuation in black-body radiation. This formula is the sum of a wave term and a particle term. In a key contribution to the 1925…
Anthony Duncan, Michel JanssenSep 24, 2007
Learn
L'articolo di Ettore Majorana su "Il valore delle Leggi Statistiche nella Fisica e nelle Scienze Sociali" (Ettore Majorana's article on "The value of Statistical Laws in Physics and in Social Sciences")
The mentioned article was written by Ettore Majorana, in a partially educational way, for a journal of Sociology; but he gave up publishing it (and threw it away). It appeared posthumous, thanks to…
Erasmo RecamiSep 21, 2007
Learn
The interpretation of the Einstein-Rupp experiments and their influence on the history of quantum mechanics
The Einstein-Rupp experiments were proposed in 1926 by Albert Einstein to study the wave versus particle nature of light. Einstein presented a theoretical analysis of these experiments to the Berlin…
Jeroen van DongenSep 20, 2007
Learn
Some epistemic questions of cosmology
We discuss a number of fundamental aspects of modern cosmological concepts, from the phenomenological, observational, theoretical and epistemic points of view. We argue that the modern cosmology,…
Petar V. GrujicSep 20, 2007
Learn
Emil Rupp, Albert Einstein and the canal ray experiments on wave-particle duality: Scientific fraud and theoretical bias
In 1926 Emil Rupp published a number of papers on the interference properties of light emitted by canal ray sources. These articles, particularly one paper that came into being in collaboration with…
Jeroen van DongenSep 19, 2007
Learn
Einstein e il Rinnovamento delle Scienze (Einstein and the Renewal of Science)
As it is well-known, the year 2005 has been the centenary of the "annus mirabilis" (1905) during which Albert Einstein published four fundamental papers of his. But already in 1979, for the centenary…
Erasmo RecamiSep 18, 2007
Learn
Kurt Goedel and His Universe
A portrait of Kurt Goedel with emphasis on his work on relativity theory and idealistic philosophy.
Ivan TodorovSep 10, 2007
Learn
Trouble with Physics?
This is a review of Lee Smolin's "The Trouble with Physics". The main gist of the review is that the physics of the past three decades has been rich with new discoveries in a large number…
J. HarnadSep 10, 2007
Learn
The Scientific Manuscripts left Unpublished by Ettore Majorana (with outlines of his life and work)
We present a panoramic view of the main scientific manuscripts left unpublished by the brightest Italian theoretical physicist of the XX century, Ettore Majorana. We deal in particular: (i) with his…
Erasmo Recami, Salvatore EspositoSep 8, 2007
Learn
Ettore Majorana's Inaugural Lecture on Theoretical Physics (Naples, Italy; Jan.13, 1938)
Ettore Majorana was a member of Enrico Fermi's research group in Rome, Italy. Fermi did regard Majorana as much brihter than himself as far as theoretical physics was concerned (more information can…
Bruno Preziosi, Erasmo RecamiSep 6, 2007
Learn
Not Only Because of Theory: Dyson, Eddington and the Competing Myths of the 1919 Eclipse Expedition
The 1919 Eclipse Expedition to test the light-bending prediction of General Relativity remains one of the most famous physics experiments of the 20th century. However, in recent decades it has been…
Daniel KennefickSep 5, 2007
Learn
Examples of the Zeroth Theorem of the History of Physics
The zeroth theorem of the history of science (enunciated by E. P. Fischer) and widely known in the mathematics community as Arnol'd's Principle (decreed by M. V. Berry), states that a…
J. D. JacksonAug 30, 2007
Learn
The beginning of string theory: a historical sketch
In this note we follow the historical development of the ideas that led to the formulation of String Theory. We start from the inspired guess of Veneziano and its extension to the scattering of N…
Paolo Di Vecchia, Adam SchwimmerAug 29, 2007
Learn
Akhet Khufu: archaeo-astronomical hints at a common project of the two main pyramids of Giza, Egypt
The architectural complexes composed by the two main pyramids of Giza together with their temples are investigated from an inter-disciplinary point of view, taking into account their astronomical…
Giulio MagliAug 27, 2007
Learn
Ettore Majorana's Scientific (and Human) Personality
This article, in English, represents part of the invited talk delivered by the author at the "Internat.Conf.Majorana Legacy and Phys. XXI century" held at Dep. of Phys.,University of Catania, Italy,…
Erasmo RecamiAug 21, 2007
Learn
Time Cycles in Indian Cosmology
In this article we review some key time cycles in ancient Indian astronomy, especially those that have emerged from researches in the past couple of decades expressing knowledge of the changing frame…
R. H. NarayanAug 3, 2007
Learn
The Physics of Maxwell's demon and information
Maxwell's demon was born in 1867 and still thrives in modern physics. He plays important roles in clarifying the connections between two theories: thermodynamics and information. Here, we present…
Koji Maruyama, Franco Nori, Vlatko VedralJul 23, 2007
Learn
The Scientific Method
The nature of the scientific method is controversial with claims that a single scientific method does not even exist. However the scientific method does exist. It is the building of logical and self…
B. K. JenningsJul 11, 2007
Learn
Albert Einstein - a Pious Atheist
We consider Einstein's attitude with regard to religion both from sociological and epistemological points of view. An attempt to put it into a wider socio-historical perspective has been made,…
V. Djokovic, P. GrujicJun 29, 2007
Learn
Hans-Juergen Treder and the discovery of confinement in Einstein's unified field theory
In the year 1957, when interest in Einstein's unified field theory was fading away for lack of understanding of its physical content, Treder performed a momentous critical analysis of the…
S. Antoci, D. -E. LiebscherJun 27, 2007
Learn
Possible astronomical references in the planning of the Great Hopewell Road
The possible existence of astronomical references in the planning of the so-called Great Hopewell Road, a 90 Kilometres straight road composed of two parallel earthen embankments which, according to…
Giulio MagliJun 9, 2007
Learn
Einstein in the crossroad of the sciences, arts and humanities
Western thinking underwent a turning point between 1885 and 1925. Einstein in 1905 symbolizes the emblematic hinge of this change of direction. To find an equivalent phenomenon in the past we need to…
Daniel SalomónJun 7, 2007
Learn
← PreviousPage 131Next →