Heinrich Hertz: Classical Physicist, Modern Philosopher

Heinrich Hertz: Classical Physicist, Modern Philosopher PDF Author: D. Baird
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401588554
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
The sub-title of this symposium is accurate and, in a curious way, promises more than it states: Classical Physicist, Modem Philosopher. Heinrich Hertz, as the con summate experimentalist of 19th century technique and as brilliant clarifying critic of physical theory of his time, achieved one of the fulfilments but at the same time opened one of the transition points of classical physics. Thus, in his 'popular' lecture 'On the Relations Between Light and Electricity' at Heidelberg in the Fall of 1889, Hertz identified the ether as henceforth the most fundamental problem of physics, as the conceptual mystery but also the key to understanding mass, electric ity, and gravity. Of Hertz's demonstration of electric waves, Helmholtz told the Physical Society of Berlin: "Gentlemen! I have to communicate to you today the most important physical discovery of the century. " Hertz, philosophizing in his direct, lucid, pithy style, once wrote "We have to imagine". Perhaps this is metaphysics on the horizon? In the early pages of his Principles of Mechanics, we read A doubt which makes an impression on our mind cannot be removed by calling it metaphysical: every thoughtful mind as such has needs which scientific men are accustomed to denote as metaphysical. (PM23) And at another place, concerning the terms 'force' and 'electricity' and the alleged mystery of their natures, Hertz wrote: We have an obscure feeling of this and want to have things cleared up.

Heinrich Hertz: Classical Physicist, Modern Philosopher

Heinrich Hertz: Classical Physicist, Modern Philosopher PDF Author: D. Baird
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401588554
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Get Book

Book Description
The sub-title of this symposium is accurate and, in a curious way, promises more than it states: Classical Physicist, Modem Philosopher. Heinrich Hertz, as the con summate experimentalist of 19th century technique and as brilliant clarifying critic of physical theory of his time, achieved one of the fulfilments but at the same time opened one of the transition points of classical physics. Thus, in his 'popular' lecture 'On the Relations Between Light and Electricity' at Heidelberg in the Fall of 1889, Hertz identified the ether as henceforth the most fundamental problem of physics, as the conceptual mystery but also the key to understanding mass, electric ity, and gravity. Of Hertz's demonstration of electric waves, Helmholtz told the Physical Society of Berlin: "Gentlemen! I have to communicate to you today the most important physical discovery of the century. " Hertz, philosophizing in his direct, lucid, pithy style, once wrote "We have to imagine". Perhaps this is metaphysics on the horizon? In the early pages of his Principles of Mechanics, we read A doubt which makes an impression on our mind cannot be removed by calling it metaphysical: every thoughtful mind as such has needs which scientific men are accustomed to denote as metaphysical. (PM23) And at another place, concerning the terms 'force' and 'electricity' and the alleged mystery of their natures, Hertz wrote: We have an obscure feeling of this and want to have things cleared up.

Thing Knowledge

Thing Knowledge PDF Author: Davis Baird
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520232496
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
"Davis Baird's Thing Knowledge uses instruments to do philosophy. Grappling with a wonderful assortment of objects—from antique orreries to modern spectrographs—he draws the reader deep into fascinating questions about the nature of knowledge. All too often, the knowledge Baird pursues here has been obscured by accounts that reduce understanding to theory. By contrast, in this rich text Baird shows the myriad of ways that models and devices do work in science: by representing, by manipulating, by measuring, and by calculating. This is a book as lucid on the semantic account of theories as it is on the inner workings of the cyclotron; it is a book that brings the laboratory to philosophers and philosophy into the laboratory."—Peter Galison, author of Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps: Empires of Time "Davis Baird has given us something new and demanding to think about: namely, in addition to propositional knowledge, he argues, there is 'thing knowledge.' That is, scientific instruments embody or encapsulate knowledge in ways that most often not transparent. In making his case, Baird forces us to reconceptualize how we go about doing science and how to understand the product of human labor, both intellectual and manual. Thing Knowledge is must reading for anyone interested in the development of science and its attendant technologies."—Joseph C. Pitt, author of Thinking About Technology: Foundations of the Philosophy of Technology "Over the years the new frontier in philosophy of science has been on logic, then on theories to most recently on models and experimentation. Davis Baird goes one step further and considers the 'immediate' kind of knowledge embodied by scientific instruments and devices. His book is highly thought provoking and will become a classic source."—Eric Scerri, UCLA, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and editor of Foundations of Chemistry. "From the air pump to the dynamo to the cyclotron, machines have played key roles in the development of scientific knowledge. Here, for the first time, Davis Baird looks at those machines as actual forms of scientific knowledge. Baird moves adeptly from historical case study to philosophical explanation in this convincing study of the material culture of science."—Ann Johnson, Department of History, Fordham University

The Creation of Scientific Effects

The Creation of Scientific Effects PDF Author: Jed Z. Buchwald
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226078914
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
This book is an attempt to reconstitute the tacit knowledge—the shared, unwritten assumptions, values, and understandings—that shapes the work of science. Jed Z. Buchwald uses as his focus the social and intellectual world of nineteenth-century German physics. Drawing on the lab notes, published papers, and unpublished manuscripts of Heinrich Hertz, Buchwald recreates Hertz's 1887 invention of a device that produced electromagnetic waves in wires. The invention itself was serendipitous and the device was quickly transformed, but Hertz's early experiments led to major innovations in electrodynamics. Buchwald explores the difficulty Hertz had in reconciling the theories of other physicists, including Hermann von Helmholtz and James Clerk Maxwell, and he considers the complex and often problematic connections between theory and experiment. In this first detailed scientific biography of Hertz and his scientific community, Buchwald demonstrates that tacit knowledge can be recovered so that we can begin to identify the unspoken rules that govern scientific practice.

Symbol and Physical Knowledge

Symbol and Physical Knowledge PDF Author: M. Ferrari
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3662048558
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
Introduces the problem of the symbolic structure of physics, surveys the modern history of symbols, proceeds to an epistemological discussion of the role of symbols in our knowledge of nature, and addresses key issues related to the methodology of physics and the character of its symbolic structures.

Neo-Classical Physics or Quantum Mechanics?

Neo-Classical Physics or Quantum Mechanics? PDF Author: Dilip D James
Publisher: Educreation Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
There is an uncanny resemblance between Christianity in the middle ages and Physics in the twenty-first century. Formerly, the common man could neither read nor understand the scriptures, as they were written in Latin; the clergy had to interpret the scriptures for the laity with predictable results. Physics in the twenty-first century is similar. Only mathematicians with doctoral degree can understand the universe and how it works, to the rest of mankind the universe is an area of darkness. This is not by any means a desirable development. As human beings, we are all sentient individuals and as such are expected to enquire about our environment, the world around us, and the universe we live in. On a fundamental philosophical basis, it is wrong to believe that such knowledge, whether by circumstance or by design, is limited to a privileged few. This book explains the universe for the first time in a way that is comprehensible to everyone. Neo-classical physics undertakes the study of the behaviour of the universe as an entity, and the physics of sub-atomic particles is easy to understand in everyday terms. Neo-classical physics is the language that sets you free – free to see, free to comprehend and free to wonder anew.

Encyclopedia of Radio 3-Volume Set

Encyclopedia of Radio 3-Volume Set PDF Author: Christopher H. Sterling
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135456496
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 2848

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Book Description
Produced in association with the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago, the Encyclopedia of Radio includes more than 600 entries covering major countries and regions of the world as well as specific programs and people, networks and organizations, regulation and policies, audience research, and radio's technology. This encyclopedic work will be the first broadly conceived reference source on a medium that is now nearly eighty years old, with essays that provide essential information on the subject as well as comment on the significance of the particular person, organization, or topic being examined.

Proceedings, American Philosophical Society (vol. 140, No. 3, 1996)

Proceedings, American Philosophical Society (vol. 140, No. 3, 1996) PDF Author:
Publisher: American Philosophical Society
ISBN: 9781422370063
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description


Classical Mechanics and Quantum Mechanics: An Historic-Axiomatic Approach

Classical Mechanics and Quantum Mechanics: An Historic-Axiomatic Approach PDF Author: Peter Enders
Publisher: Bentham Science Publishers
ISBN: 1681084503
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
This unique textbook presents a novel, axiomatic pedagogical path from classical to quantum physics. Readers are introduced to the description of classical mechanics, which rests on Euler’s and Helmholtz’s rather than Newton’s or Hamilton’s representations. Special attention is given to the common attributes rather than to the differences between classical and quantum mechanics. Readers will also learn about Schrödinger’s forgotten demands on quantization, his equation, Einstein’s idea of ‘quantization as selection problem’. The Schrödinger equation is derived without any assumptions about the nature of quantum systems, such as interference and superposition, or the existence of a quantum of action, h. The use of the classical expressions for the potential and kinetic energies within quantum physics is justified. Key features: · Presents extensive reference to original texts. · Includes many details that do not enter contemporary representations of classical mechanics, although these details are essential for understanding quantum physics. · Contains a simple level of mathematics which is seldom higher than that of the common (Riemannian) integral. · Brings information about important scientists · Carefully introduces basic equations, notations and quantities in simple steps This book addresses the needs of physics students, teachers and historians with its simple easy to understand presentation and comprehensive approach to both classical and quantum mechanics..

Mechanistic Images in Geometric Form

Mechanistic Images in Geometric Form PDF Author: Jesper Lützen
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 0198567375
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
Moreover, the book presents an analysis of the genesis of many of the central elements of Hertz's mechanics based on his manuscripts and drafts."--Jacket.

L.I. Mandelstam and His School in Physics

L.I. Mandelstam and His School in Physics PDF Author: Alexander Pechenkin
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030176851
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
This biography of the famous Soviet physicist Leonid Isaakovich Mandelstam (1889–1944), who became a Professor at Moscow State University in 1925 and an Academician (the highest scientific title in the USSR) in 1929, describes his contributions to both physics and technology. It also discusses the scientific community that formed around him, commonly known as the Mandelstam School. By doing so, it places Mandelstam’s life story in its cultural context: the context of German University (until 1914), the First World War, the Civil War, and the development of the Socialist Revolution (until 1925) and the young socialist country. The book considers various general issues, such as the impact of German scientific culture on Russian science; the problems and fates of Russian intellectuals during the revolutionary and post-revolutionary years; the formation of the Soviet Academy of Science, the State Academy; and the transformation of the system of higher education in the USSR during the 1920s and 1930s. Further, it reconstructs Mandelstam’s philosophy of science and his approach to the social and ethical function of science and science education based on his fundamental writings and lecture notes. This reconstruction is enhanced by extensive use of previously unpublished archive material as well as the transcripts of personal interviews conducted by the author. The book also discusses the biographies of Mandelstam’s friends and collaborators: German mathematician and philosopher Richard von Mises, Soviet Communist Party official and philosopher B.M.Hessen, Russian specialist in radio engineering N.D.Papalexy, the specialists in non-linear dynamics A.A.Andronov, S.E. Chaikin, A.A.Vitt and the plasma physicist M.A.Leontovich. This second, extended edition reconstructs the social and economic backgrounds of Mandelstam and his colleagues, describing their positions at the universities and the institutes belonging to the Academy of Science. Additionally, Mandelstam’s philosophy of science is investigated in connection with the ideological attacks that occurred after Mandelstam’s death, particularly the great mathematician A.D.Alexandrov’s criticism of Mandelstam’s operationalism.