物理学史与哲学

Quantum Mechanics, the physical theory describing the microworld, represents one of science's greatest triumphs. It lies at the root of all modern digital technologies and offers unparalleled correspondence between prediction and…

There are a wide variety of different vector formalisms currently utilized in engineering and physics. For example, Gibbs' three-vectors, Minkowski four-vectors, complex spinors in quantum mechanics, quaternions used to describe rigid body…

English translation of P. Drude, Annalen der Physik 13, 512 (1904), an article by Paul Drude about Tesla transformers and wireless telegraphy. Includes a discussion of the derivation of an equivalent circuit and the prediction of…

In this paper we discuss the orientation of the Egyptian pyramids at Giza with respect to sunrises and sunsets, using SunCalc.net software. We can see that Khufu and Khafre pyramids had been positioned in a manner that, from each pyramid,…

The idea of meaning as use in language is explored in a mathematical and physical context. Two possible scenarios of further analysis are presented: Ordinal arithmetic and String theory.

Every society has a story rooted in its most ancient traditions, of how the earth and sky originated. Most of these stories attribute the origin of all things to a Creator - whether God, Element or Idea. We first recall that in the Western…

This article gives a sketch of teachers and colleagues who have had strong influence on my becoming a particle physicist.

Wikipedia has claimed for over three years now that John von Neumann was the "first quantum Bayesian." In context, this reads as stating that von Neumann inaugurated QBism, the approach to quantum theory promoted by Fuchs, Mermin and…

I point out a radical indeterminism in potential-based formulations of Newtonian gravity once we drop the condition that the potential vanishes at infinity (as is necessary, and indeed celebrated, in cosmological applications). This…

The Tom\'ar\~aho is an ethnic group of the Paraguayan Chaco who maintained close contact with nature and developed original ways of explaining and understanding it. This article presents the first results of an interdisciplinary project…

One additional position of the famous Mataveri calendar of Easter Island has been interpreted. New data on the watchings of Venus and Aldebaran have been rendered. Some reports about the sun, the moon as well as Sirius are of our interest,…

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 interpretation of quantum mechanics. Rather…

The measurement of the deflection of starlight during a total solar eclipse on May 29, 1919 was the first verification of general relativity by an external team of scientists, brought Einstein and his theory to the attention of the general…

Cultural astronomy is an interdisciplinary area of research that studies how perceptions and concepts related to the sky are part of the worldview of a culture. One of its branches, archaeoastronomy, focuses on the material remains of past…

Mathematics is usually regarded as a kind of language. The essential behavior of physical phenomena can be expressed by mathematical laws, providing descriptions and predictions. In the present essay I argue that, although mathematics can…

The findings for which Aage Bohr and Ben R. Mottelson became co-winners of the 1975 Nobel prize in physics provided the basis for a comprehensive and operative answer to the central problem in the study of the nuclear structure, namely the…

We discuss some aspects of the relation between dualities and gauge symmetries. Both of these ideas are of course multi-faceted, and we confine ourselves to making two points. Both points are about dualities in string theory, and both have…

Klein-Gordon gravity, 1920s-30s particle physics, and 1890s Neumann-Seeliger modified gravity suggest a "graviton mass term" *algebraic* in the potential. Unlike Nordstr\"om's "massless" theory, massive scalar gravity is invariant under the…

The arrival of Albert Einstein in Argentina in 1925 had an impact, equally relevant, on the scientific community and on the general public. In this paper we discuss that visit from three different perspectives. Firstly, we consider the…

Every physical theory has (at least) two different forms of mathematical equations to represent its target systems: the dynamical (equations of motion) and the kinematical (kinematical constraints). Kinematical constraints are…