Ebook: A History of the Ideas of Theoretical Physics: Essays on the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Physics

This book presents a perspective on the history of theoretical physics over the past two hundreds years. It comprises essays on the history of pre-Maxwellian electrodynamics, of Maxwell's and Hertz's field theories, and of the present century's relativity and quantum physics. A common thread across the essays is the search for and the exploration of themes that influenced significant con­ ceptual changes in the great movement of ideas and experiments which heralded the emergence of theoretical physics (hereafter: TP). The fun. damental change involved the recognition of the scien­ tific validity of theoretical physics. In the second half of the nine­ teenth century, it was not easy for many physicists to understand the nature and scope of theoretical physics and of its adept, the theoreti­ cal physicist. A physicist like Ludwig Boltzmann, one of the eminent contributors to the new discipline, confessed in 1895 that, "even the formulation of this concept [of a theoretical physicist] is not entirely without difficulty". 1 Although science had always been divided into theory and experiment, it was only in physics that theoretical work developed into a major research and teaching specialty in its own right. 2 It is true that theoretical physics was mainly a creation of tum­ of-the century German physics, where it received full institutional recognition, but it is also undeniable that outstanding physicists in other European countries, namely, Ampere, Fourier, and Maxwell, also had an important part in its creation.

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Through the study of the ideas of the great fathers of theoretical physics, such as Amp?re, Weber, Helmholtz, Maxwell, Boltzmann, Einstein, Schr?dinger, et al., this book affords an improved understanding of modern physics. My main field of interest concerns the physicists' conceptions of the methods and nature of science. In my view, innovative conceptions contributed to important achievements in theoretical physics. Dissenting from the historiography of the linear development of scientific ideas, I duly underline the fact that, in the passage from nineteenth-century electrodynamics to theoretical physics, the process of mathematization varied remarkably, ranging from Amp?re's and Weber's algebraization to Maxwell's attention to mathematical analogies and dimensional analysis, not to mention Einstein's non-Euclidean approach to general relativity and the via-operators formulation of quantum theory. I describe how, in the same period of time, physicists modified their ideas on the theory-experiment relationship, as shown, for example, by Hertz's theoretical holism, and by Boltzmann's discrediting of crucial experiments. I report a large number of not easily available quotations from primary sources in the history of physics and of references to the recent secondary literature.
As such, this book will prove a useful addition to the culture of modern scientists and philosophers, and it could be influential in orienting teachers towards new approaches to teaching physics at undergraduate and graduate levels. It is aimed at historians of physics, epistemologists, professors of physics, PhD candidates in history of science, undergraduate and graduate students in history of physics and of science, and, last but not least, the cultured lay general reader.

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Through the study of the ideas of the great fathers of theoretical physics, such as Amp?re, Weber, Helmholtz, Maxwell, Boltzmann, Einstein, Schr?dinger, et al., this book affords an improved understanding of modern physics. My main field of interest concerns the physicists' conceptions of the methods and nature of science. In my view, innovative conceptions contributed to important achievements in theoretical physics. Dissenting from the historiography of the linear development of scientific ideas, I duly underline the fact that, in the passage from nineteenth-century electrodynamics to theoretical physics, the process of mathematization varied remarkably, ranging from Amp?re's and Weber's algebraization to Maxwell's attention to mathematical analogies and dimensional analysis, not to mention Einstein's non-Euclidean approach to general relativity and the via-operators formulation of quantum theory. I describe how, in the same period of time, physicists modified their ideas on the theory-experiment relationship, as shown, for example, by Hertz's theoretical holism, and by Boltzmann's discrediting of crucial experiments. I report a large number of not easily available quotations from primary sources in the history of physics and of references to the recent secondary literature.
As such, this book will prove a useful addition to the culture of modern scientists and philosophers, and it could be influential in orienting teachers towards new approaches to teaching physics at undergraduate and graduate levels. It is aimed at historians of physics, epistemologists, professors of physics, PhD candidates in history of science, undergraduate and graduate students in history of physics and of science, and, last but not least, the cultured lay general reader.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xviii
Front Matter....Pages 1-6
A Consideration on the Changing Role of Mathematics in Amp?re’s and Weber’s Electrodynamics....Pages 7-37
A Survey of Theories of Units and Dimensions in Nineteenth-Century Physics....Pages 39-43
A Historical Role for Dimensional Analysis in Maxwell’s Electromagnetic Theory of Light....Pages 45-75
Problems of Theoretical Physics in the Second Half of Nineteenth Century....Pages 77-106
Front Matter....Pages 107-110
German Electrodynamics in the 1870’s....Pages 111-134
Hertz’s Experiments on Electromagnetic Waves....Pages 135-166
Hertz’s 1884 Theoretical Discovery of Electromagnetic Waves....Pages 167-185
A Foundation for Theoretical Physics in Hertz’s Introduction to Die Prinzipien der Mechanik ....Pages 187-199
On Boltzmann’s Mechanics and His Bild-Conception of Physical Theory....Pages 201-216
Front Matter....Pages 217-222
Einstein’s Correspondence Criterion and the Construction of General Relativity....Pages 223-237
Einstein’s Life-Long Doubts on the Physical Foundations of the General Relativity and Unified Field Theories....Pages 239-252
Correspondence and Complementarity in Niels Bohr’s Papers: 1925–1927....Pages 253-271
From the 1926 Wave Mechanics to a Second-Quantisation Theory: Schr?dinger’s New Interpretation of Wave Mechanics and Microphysics in the 1950’s....Pages 273-302
Conclusions....Pages 303-310
Back Matter....Pages 311-381

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Through the study of the ideas of the great fathers of theoretical physics, such as Amp?re, Weber, Helmholtz, Maxwell, Boltzmann, Einstein, Schr?dinger, et al., this book affords an improved understanding of modern physics. My main field of interest concerns the physicists' conceptions of the methods and nature of science. In my view, innovative conceptions contributed to important achievements in theoretical physics. Dissenting from the historiography of the linear development of scientific ideas, I duly underline the fact that, in the passage from nineteenth-century electrodynamics to theoretical physics, the process of mathematization varied remarkably, ranging from Amp?re's and Weber's algebraization to Maxwell's attention to mathematical analogies and dimensional analysis, not to mention Einstein's non-Euclidean approach to general relativity and the via-operators formulation of quantum theory. I describe how, in the same period of time, physicists modified their ideas on the theory-experiment relationship, as shown, for example, by Hertz's theoretical holism, and by Boltzmann's discrediting of crucial experiments. I report a large number of not easily available quotations from primary sources in the history of physics and of references to the recent secondary literature.
As such, this book will prove a useful addition to the culture of modern scientists and philosophers, and it could be influential in orienting teachers towards new approaches to teaching physics at undergraduate and graduate levels. It is aimed at historians of physics, epistemologists, professors of physics, PhD candidates in history of science, undergraduate and graduate students in history of physics and of science, and, last but not least, the cultured lay general reader.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xviii
Front Matter....Pages 1-6
A Consideration on the Changing Role of Mathematics in Amp?re’s and Weber’s Electrodynamics....Pages 7-37
A Survey of Theories of Units and Dimensions in Nineteenth-Century Physics....Pages 39-43
A Historical Role for Dimensional Analysis in Maxwell’s Electromagnetic Theory of Light....Pages 45-75
Problems of Theoretical Physics in the Second Half of Nineteenth Century....Pages 77-106
Front Matter....Pages 107-110
German Electrodynamics in the 1870’s....Pages 111-134
Hertz’s Experiments on Electromagnetic Waves....Pages 135-166
Hertz’s 1884 Theoretical Discovery of Electromagnetic Waves....Pages 167-185
A Foundation for Theoretical Physics in Hertz’s Introduction to Die Prinzipien der Mechanik ....Pages 187-199
On Boltzmann’s Mechanics and His Bild-Conception of Physical Theory....Pages 201-216
Front Matter....Pages 217-222
Einstein’s Correspondence Criterion and the Construction of General Relativity....Pages 223-237
Einstein’s Life-Long Doubts on the Physical Foundations of the General Relativity and Unified Field Theories....Pages 239-252
Correspondence and Complementarity in Niels Bohr’s Papers: 1925–1927....Pages 253-271
From the 1926 Wave Mechanics to a Second-Quantisation Theory: Schr?dinger’s New Interpretation of Wave Mechanics and Microphysics in the 1950’s....Pages 273-302
Conclusions....Pages 303-310
Back Matter....Pages 311-381
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