Essays in Physics

Essays in Physics PDF Author: Geoffrey Brooker
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198857241
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
Essays in Physics is a consideration of the more puzzling and exciting aspects of physics, including discussions of many errors and misconceptions in the field.

Essays in Physics

Essays in Physics PDF Author: Geoffrey Brooker
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198857241
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
Essays in Physics is a consideration of the more puzzling and exciting aspects of physics, including discussions of many errors and misconceptions in the field.

Basic Structures of Reality

Basic Structures of Reality PDF Author: Colin McGinn
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199909539
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
In Basic Structures of Reality, Colin McGinn deals with questions of metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of mind from the vantage point of physics. Combining general philosophy with physics, he covers such topics as the definition of matter, the nature of space, motion, gravity, electromagnetic fields, the character of physical knowledge, and consciousness and meaning. Throughout, McGinn maintains an historical perspective and seeks to determine how much we really know of the world described by physics. He defends a version of "structuralism": the thesis that our knowledge is partial and merely abstract, leaving a large epistemological gap at the center of physics. McGinn then connects this element of mystery to parallel mysteries in relation to the mind. Consciousness emerges as just one more mystery of physics. A theory of matter and space is developed, according to which the impenetrability of matter is explained as the deletion of volumes of space. McGinn proposes a philosophy of science that distinguishes physics from both psychology and biology, explores the ontology of energy, and considers the relevance of physics to seemingly remote fields such as the theory of meaning. In the form of a series of aphorisms, the author presents a metaphysical system that takes laws of nature as fundamental. With its broad scope and deep study of the fundamental questions at the heart of philosophy of physics, this book is not intended primarily for specialists, but for the general philosophical reader interested in how physics and philosophy intersect.

Physics Avoidance

Physics Avoidance PDF Author: Mark Wilson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198803478
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 446

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Book Description
Mark Wilson explores our strategies for understanding the world. We frequently cannot reason about nature in the straightforward manner we anticipate, but must use alternative thought processes that reach useful answers in opaque and roundabout ways; and philosophy must find better descriptive tools to reflect this.

Asymptotic Realms of Physics

Asymptotic Realms of Physics PDF Author: Francis Eugene Low
Publisher: MIT Press (MA)
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
The first few months of the universe, the MIT bag model, and grand unified theories are among the chief concerns of these essays and articles honoring MIT theoretical physicist Francis Low. The book opens with a cluster of dedicatory pieces by Murray Gell-Mann, Marvin L. Goldberger, Jeremy Bernstein, and Val L. Fitch. The remainder of the book consists of twenty technical essays by a small galaxy of distinguished scientists: Steven Weinberg; Kenneth A. Johnson; Sidney Drell; Geoffrey F. Chew; Mitchell J. Feigenbaum; Victor F. Weisskopf; Herman Feshbach; Carleton DeTar; John F. Donoghue; D. Danckaert, P. DeCausmaecker, R. Gastmans, W. Troost, and Tai Tsun Wu, writing jointly; Roman Jackiw; William I. Weisberger; Adrian Patrascioiu; Gino Segre; So-Young Î Asim Yildiz; Jogesh C. Pati, Abdus Salam, and J. Strathdee, in another collaborative contribution; and the three editors. Among the other topics are &"Why the Renormalization Group Is a Good Thing&" - the physics of asymptotic freedom - the topological bootstrap &"The Fixed Point of Classical Dynamical Evolution and Chaos&" - compound bags and hadron-hadron interactions - &"Gauge Invariance and Mass&" - Gribov ambiguities - &"The Simple Facts about the Baryon Asymmetry of the Universe&" - preons and supersymmetry - some speculations on the origin of the matter, energy, and entropy of the universe - the Chew-Low theory and the quark model - &"From Gell-Mann-Low to Unification.&" The editors are all affiliated with the Center for Theoretical Physics at MIT.

Physics in the Twentieth Century: Selected Essays

Physics in the Twentieth Century: Selected Essays PDF Author: Victor Frederick Weisskopf
Publisher: MIT Press (MA)
ISBN: 9780262230568
Category : Physics
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description


Space, Time, Matter, and Form

Space, Time, Matter, and Form PDF Author: David Bostock
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 9780191536847
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
Space, Time, Matter, and Form collects ten of David Bostock's essays on themes from Aristotle's Physics, four of them published here for the first time. The first five papers look at issues raised in the first two books of the Physics, centred on notions of matter and form, and the idea of substance as what persists through change. They also range over other of Aristotle's scientific works, such as his biology and psychology and the account of change in his De Generatione et Corruptione. The volume's remaining essays examine themes in later books of the Physics, including infinity, place, time, and continuity. Bostock argues that Aristotle's views on these topics are of real interest in their own right, independent of his notions of substance, form, and matter; they also raise some pressing problems of interpretation, which these essays seek to resolve.

The Legacy of Albert Einstein

The Legacy of Albert Einstein PDF Author: Spenta R. Wadia
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9812772715
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
This indispensable volume contains a compendium of articles covering a vast range of topics in physics which were begun or influenced by the works of Albert Einstein: special relativity, quantum theory, statistical physics, condensed matter physics, general relativity, geometry, cosmology and unified field theory. An essay on the societal role of Einstein is included. These articles, written by some of the renowned experts, offer an insider's view of the exciting world of fundamental science. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: Einstein and the Search for Unification (625 KB). Contents: Einstein and the Search for Unification (D Gross); Einstein and Geometry (M Atiyah); String Theory and Einstein's Dream (A Sen); Black Hole Entropy in String Theory: A Window into the Quantum Structure of Gravity (A Dabholkar); The Winding Road to Quantum Gravity (A Ashtekar); Brownian Functionals in Physics and Computer Science (S N Majumdar); Bose-Einstein Condensation: Where Many Become One and So There is Plenty of Room at the Bottom (N Kumar); Many Electrons Strongly Avoiding Each Other: Strange Goings On (T V Ramakrishnan); Einstein and the Quantum (V Singh); Einstein's Legacy: Relativistic Cosmology (J V Narlikar); Einstein's Universe: The Challenge of Dark Energy (S Sarkar); Gravitational Radiation OCo In Celebration of Einstein's Annus Mirabilis (B S Sathyaprakash); Albert Einstein: Radical Pacifist and Democrat (T Jayaraman). Readership: Physicists, mathematicians and academics."

Essays in Theoretical Physics

Essays in Theoretical Physics PDF Author: W. E. Parry
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 1483149633
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Essays in Theoretical Physics: In Honour of Dirk ter Haar is devoted to Dirk ter Haar, detailing the breadth of Dirk's interest in physics. The book contains 15 chapters, with some chapters elucidating stellar dynamics with non-classical integrals; a mean-field treatment of charge density waves in a strong magnetic field; electrodynamics of two-dimensional (surface) superconductors; and the Bethe Ansatz and exact solutions of the Kondo and related magnetic impurity models. Other chapters focus on probing the interiors of neutron stars; macroscopic quantum tunneling; unitary transformation methods in intense fields atomic physics; stochastic parameters in quantum mechanical systems; and correlation effects in atomic diffusion. The book also describes the densely packed magnetic insulator glasses, nuclei in dense matter, solar neutrinos, comets, cosmic rays, the Gibbs paradox, and wave packets.

Aristotle's Physics

Aristotle's Physics PDF Author: Lindsay Judson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
The Physics is one of Aristotle's masterpieces--a work of extraordinary intellectual power which has had a profound influence on the development of metaphysics and the philosophy of science, as well as on the development of physics itself. This collection of ten new essays by leading Aristotelian scholars examines a wide range of issues in the Physics and related works, including method, causation and explanation, chance, teleology, the infinite, the nature of time, the critique of atomism, the role of mathematics in Aristotle's physics, and the concept of self-motion. The essays offer fresh approaches to Aristotle's work in these areas, and important new interpretations of his thought.

Aspects of Consciousness

Aspects of Consciousness PDF Author: Ingrid Fredriksson
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 078646495X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Throughout the ages, the mysteries of what happens when we die and the nature of the human mind have fascinated us. In this collection of essays, leading scientists and authors contemplate consciousness, quantum mechanics, string theory, dimensions, space and time, nonlocal space, the hologram, and the effect of death on consciousness. Although many of these topics have traditionally been considered matters for philosophical and religious debate, advances in modern science and in particular the science of resuscitation have now enabled an objective, scientific approach--which bears widespread implications not only for science but for all of humanity.