物理学史与哲学

Richard P. Feynman's work on gravitation, as can be inferred from several published and unpublished sources, is reviewed. Feynman was involved with this subject at least from late 1954 to the late 1960s, giving several pivotal contributions…

After some more than four centuries from the formulation and publication (in Astronomia Nova) of the Kepler's Equation, which relates the eccentric (and, intermediately, the true) anomaly of the planetary trajectories to the uniformly…

This is an annotated translation from German of Untersuchung einer nach den Euler'schen Vorschlagen (1754) gebauten Wasserturbine [Investigation of a water turbine built according to Euler's proposals (1754)] that reports the tests results…

It is a widespread belief that results like G\"odel's incompleteness theorems or the intrinsic randomness of quantum mechanics represent fundamental limitations to humanity's strive for scientific knowledge. As the argument goes, there are…

There has been a long standing debate about the existence of maya constellations, but there are several sources of evidences that favour this hypothesis: mural paintings, stelae and codex. In this work, we have recovered and compiled…

A century ago, Srinivasa Ramanujan -- the great self-taught Indian genius of mathematics -- died, shortly after returning from Cambridge, UK, where he had collaborated with Godfrey Hardy. Ramanujan contributed numerous outstanding results…

Neptune was telescopically discovered by Johan Gottfried Galle and Heinrich Louis d'Arrest in Berlin on 23 September 1846 based on the prediction by Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier. The role German astronomers played in the discovery has…

In the scientific literature the equation $Q=\{Q\}[Q]$ is frequently quoted, where $Q$ denotes a quantity, $\{Q\}$ a numerical value, and $[Q]$ a unit. During the last years some experts claimed, that this equation is due to James Clerk…

In recent publications in physics and mathematics, concerns have been raised about the use of real numbers to describe quantities in physics, and in particular about the usual assumption that physical quantities are infinitely precise. In…

Space and time are central concepts for understanding our World. They are important ingredients at the core of every scientific theory and subject of intense debate in philosophy. Albert Einstein's Special and General theories of Relativity…

The black hole information loss paradox has long been one of the most studied and fascinating aspects of black hole physics. In its latest incarnation, it takes the form of the firewall paradox. In this paper, we first give a conceptually…

Is it possible to encompass the full extent of the universe within a theory based on a finite set of first principles and inference rules? The r\^{o}le of observers and observations in physics theories is considered here in the light of…

In this paper, we take a fresh look at three Popperian concepts: riskiness, falsifiability, and truthlikeness (or verisimilitude) of scientific hypotheses or theories. First, we make explicit the dimensions that underlie the notion of…

We revisited an analysis made by Euler in a memoir of 1753 'Sur une nouvelle maniere d'elever de l'eau propose par M. de Mour' (On a new method to raise water proposed by Mr. de Mour), addressing a type of water sprinkler, consisting of an…

We offer a few comments derived from a careful reading of Michael Strevens' book {\it The Knowledge Machine} (TKM), with an emphasis on extensions for future work. We believe this book goes well beyond traditional accounts of scientific…

In his 1981 article, Roberts highlights the term 'stellify' defined as "to transform (a person or thing) into a star or constellation, to place among the stars." Using the case of the Tabwa people of central Africa, not the Democratic…

Recently an experiment has been performed for the purpose of "testing the area law with GW150914". As the experimenters put it, the experiment presents "observational confirmation" of Hawking's area law based on the GW150914 data. It is the…

Noether's theorems are widely praised as some of the most beautiful and useful results in physics. However, if one reads the majority of standard texts and literature on the application of Noether's first theorem to field theory, one…

The most discussed of ``live'' metaphors in physical sciences is that of the Schr\"odinger cat. Introduced in the early, but mature days of the new quantum theory, in 1935, the parable of the cat has provoked and enlivened debates on the…

We adopt in this work the idea that the building blocks of the visible Universe belong to a class of the irreducible representations of the Poincare group of transformations (the "things") endowed with classificatory quantum numbers ("the…