Between The Earth And The Heavens: Historical Studies In The Physical Sciences
Between The Earth And The Heavens: Historical Studies In The Physical Sciences

Author: Helge Kragh

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2021-03-24

Total Pages: 413

ISBN-13: 1786349868

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Consisting of separate cases organized by chapter and divided into independent sections, this is no ordinary history of science book. Between the Earth and the Heavens is an episodic history of modern physical sciences covering the chronological development of physics, chemistry and astronomy since about 1860. Integrating historical authenticity and modern scientific knowledge, the cases within deal with the often surprising connections between science done in the laboratory (physics, chemistry) and science based on observation (astronomy, cosmology).Between the Earth and the Heavens presupposes an interest in and a certain knowledge of the physical sciences, but it is written for non-specialists and includes only a limited number of equations which are all clearly explained in simple terms. For readers who wish to delve further, the book is fully documented and ends with a bibliography of cited quotations and other relevant sources.

Before Big Science
Before Big Science

Author: Mary Jo Nye

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 9780674063822

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Notable features of the book include an insightful analysis of the parallel trajectories of modern chemistry and physics and the work of scientists - such as John Dalton, Michael Faraday, Hermann von Helmholtz, Marie Curie, Ernest Rutherford, Dorothy Hodgkin, and Linus Pauling - who played prominent roles in the development of both disciplines.

Observation, Experiment, and Hypothesis in Modern Physical Science
Observation, Experiment, and Hypothesis in Modern Physical Science

Author: Peter Achinstein

Publisher: Bradford Book

Published: 1985

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13:

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These original contributions by philosophers and historians of science discuss a range of issues pertaining to the testing of hypotheses in modern physics by observation and experiment. Chapters by Lawrence Sklar, Dudley Shapere, Richard Boyd, R. C. Jeffrey, Peter Achinstein, and Ronald Laymon explore general philosophical themes with applications to modern physics and astrophysics. The themes include the nature of the hypothetico-deductive method, the concept of observation and the validity of the theoretical-observation distinction, the probabilistic basis of confirmation, and the testing of idealizations and approximations. The remaining four chapters focus on the history of particular twentieth-century experiments, the instruments and techniques utilized, and the hypotheses they were designed to test. Peter Galison reviews the development of the bubble chamber; Roger Stuewer recounts a sharp dispute between physicists in Cambridge and Vienna over the interpretation of artificial disintegration experiments; John Rigden provides a history of the magnetic resonance method; and Geoffrey Joseph suggests a statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics that can be used to interpret the Stern-Gerlach and double-slit experiments. This book inaugurates the series, Studies from the Johns Hopkins Center for the History and Philosophy of Science, directed by Peter Achinstein and Owen Hannaway. A Bradford Book.

A Cultural History of Physics
A Cultural History of Physics

Author: Karoly Simonyi

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2012-01-25

Total Pages: 644

ISBN-13: 1439865116

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While the physical sciences are a continuously evolving source of technology and of understanding about our world, they have become so specialized and rely on so much prerequisite knowledge that for many people today the divide between the sciences and the humanities seems even greater than it was when C. P. Snow delivered his famous 1959 lecture,

Kinetic Theory Of Gases, The: An Anthology Of Classic Papers With Historical Commentary
Kinetic Theory Of Gases, The: An Anthology Of Classic Papers With Historical Commentary

Author: Stephen G Brush

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2003-07-28

Total Pages: 664

ISBN-13: 1783261056

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This book introduces physics students and teachers to the historical development of the kinetic theory of gases, by providing a collection of the most important contributions by Clausius, Maxwell and Boltzmann, with introductory surveys explaining their significance. In addition, extracts from the works of Boyle, Newton, Mayer, Joule, Helmholtz, Kelvin and others show the historical context of ideas about gases, energy and irreversibility. In addition to five thematic essays connecting the classical kinetic theory with 20th century topics such as indeterminism and interatomic forces, there is an extensive international bibliography of historical commentaries on kinetic theory, thermodynamics, etc. published in the past four decades.The book will be useful to historians of science who need primary and secondary sources to be conveniently available for their own research and interpretation, along with the bibliography which makes it easier to learn what other historians have already done on this subject.