物理学史与哲学

We trace the evolution of quantization conditions from Planck's introduction of a new fundamental constant (h) in his treatment of blackbody radiation in 1900 to Heisenberg's interpretation of the commutation relations of modern quantum…

While graphical records of astronomical/meteorological events before telescopic observations are of particular interest, they have frequently undergone multiple copying and may have been modified from the original. Here, we analyze a…

This is one of a pair of papers that give a historical-\emph{cum}-philosophical analysis of the endeavour to understand black hole entropy as a statistical mechanical entropy obtained by counting string-theoretic microstates. Both papers…

The microscopic state counting of the extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole performed by Andrew Strominger and Cumrun Vafa in 1996 has proven to be a central result in string theory. Here, with a philosophical readership in mind, the…

During his last year of life Feynman became interested in integrable models. In the course of his study of one dimensional particles with inverse square-type potentials (the Calogero class of models) he came up with a field theory-inspired…

In this paper we discuss the importance of studying the orientation of ancient Christian churches, as a complement to the historical and cultural research of the temples. We present preliminary results of the analysis of the precise spatial…

On May 29, 1919, at Ro\c{c}a Sundy, Principe island, Eddington confirms Einstein's general relativity theory for the first time by photographing stars behind the obscured Sun during a total eclipse. History was made. At Sobral, Eddington's…

The teaching of modern physics often uses the history of physics as a didactic tool. However, as in this process the history of physics is not something studied but used, there is a danger that the history itself will be distorted in, as…

Today, February 11, is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the perfect day to remember Mileva Mari\'{c} Einstein, a brilliant but largely unknown scientist. While her husband, Albert Einstein is celebrated as perhaps the…

In order to ask for future concepts of relativity, one has to build upon the original concepts instead of the nowadays common formalism only, and as such recall and reconsider some of its roots in geometry. So in order to discuss 3-space…

The notion of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) "element of reality" is much discussed in the literature on the foundations of quantum mechanics. Recently, it has become particularly relevant due to a proposed criterion of the physical…

Jean Deshayes, a teacher of mathematics in his native France, single-handedly put Qu\'ebec on the map, literally. An accomplished astronomer, he used the lunar eclipse of 10--11 December 1685 to determine the settlement's longitude to…

This is a review of the issue of randomness in quantum mechanics, with special emphasis on its ambiguity; for example, randomness has different antipodal relationships to determinism, computability, and compressibility. Following a…

Historically, Ehrenfest's theorem (1927) is the first one which shows that classical physics can emerge from quantum physics as a kind of approximation. We recall the theorem in its original form. Next, we highlight its generalizations to…

The multiple detections of gravitational waves by LIGO (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), operated by Caltech and MIT, have been acclaimed as confirming Einstein's prediction, a century ago, that gravitational waves…

This lecture recalls the memory of Baron Roland Eotvos, an outstanding figure of the experimental exploration of the gravitational interaction.

The celu of the philosophical literature on the hole argument is the 1987 paper by Earman \& Norton ["What Price Space-time Substantivalism? The Hole Story" Br. J. Phil. Sci.]. This paper has a well-known back-story, concerning work by…

An explanation is provided for the Inca counting board described by Guaman Poma in 1615. Although the board could have been used in more than one way, we show that based on certain reasonable assumptions regarding non-uniform representation…

The question, Did Simon Marius (1573-1625) observe Jupiter's satellites on January 8, 1610 (December 29, 1609 in the Julian calendar) is moot, for he did not disclose his research method and the instrument he used. To resolve this issue we…

A magnetic field H is expelled from the interior of a metal becoming superconducting. Everybody thinks the phenomenon is perfectly well understood, particularly scientists with the highest H-index think that. I don't. I will explain why I…