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History and Philosophy of Physics papers — page 58

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Men will stretch out their eyes: Or, What happened to Christopher Wren's inaugural
A discussion of Christopher Wren's inaugural address of 1657, and how it came to be widely misquoted so as to appear to be referring to the future discovery of exoplanets instead of contemporary…
Robert I McLachlanSep 5, 2019
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Oral History Interview with Marcello Cresti
Marcello Cresti graduated in Physics in 1950 at the University of Pisa by attending the Scuola Normale Superiore; he became professor of Experimental Physics in Padua in 1965, and then Rector of the…
Marcello Cresti, Alessandro De AngelisSep 2, 2019
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Defining of three-dimensional acceleration and inertial mass leading to the simple form F=MA of relativistic motion equation
Newton second law of dynamics is a law of motion but also a useful definition of force (F=MA) or inertial mass (M=F/A), assuming a definition of acceleration and parallelism of force and…
Grzegorz M. KoczanAug 30, 2019
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Straddling between determinism and randomness: Chaos theory vis-a-vis Leibniz
The problematic relationship between science and philosophy has, since the beginning of modernity, divided the world into two separate domains: nature and human. Some of today's schools of philosophy…
Vedad Famourzadeh, Maysam SefidkhoshAug 30, 2019
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The ontological identity of empirical indiscernibles: Leibniz's methodological principle and its significance in the work of Einstein
This article explores the following methodological principle for theory construction in physics: if an ontological theory predicts two scenarios that are ontologically distinct but empirically…
Robert W. SpekkensAug 29, 2019
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Why Halley did not discover proper motion and why Cassini did
In 1717 Halley compared contemporaneous measurements of the latitudes of four stars with earlier measurements by ancient Greek astronomers and by Brahe, and from the differences concluded that these…
Frank Verbunt, Marc van der SluysAug 29, 2019
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Strong emergence in condensed matter physics
This paper argues that the physics of condensed matter cannot be fully reduced to the supposedly fundamental quantum mechanical theory for all the atoms of which the system consists. In fact, there…
Barbara DrosselAug 28, 2019
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Nonconservation of Energy and Loss of Determinism II: Colliding with an Open Set
An actual infinity of colliding balls can be in a configuration in which the laws of mechanics lead to logical inconsistency. It is argued that one should therefore limit the domain of these laws to…
David Atkinson, Porter JohnsonAug 26, 2019
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Paisaje celeste y arqueoastronom\'ia: las iglesias hist\'oricas como indicadores de la planimetr\'ia de una ciudad ideal
According to popular tradition, the Canarian city of San Cristobal de La Laguna, a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1999, emerged in the early sixteenth century with a novel organization, in line…
Alejandro GanguiAug 26, 2019
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Nonconservation of Energy and Loss of Determinism I. Infinitely Many Balls
An infinite number of elastically colliding balls is considered in a classical, and then in a relativistic setting. Energy and momentum are not necessarily conserved globally, even though each…
David Atkinson, Porter JohnsonAug 26, 2019
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Stern-Gerlach: conceptually clean or acceptably vague?
This paper develops a number of quantum mechanical characterisations of Stern-Gerlach. It discusses areas of vagueness in their formulation. Philosophers criticise quantum mechanics for unacceptable…
Robert ShawAug 22, 2019
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Challenges for the periodic systems of elements: chemical, historical and mathematical perspectives
Unveiling numerical trends among either atomic or equivalent weights that somehow preserved resemblances among elements was frequent in the 1860s. Standing out from the crowd, Meyer and Mendeleev…
Restrepo GuillermoAug 20, 2019
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General Relativity, Mental Causation, and Energy Conservation
The conservation of energy and momentum have been viewed as undermining Cartesian mental causation since the 1690s. Modern discussions of the topic tend to use mid-19th century physics, neglecting…
J. Brian PittsAug 20, 2019
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En busca de los efectos gravitacionales de Birkhoff: la ultracentrfuga transelastica
This work reviews the origin, development, completion, and outcome of a trans-elastic ultracentrifuge project of Mexico's Nuclear Center through 1971 to 1986. The project had its origin in the search…
S. Galindo, C. Cabrera, Jorge L. Cervantes-CotaAug 12, 2019
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Leibniz Equivalence, Newton Equivalence, and Substantivalism
Active diffeomorphisms map a differentiable manifold to itself. They transform manifold points and objects without changing the system of local coordinates used to represent those objects. What has…
Oliver Davis JohnsAug 12, 2019
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Luis Santal\'o and classical field theory
Considered one of the founding fathers of integral geometry, Luis Santal\'o has contributed to various areas of mathematics. His work has applications in number theory, in the theory of differential…
Mariano Galvagno, Gaston GiribetAug 8, 2019
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"Sufficiently Advanced Technology" for Gravitational Wave Detection
The science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke wrote, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." While not magical by any means, the technology used to detect gravitational…
Peter R. SaulsonAug 7, 2019
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An "anti-system" ontology of quantum physics, as derived from two Einstein's conceptions of physical theories. Quantum physics as a theory of general relativity of experimental context
In glaring contrast to its indisputable century-old experimental success, the ultimate objects and meaning of quantum physics remain a matter of vigorous debate among physicists and philosophers of…
Thierry BatardJul 31, 2019
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Randomness? What randomness?
This is a review of the issue of randomness in quantum mechanics, with special emphasis on its ambiguity; for example, randomness has different antipodal relationships to determinism, computability,…
Klaas LandsmanJul 30, 2019
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Eddington, Lemaitre and the hypothesis of cosmic expansion
Arthur Stanley Eddington was one of the leading astronomers and theorists of his generation and a prominent proponent of the general theory of relativity. Yet when his former assistant Georges…
Cormac O'RaifeartaighJul 29, 2019
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The Culture of Exploratory Experimentation at CERN and the Future Colliders
We have become witnesses, as of late, to the development of an expansive and fertile debate regarding the implementation of future colliders, both within the confines of the scientific community, as…
Grigoris PanoutsopoulosJul 27, 2019
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Sudarshan Memorial Lecture
In this invited talk, I discuss four important contributions of E.C.G. Sudarshan, among many. They are the V-A theory of weak interaction, Sudarshan - Glauber representation, tachyons and the quantum…
R ParthasarathyJul 26, 2019
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The Einstein-Bohr debate: finding a common ground of understanding ?
After reminding the main issues at stake in the famous Einstein-Bohr debate initiated in 1935, we tentatively propose a way to get them closer, thus shedding a new light on this historical discussion.
Nayla Farouki, Philippe GrangierJul 25, 2019
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100 years of the first experimental test of General Relativity
Einsteins general theory of relativity is one of the most important accomplishments in the history of science. Its experimental verification a century ago is therefore an essential milestone that is…
Luís C. B. Crispino, Daniel KennefickJul 24, 2019
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Neutrino Physics in Historical Context
This contribution aims to give an overview of the historical context of neutrino physics. I will present the strong social trends that shaped physics and the way physicists worked, along the 20th…
Quentin RodriguezJul 24, 2019
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