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History and Philosophy of Physics papers — page 78

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Genesis of general relativity - a concise exposition
This short exposition starts with a brief discussion of situation before the completion of special relativity (Le Verrier's discovery of the Mercury perihelion advance anomaly, Michelson-Morley…
Wei-Tou NiDec 30, 2016
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Introducing AstroGen: The Astronomy Genealogy Project
The Astronomy Genealogy Project ("AstroGen"), a project of the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), will soon appear on the AAS website. Ultimately, it…
Joseph S. TennDec 28, 2016
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Astronomical and Historical Evaluation of Molnar's Solution for the Star of Bethlehem
Previously, the most prominent explanation for the Star of Bethlehem was to identify one of many astronomical events in the sky as being the inspiration for the trip of the Magi. However, all the…
Bradley E. SchaeferDec 19, 2016
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Royal mausoleums of the Western-Han and of the Song Chinese dynasties: a contextual approach
The mausoleums of the emperors and of some members of the royal family of the Western Han Chinese dynasty, popularly known as Chinese pyramids, are a spectacular ensemble of tombs covered by a huge…
Giulio MagliDec 18, 2016
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La scala dell'energia
In this article, halfway between popularized exposition and historical account, some key moments in the development of atomic theory in its beginnings are discussed. In particular, the events and the…
A. M. Aloisi, P. F. NaliDec 18, 2016
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The Prototype of Ancient Analemmatic Sundials (Rostov Oblast, Russia)
The article presents the results of a study of petroglyphs on a unique stone slab discovered near the kurgan 1 of the kurgan field Varvarinsky I (Rostov Oblast, Russia). During the study was done…
L. N. Vodolazhskaya, P. A. Larenok, M. Yu NevskyDec 14, 2016
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Image of Inverted World Tree on the Stone Slab and Vessels of the Bronze Age
The article presents the results of the study of petroglyphs on a unique stone slab discovered near the kurgan 1 of the kurgan field Varvarinsky I (Rostov Oblast, Russia). Analysis of features of the…
L. N. Vodolazhskaya, P. A. Larenok, M. Yu. NevskyDec 14, 2016
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The Ancient Astronomy of Easter Island: The Mamari Tablet Tells (Part 1)
The ancient priest-astronomers constantly watched many heavenly bodies. The record about Halley's Comet of 1682 A.D. has been decoded completely. Good agreement between it and the results of…
Sergei RjabchikovDec 12, 2016
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Records of sunspot and aurora activity during 581-959 CE in Chinese official histories in the periods of Suí, Táng, and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms
Recent studies of radioisotopes in tree rings or ice cores suggest that extreme space weather events occurred in the pre-telescope age. Observational records of naked-eye sunspots and low-latitude…
Harufumi Tamazawa, Akito Davis Kawamura, Hisashi Hayakawa et al.Dec 10, 2016
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A Look Back at the Ehrenfest Classification. Translation and Commentary of Ehrenfest's 1933 paper introducing the notion of phase transitions of different order
A translation of Paul Ehrenfest's 1933 paper, entitled "Phase transitions in the usual and generalized sense, classified according to the singularities of the thermodynamic potential" is…
Tilman SauerDec 9, 2016
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Georges Lemaître: Life, Science and Legacy
This paper celebrates the remarkable life, science and legacy of Abbé Georges Lemaître, the Belgian cleric and professor of physics; he was the architect of the fireworks model for the origin of the…
Simon MittonDec 9, 2016
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Chasing Individuation: Mathematical Description of Physical Systems
This work is a conceptual analysis of certain recent developments in the mathematical foundations of Classical and Quantum Mechanics which have allowed to formulate both theories in a common…
Federico ZalameaDec 9, 2016
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The golden age of Calcutta physics: Difficulties in reconstructing the history
Classes started in the newly established Physics Department of Calcutta University Science College in 1916. Raman, Bose and Saha were three young members of the small physics faculty consisting of…
Arnab Rai ChoudhuriDec 8, 2016
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Against free will in the contemporary natural sciences
The claim of the freedom of the will (understood as an individual who is transcendent to Nature) in the name of XXth century scientific knowledge, against the perspective of XVIIIth-XIXth century…
Martin Lopez-CorredoiraDec 5, 2016
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Some rekarks on the early history of the Albert Einstein Institute
The genesis of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) after German re-unification as described here, shows that the history of the founding of the institute is…
Hubert GoennerDec 5, 2016
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Surveying the Attitudes of Physicists Concerning Foundational Issues of Quantum Mechanics
Even though quantum mechanics has existed for almost 100 years, questions concerning the foundation and interpretation of the theory still remain. These issues have gathered more attention in recent…
Sujeevan Sivasundaram, Kristian Hvidtfelt NielsenDec 2, 2016
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Kant and Quantum Gravity
In quantum gravity space and time lose their status as fundamental parts of the physical reality. However, according to Kant, space and time are the a priori conditions of our experience. Does…
Özge Ekin GünNov 30, 2016
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My Century of Physics
A short autobiography written for a centennial party.
Robert J. FinkelsteinNov 30, 2016
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Nietzsche for physicists
One of the most important philosophers in history, the German Friedrich Nietzsche, is almost ignored by physicists. This author who declared the death of God in the 19th century was a science…
Juliano C. S. NevesNov 24, 2016
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Breaking symmetry, breaking ground
I give a short commentary on a seminal article by T W B Kibble in 1976, "Topology of cosmic domains and strings".
Mark HindmarshNov 23, 2016
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The Ancient Astronomy of Easter Island: Canopus and the Legendary King Hotu-Matua
Watchings of Canopus as a herald of the winter were important duties of ancient priests-astronomers on Easter Island. All the analysed data witness that this star was observed during the first and…
Sergei RjabchikovNov 23, 2016
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The Coriolis Effect Further Described in the Seventeenth Century
Claude Francis Milliet Dechales described the Coriolis effect in his 1674 Cursus seu Mundus Mathematicus. Dechales discussed and illustrated the deflection of both falling bodies and of projectiles…
Christopher M. GraneyNov 23, 2016
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TOV or OV?, the whole story
In a recent manuscript published in the Arxives (arXiv:1610.03049v1), it is claimed that it should be more appropriate to refer to the equation of hydrostatic equilibrium in a static spherically…
L. HerreraNov 19, 2016
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Matching the Unmatchable. Complexity Theory and Quantum Theory
This is a philosophical paper. It claims that there is a gap to be filled in the relationship between complexity theory (CT) and quantum theory (QT). This gap concerns two very distinct…
Carlos Eduardo MaldonadoNov 17, 2016
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Introduction to "Standing together in Troubled Times"
This Introduction opens the book Standing Together in Troubled Times which presents a story of friendship between Wolfgang Pauli, one of the greatest theoretical physicists of the 20th century,…
M. ShifmanNov 9, 2016
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