物理学史与哲学

Promoting a theory with a finite number of terms into an effective field theory with an infinite number of terms worsens simplicity, predictability, falsifiability, and other attributes often favored in theory choice. However, the…

Einstein regarded as one of the triumphs of his 1915 theory of gravity --- the general theory of relativity --- that it vindicated the action--reaction principle, while Newtonian mechanics as well as his 1905 special theory of relativity…

Maxwell's equations and the Lorentz force density are expressed using an alternative simultaneity gauge. As a result, they describe electrodynamics for an observer travelling with a constant velocity through an isotropic medium. If desired,…

The aim of this article is twofold. First, we shall review and analyse the Neo-Kantian justification for the application of probabilistic concepts in physics that was defended by Hans Reichenbach early in his career, notably in his…

The structure, formation and evolution of the Universe were some of the main topics in the scientific debates during the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe. They involved novel ideas on the cosmos, which concerned aspects that were not…

Biographical essay at the occasion of the first death anniversary of Manfred Bonitz

This paper describes a series of activities in which students investigate and use the Ptolemaic, Copernican, and Tychonic models of planetary motion. The activities guide students through using open source software to discover important…

Any ambitious construction project requires architects for its design and engineers who apply the design to the real world. As scientific research shifts towards large groups which focus on the engineering aspects of linking data to…

More often than not, recently popular structuralist interpretations of physical theories leave the central concept of a structure insufficiently precisified. The incipient causal sets approach to quantum gravity offers a paradigmatic case…

In this work, Sadi Carnot;s fundamental work is critically examined, and contrasted with modern thermodynamics. A mathematical theory of his work is given on the basis of the observation that in caloric theory dQ is a perfect differential.

Sommerfeld called the first part of the second law to be the entropy axiom, which is about the existence of the state function entropy. It was usually thought that the second part of the second law, which is about the non-decreasing nature…

The Gond community is considered to be one of the most ancient tribes of India with a continuing history of several thousand years. They are also known for their largely isolated history which they have retained through the millennia.…

We review the literature for perceptions of meteors in the Maori cultures of New Zealand. We examine representations of meteors in religion, story, and ceremony. We find that meteors are sometimes personified as gods or children, or are…

In his 1989 essay, John Archibald Wheeler has tried to answer the eternal question of existence. He did it by searching for links between information, physics, and quanta. The main concept emerging from his essay is that "every physical…

A little more than half a year before Matrix Mechanics was born, Max Born finished his book "Vorlesungen ueber Atommechanik, Erster Band", which is a state-of-the-art presentation of Bohr-Sommerfeld quantisation. This book, which today…

A modification to the gnomonic factor using the concept of triangle of Plato is presented. With the aid of the platonic gnomonic factor (fgp) as we called it, we find that the oracles mentioned by Herodotus in his History, Dodona in Greece…

In nature there are various pairs of observed phenomena and observing scientific techniques which are elegantly coupled with each other. A very general and well known example is the fact that the metal we use to build telescopes were once…

In the early 18th century, J. E. E. Bessler, known as Orffyreus, constructed several wheels that he claimed could keep turning forever, powered only by gravity. He never revealed the details of his invention, but he conducted demonstrations…

It continues to be alleged that superluminal influences of any sort would be inconsistent with special relativity for the following three reasons: (i) they would imply the existence of a distinguished' frame; (ii) they would allow the…

This brief article presents the introduction and draft of the fundamental ideas developed at length in the book of the same title, which gives a challenging point of view about science and its history/philosophy/sociology. Science is in…