A Brief Guide to the Great Equations
Page 33
science, 32, 34, 41, 57, 92–93
as affective process, 18–19, 230–34, 270–71
analogies in, 137
anosognosia and, 152–55
contrarian, 129–31
critics of, 209–13
discovery process in, 90
experimental, 200
Galileo’s defence of, 65–68
great discoveries as previously missed in, 171–72
hermeneutics in, 288n
historically contingent development of, 105
impossibility and, 128–31
nature of concepts in, 268–70
playful attitude in, 183–84
role of trust in, 284n
sacrifice in, 239
scientific laws in, 84–85, 87
successful, gravity theory as paradigm of, 83–85, 90
Science and the Founding Fathers (Cohen), 86
secular equations, 297n
See, Thomas J. J., 202
set square, 24
Sheets-Johnstone, Maxine, 280n
Shubin, M. A., 214
Siegert, Arnold, 184
sine function, 97, 100–102
sine wave, 101
Slater, John, 218–19, 225
Smyth, Henry D., 176–77
Snow, C. P., 111, 114
Socher, David, 42–43
social constructivism, 202
socialism, 86–87
Socrates, 29, 35–41, 39, 90
Software of the Universe, The (Dorato), 84
solar eclipses, total, 185–87, 193–95, 200, 201–8, 201
Solvay, Ernest, 215–16, 222
Sommerfeld, Arnold, 199
sound, speed of, 144, 160–61
Soviet Union, 109
space, 57, 144, 153, 217, 219, 220, 221, 252, 268
absolute, 60–61, 62–63, 159, 161, 164, 199
configuration, 224, 225, 227, 246, 247
contraction of, 163–64, 166–67, 191
Hilbert, 263, 298n
three-dimensional, 33, 192, 225
space-time, 63, 250, 251, 255, 265
curvature of, 185, 186, 196, 206, 207–8
four-dimensional, 33, 197, 238–39
geometry of, 196–97, 199, 208
Minkowski’s concept of, 191–93, 196
speed, 50, 53, 55–56, 61, 128, 160, 189, 281n–82n
see also light, speed of
square, doubled area of, 37–39, 39
statistical methods, 120–22, 124, 221–22
steam engines, 116–17
Stefan-Boltzmann law, 122, 123
Steiner, George, 268
Stephenson, Neal, 154
Stoppard, Tom, 71
Strassman, Fritz, 174
Strato, 52
Stukeley, William, 89
‘Subtle is the Lord’ (Pais), 210
Śulbasūtras, 25, 26, 28, 276n–77n
supernovae, 56, 294n
sympathies, 71
Taylor, Charles, 55
Taylor series, 100
telegraphy, 145, 149–50
telos, 51
tensors, 192, 196–97
Thābit Ibn Qurra, 29
theorem, derivation of term, 23
Theory of Heat (Maxwell), 121
thermodynamics, 33, 114–25, 126
black body radiation in, 122–25, 214–15
equipartition theorem in, 121, 126–27
H-function and, 121–22
Maxwell’s ‘demon’ thought experiment on, 120–21, 130
naming of, 118
reversibility vs. irreversibility in, 119– 22, 124–25
statistical interpretations of, 120–22, 124
see also heat
thermodynamics, first law of, 111, 118, 119–20, 124–25, 128, 129
thermodynamics, second law of, 111–27, 128, 129, 267, 268
arrow of time in, 119–22, 125
description of, 111
formulations of, 111, 118, 124
scientists involved in development of, 112–13, 112, 113
Shakespearean qualities of, 114, 127
Thomas Aquinas, Saint, 56
Thomson, Joseph J., 185, 186, 205–7
Thomson, William, see Kelvin, William Thomson, Lord
Thucydides, 22
tidal motions, 70, 71
time, 57–58, 153, 217, 219, 220, 221, 252, 268
absolute, 60–61, 62–63, 159, 161, 164, 199
arrow of, 119–22, 125
contraction of, 163–64, 166–67, 191
Time, 147, 209
E=mc2 on cover of, 156, 178–79, 179
Times (London), 186
topology, 98
transformations, 160–64, 170, 189
translation invariance, 159
Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, A (Maxwell), 142–45, 149
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (Kelvin and Tait), 118
triangles, 95
law of cosines of, 31
see also right triangles trigonometric functions, 99–106
trigonometry, 24, 25, 32, 95
Twain, Mark, 19
Two Cultures, The (Snow), 111
2+2=4, 108–9
2+2=5, 87, 109
Uhlenbeck, George, 245
uncertainty principle, see Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
uniform acceleration, 56
uniform speed, 50, 56, 160, 189, 282n
universe:
clockwork, 61, 84
expansion of, 293n–94n
unmoved mover, 49, 51, 55
uranium, 174–77
Uranus, 98
vacuum, motion in, 53
vectors, 29, 103, 192
Vernias, Nicoletto, 72
‘Visualizable Content of Quantum Kinematics and Mechanics, The’ (Heisenberg), 255–58
visualizable (anschaulich) theories, 218–19, 220, 221, 223–24, 238–39, 245–46, 251, 255–58, 260, 265
Volta, Alessandro, 259
Voltaire, 64, 89
vortices, Cartesian, 75, 78, 81
Vulcan (postulated planet), 190
Wallace, Alfred R., 83
Wallace, David Foster, 154
Walton, Ernest, 172
water-powered machines, 115, 116–17
wave equations, 221, 222–25, 226–28, 246–54, 257–58, 268
wave functions, 223–25, 226–28, 264, 265
wave mechanics, 226, 246–54, 257–58, 259, 263
wave theory, 217–19, 226–27
see also electromagnetic waves Weber, Wilhelm, 141
weight, 50, 53, 54, 55, 61, 78
weightless conditions, 187–89
Westfall, Richard, 58, 89, 284n
‘What Is a Natural Law?’ (Schrödinger), 221–22
Wheeler, John, 199, 227
Whitehead, Alfred North, 15, 186–87
Whittaker, Edmund, 129
Wien, Wilhelm, 112, 113, 122–23, 124, 223, 249
Wien’s law, 113, 123, 124, 125
Wilczek, Frank, 19, 46, 64
Winner, Langdon, 211–12
Wizard of Oz (film), 26
World Cup (2006), 92
World War I, 113, 195, 202
World War II, 43–44, 113
atomic bomb in, 173–77, 178–79
Wren, Christopher, 77
Zhou Bi Suan Jing (‘Gnomon of the Zhou’), 25–26, 25, 28, 29–30, 31, 277n
Zinn, Howard, 152–54
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