History and Philosophy of Physics
The Milanese period in Albert Einstein's life is a key one for the understanding of the development of his scientific questioning. While being a student in Z\"urich from 1896, Einstein returned regularly to Milan to meet his family for the…
To date, quantum mechanics has proven to be our most successful theoretical model. However, it is still surrounded by a "mysterious halo" that can be summarized in a simple but challenging question: Why quantum phenomena are not understood…
This Introduction opens the collection "Physics in A Mad World" devoted to two outstanding physicists whose destinies were deeply intertwined with the tragedies and drama of the times in which they lived. Friedrich (Fritz) Houtermans was…
Here I am proposing a translation and discussion of the De Iride, one of the short scientific treatise written by Robert Grosseteste. In the first part of his Latin text we find reflection and refraction of light, described in a geometrical…
It is argued that the de Broglie wave is not the wave usually supposed, but the relativistically induced modulation of an underlying carrier wave that moves with the velocity of the particle. In the rest frame of the particle this…
A literature review of related articles, either by affinity or by contrast, to a fundamental theory of time and space - time previously developed. It shows how from a primitive concept of preparticle and membership relation of set theory,…
Here I am proposing a translation and discussion of the De Colore, one of the short scientific treatises written by Robert Grosseteste. In this very short treatise of the mid-1220s, Grosseteste continued the discussion on light and colours…
Robert Grosseteste was one of the most prominent thinkers of the Thirteenth Century. Philosopher and scientist, he proposed a metaphysics based on the propagation of light. In this framework, he gave a cosmology too. Here we will discuss…
Al-Biruni (973-1048) was one of the greatest scientists of all times. He was an astronomer, mathematician and philosopher, and studied physics and natural sciences. In this paper, we will discuss some of his experimental methods and some…
This paper discusses the solar orientation of the archaeological complex of Sigiriya, the Lion Rock, in Sri Lanka. We can see that the axis of this complex is oriented with the sunset of the zenithal sun.
Here the orientation of the Gothic cathedrals in France is discussed and investigated using the satellite maps. Except a few of them, these buildings have the apse facing the rising sun, according to a practice adopted during the middle…
The German-born astronomer Jacob K. E. Halm (1866-1944) wrote in 1935 two papers on quite different subjects, one an astrophysically based argument for the expanding Earth and the other a no less original attempt to explain the galactic…
This paper is proposing some physics problems from a book, De Motu Gravium Naturaliter Descendentium, written by Evangelista Torricelli, with the aim of showing how physics was taught in a university, that of Pisa, in the 17th century.
The 1896-1901 Milanese period is a key one to understand Einstein's training background. When he was a student at the ETH in Z\"urich (the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Z\"urich) from 1896 to 1900, he would make regular trips back to Milan…
I argue that the Hole Argument is based on a misleading use of the mathematical formalism of general relativity. If one is attentive to mathematical practice, I will argue, the Hole Argument is blocked.
There is no mysterious link between mathematics and physics, because both of them are human inventions designed to study the world.
Einstein's special theory of relativity starts with assumptions about how observations conducted in relatively moving inertial frames must compare. From these assumptions, conclusions can be drawn regarding the laws of physics in any one…
[...] By the beginning of the 20th century, the principles of thermodynamics were summarized into the so-called four laws, which were, as it turns out, definitive negative answers to the doomed quests for perpetual motion machines. As a…
We have recently compiled a database with all doctoral dissertations (PhDs) completed in modern Greece (1837-2014), in the general area of astronomy and astrophysics, as well as in space and ionospheric physics. A preliminary statistical…
The full-blown multiverse hypothesis, chaosogenesis, is refuted on the grounds of the large scale and high precision of the already discovered laws of nature. A selection principle is required not only to explain the possibility of life and…