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History and Philosophy of Physics papers — page 85

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Tribute to an astronomer: the work of Max Ernst on Wilhelm Tempel
In 1964-1974, the German artist Max Ernst created, with the help of two friends, a series of works (books, movie, paintings) related to the astronomer Wilhelm Tempel. Mixing actual texts by Tempel…
Yael NazeDec 17, 2015
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Pragmatic Information in Quantum Mechanics
An objective definition of pragmatic information and the consideration of recent results about information processing in the human brain can help overcome some traditional difficulties with the…
Juan G. RoedererDec 16, 2015
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How not to factor a miracle
Wigner's famous and influential claim that mathematics is "unreasonably effective" in physics is founded on unreasonable assumptions about the nature of mathematics and its independence…
Derek K. WiseDec 16, 2015
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Kinematics grounded on light
The space-time of modern physics is tailored on light. We rigorously construct the basic entities needed by kinematics: geometry of the physical space and time, using as tool electromagnetic waves,…
Zoltan NedaDec 11, 2015
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In Appreciation of Abner Shimony
Abner Shimony was an exceptional human being and a remarkably lucid and penetrating thinker whose work centered on some of the most significant physical and philosophical questions of his era at…
Gregg JaegerDec 10, 2015
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Quantity of Matter or Intrinsic Property: Why Mass Cannot Be Both
I analyze the meaning of mass in Newtonian mechanics. First, I explain the notion of primitive ontology, which was originally introduced in the philosophy of quantum mechanics. Then I examine the two…
Mario HubertDec 10, 2015
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And the math will set you free
Can mathematics help us find our way through all the wonders and mysteries of the universe? When physicists describe the laws governing the physical world, mathematics is always involved. Is this due…
O. C. StoicaDec 10, 2015
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Petrus Peregrinus of Maricourt and the Medieval Magnetism
Petrus Peregrinus of Maricourt, a 13th-century French scholar and engineer, wrote what we can consider as the first extant treatise on magnetism of Europe. This treatise is in the form of a letter,…
Amelia Carolina SparavignaDec 8, 2015
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The Baltic Meetings 1957 to 1967
The Baltic meetings of astronomers from Northern Germany and Scandinavia began in 1957 and gathered up to 70 participants. Reports of the presentations are available from all meetings, providing an…
Erik HøgDec 7, 2015
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Young astronomer in Denmark 1946 to 1958
This is a personal account of how I became an astronomer. Fascinated by the stars and planets in the dark sky over Lolland, an island 100 km south of Copenhagen, the interest in astronomy was…
Erik HøgDec 7, 2015
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Self-Reference, Biologic and the Structure of Reproduction
This paper concentrates on relationships of formal systems with biology. The paper is based on previous papers by the author. We have freely used texts of those papers where the formulations are of…
Louis H. KauffmanDec 7, 2015
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1932 Efforts of Persuasion on the Part of Einstein to Renounce the Cosmological Constant
Einstein's 1932 efforts of persuasion to renounce the cosmological constant and his possible influence on Robertson.
Galina WeinsteinDec 7, 2015
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"Relativistic" particle dynamics without relativity
It is shown that the correct expressions for momentum and kinetic energy of a particle moving at high speed were already implicit in physics going back to Maxwell. The demonstration begins with a…
Allan WalstadDec 4, 2015
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The Fourth Microlensing Planet Revisited
The fourth microlensing planet, otherwise known as OGLE-2005-BLG-169Lb, was discovered by a collaboration of US, NZ, Polish and UK astronomers in 2005-2006. Recently the results were confirmed by the…
Philip YockDec 4, 2015
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Relativity Theory Refounded
We put forward a new view of relativity theory that makes the existence of a flow of time compatible with the four-dimensional block universe. To this end, we apply the creation-discovery view…
Diederik AertsNov 27, 2015
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A Historical Discussion of Angular Momentum and its Euler Equation
We propose a discussion of angular momentum and its Euler equation, with the aim of giving a short outline of their history. This outline can be useful for teaching purposes too, to amend some…
Amelia Carolina SparavignaNov 23, 2015
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Nambu at Work
This paper is based on a talk delivered on 16 November, 2015 in Osaka at the Nambu's Century: International Symposium on Yoichiro Nambu's Physics
Peter G. O. FreundNov 22, 2015
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Rectification of position data of Scotland in Ptolemy's Geographike Hyphegesis
The ancient geographic coordinates given for places of Great Britain in Ptolemy's Geographike Hyphegesis are investigated by means of geodetic methods. The turning of Scotland to the east is…
Christian MarxNov 19, 2015
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Two-body problem in general relativity: A heuristic guide for the Einstein-Rosen bridge and EPR paradox
Between 1935 and 1936, Einstein was occupied with the Schwarzschild solution and the singularity within it while working in Princeton on the unified field theory and with his assistant Nathan Rosen,…
Galina WeinsteinNov 18, 2015
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Metaphysics of the Principle of Least Action
Despite the importance of the variational principles of physics, there have been relatively few attempts to consider them for a realistic framework. In addition to the old teleological question, this…
Vladislav TerekhovichNov 11, 2015
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Understanding the meaning of Greek temples' orientations. Akragas Valley of the Temples as a case study
The issue of the orientation of Greek Temples has been the subject of several debates since the end of the 19 century. In fact, although a general tendency to orientation within the arc of the rising…
Robert Hannah, Giulio Magli, Andrea OrlandoNov 8, 2015
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The dawn of mathematical biology
In this paper I describe the early development of the so-called mathematical biophysics, as conceived by Nicolas Rashevsky back in the 1920's, as well as his latter idealization of a…
Daniel Sander HoffmannNov 4, 2015
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General Relativity in Post Independence India
The most outstanding contribution to general relativity in this era came in 1953 (published in 1955 akr) in the form of the Raychaudhri equation. It is in 1960s that the observations began to…
Naresh DadhichNov 3, 2015
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Birth of colliding beams in Europe, two photon studies at Adone
This article recalls the birth of the first electron-positron storage ring AdA, and the construction of the higher energy collider ADONE, where early photon-photon collisions were observed. The…
Luisa Bonolis, Giulia PancheriNov 2, 2015
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Falsification or Confirmation: From Logic to Psychology
Corroboration or confirmation is a prominent philosophical debate of the 20th century. Many philosophers have been involved in this debate most notably the proponents of confirmation led by Hempel…
Roman LukyanenkoOct 30, 2015
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