物理学史与哲学

I will argue, pace a great many of my contemporaries, that there's something right about Boltzmann's attempt to ground the second law of thermodynamics in a suitably amended deterministic time-reversal invariant classical dynamics, and that…

The impossibility of theories with hidden variables as an alternative and replacement for quantum mechanics was discussed by J. von Neumann in 1932. His proof was criticized as being logically circular, by Grete Hermann soon after, and as…

This is an English translation of E579 in which the introductory remarks are in French, while Euler's original text is in Latin. By considering the balance of forces acting on a raising balloon on an isothermal atmosphere, namely the weight…

Some scientists take themselves and their work very seriously. However, there are plenty of cases of humour being combined with science. Here I review some examples from the broad fields of physics and astronomy, particularly focusing on…

Mike Lockwood and Mathew Owens discuss how eclipse observations are aiding the development of a climatology of near-Earth space

Why is gauge symmetry so important in modern physics, given that one must eliminate it when interpreting what the theory represents? In this paper we discuss the sense in which gauge symmetry can be fruitfully applied to constrain the space…

This is an annotated translation of E126 'De novo genere oscillationum', in which Euler derived for the first time, the differential equation of the (undamped) simple harmonic oscillator under harmonic excitation, namely, the motion of an…

This is a translation from Latin of 'De novo oscillationum genere', which was motivated by Krafft's accidental observation of a suspended clock setting itself in constant motion as a pendulum. This publication, in turn, motivated Euler to…

Tafazzul Husain Khan (1727?--1800?), who began his career in the court of Awadh, spent the last two decades of his life as a trusted ally of the East India Company. What set him apart from other court officials was not so much his…

An attempt is made to avoid the difficulty of the infinite reaction of the electron on itself, which occurs in quantum electrodynamics, by introducing difference equations instead of differential equations. This vision allows the difficulty…

This is a translation from Latin of E840 'De motu cometarum in orbitis parabolicis, solem in foco habentibus', in which Euler addresses six problems related to comets in heliocentric parabolic orbits. Problem 1: Find the true anomaly of a…

This is the translation from Latin of E547 'Determinatio facilis orbitae cometae, cuius transitum per eclipticam bis observare licuit', in which Euler addresses the determination of a comet's parabolic orbit, with the Sun at the focus, from…

This is a translation from Latin of E348 'Methodus facilis motus corporum coelestium utcunque perturbatos ad rationem calculi astronomici revocandi', in which Euler develops a method to alleviate the astronomical computations in a typical…

Honorary degrees and particularly doctorates are important instruments to enhance the standing of universities and professors, in addition to receiving these as a measure of a scientist's recognition. Jacobus C. Kapteyn from the University…

The aim of this work is to use some categories of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) developed by Bruno Latour in the book Reassembling the Social -- An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory to analyze a current controversy that occurs in the area…

Scientists often think of the world (or some part of it) as a dynamical system, a stochastic process, or a generalization of such a system. Prominent examples of systems are (i) the system of planets orbiting the sun or any other classical…

Euler wrote several papers on Astronomy, most of them in Latin. This is a commented translation of E304 'Considerationes de motu corporum coelestium' (Considerations on the motion of celestial bodies). In this publication, Euler essentially…

This is an annotated translation from Latin of E327 'De motu rectilineo trium corporum se mutuo attrahentium'. In this publication, Euler considers three bodies lying on a straight line, which are attracted to each other by central forces…

Thermodynamics has a clear arrow of time, characterized by the irreversible approach to equilibrium. This stands in contrast to the laws of microscopic theories, which are invariant under time-reversal. Foundational discussions of this…

Recent authors have addressed the Reichenbach assertions that the one-way velocity of light, OWVL, cannot be measured because we lack a method to synchronize distant clocks, and that one needs OWVL to synchronize distant clocks. Thus, one…