Related papers: Eddington & Uncertainty
We review the physics at the end of the nineteenth century and summarize the process of the establishment of Special Relativity by Albert Einstein in brief. Following in the giant's footsteps, we outline the scientific method which helps to…
Quantum mechanics represents one of the greatest triumphs of human intellect and, undoubtedly, is the most successful physical theory we have to date. However, since its foundation about a century ago, it has been uninterruptedly the center…
The experiment performed by Henry Cavendish to measure the density of the earth, is in numerous textbooks described as a measurement of the universal gravitational constant, G, even if we know that this was not true. In this paper, a study…
Randomness is an unavoidable notion in discussing quantum physics, and this may trigger the curiosity to know more of its cultural history. This text is an invitation to explore the position on the matter of Thomas Aquinas, one of the most…
General relativity and quantum mechanics are perhaps the two most successful theories of the XXth century. Despite their impressive accurate predictions, they are both valid at their own scales and do not seem to be expressible using the…
In the peculiar manner by which physicists reckon descent, this article is by a "child" and "grandchild" of the late Stanley Deser. We begin by sharing reminiscences of Stanley from over 40 years. Then we turn to a problem which was dear to…
Already in the 1970s there where attempts to present a set of ground rules, sometimes referred to as a theory of gravitation theories, which theories of gravity should satisfy in order to be considered viable in principle and, therefore,…
"There are several interpretations and approaches to relativity. All of them are characterized by the fact that none of them is accepted by physicists without doubts, even the Einsteinian General Relativity! Only those theories can get into…
The nature of gravity is fundamental to understand the scaffolding of the Universe and its evolution. Einstein's general theory of relativity has been scrutinized for over ninety five years and shown to describe accurately all phenomena…
The concept of uncertainty quanta for a general system is introduced and applied to some important problems in physics and mathematics. EPR paradox gives new clue to the further understanding of particle correlation which turns out to be…
In his Autobiographical Notes, Einstein mentioned that on his road to the final theory of general relativity it was a major difficulty to accustom himself to the idea that coordinates need not possess an immediate physical meaning in terms…
The 75th anniversary of Turing's seminal paper and his centennial year anniversary occur in 2011 and 2012, respectively. It is natural to review and assess Turing's contributions in diverse fields in the light of new developments that his…
Albert Einstein's journey to formulate the theory of general relativity involved significant shifts in his approach to gravitational field equations. Starting in 1912, he collaborated with Marcel Grossmann and initially explored broadly…
Einstein's contribution to relativity is reviewed. It is pointed out that Weyl gave first unified theory of gravitation and electromagnetism and it was different than the five dimensional theory of Kaluza. Einstein began his work on…
What, if any, was Einstein's biggest mistake, the one most affecting our physics today? There is a perhaps apocryphal story, recounted by George Gamow, that he counted his cosmological constant as his biggest blunder. We now know his…
The experimental study of gravity became much more active in the late 1950s, a change pronounced enough be termed the birth, or naissance, of experimental gravity physics. I present a review of developments in this subject since 1915,…
In the last 100 years, the most important equations in physics are Maxwell's equations for electrodynamics, Einstein's equation for gravity, Dirac's equation for the electron and Yang-Mills equation for elementary particles. Do these…
While observational cosmology has recently progressed fast, it revealed a serious dilemma called dark energy: an unknown source of exotic energy with negative pressure driving a current accelerating phase of the universe. All attempts so…
The quantization of the gravitational field is discussed within the exact uncertainty approach. The method may be described as a Hamilton-Jacobi quantization of gravity. It differs from previous approaches that take the classical…
A new, Eddington inspired theory of gravity was recently proposed by Banados and Ferreira. It is equivalent to General Relativity in vacuum, but differs from it inside matter. This viable, one parameter theory was shown to avoid…