Ebook: Frontiers of Physics: 1900–1911: Selected Essays
Author: Arthur I. Miller (auth.)
- Genre: Physics
- Tags: History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics, Physics general
- Year: 1985
- Publisher: Birkhäuser Basel
- Edition: 1
- Language: English
- pdf
P. W. Bridgman and the Special Theory oj Relativity Ey W. Bridgman wrote A S,phi,ticati< him" (1962) for the reader "who feels the need to stand back a little for a critical scrutiny of what he has really got" (SP, p. 3). * This was his personal trademark as physicist and philoso pher and it is present everywhere in Bridgman's precis of special relativity theory. The reissue of Sophisticate's Primer is particularly wel come for it exhibits a quest for clarity in foundations in the style of Ernst Mach and Henri Poincare, in whose philo- • N.B. Papers and books are here cited as follows. Bridgman (1927) refers to Bridgman's book The Logic of Modern Physics in the bibliography. Cross-references to Sophisticate's Primer are indicated with the code (SP, p. "'). Bridgman's extant manuscripts are on deposit at the Harvard University Archives, and here cited by date, for example (MS 2 August 1959, p .... ). Some of the manuscripts were written over a period of days, with sequential paging, with the actual dates indicated. Full citations are given in the bibliography. I am grateful to the Harvard University Archives for permission to quote from these materials, and to Bridgman's daughter, Mrs. Jane Koopman, for permitting me to quote from the draft manuscripts of Sophisticate's Primer, which will be deposited in the Harvard Archives. Reprinted from P. W. Bridgman. Sophisticate's Primer of Relativity, Second Edition. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1983.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xxv
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
5. On Some Other Approaches to Electrodynamics in 1905....Pages 2-28
A Study of Henri Poincar?’s “Sur la Dynamique de l’?lectron”....Pages 29-150
Front Matter....Pages 151-151
Unipolar Induction: a Case Study of the Interaction between Science and Technology....Pages 153-187
Front Matter....Pages 189-189
On Einstein’s Invention of Special Relativity....Pages 191-216
Front Matter....Pages 217-217
On Lorentz’s Methodology....Pages 219-235
Postscript: Further Comments on what Einstein, Lorentz, Planck, and Poincar? Did — circa 1905....Pages 237-251
Introduction....Pages 253-293
Back Matter....Pages 294-294
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xxv
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
5. On Some Other Approaches to Electrodynamics in 1905....Pages 2-28
A Study of Henri Poincar?’s “Sur la Dynamique de l’?lectron”....Pages 29-150
Front Matter....Pages 151-151
Unipolar Induction: a Case Study of the Interaction between Science and Technology....Pages 153-187
Front Matter....Pages 189-189
On Einstein’s Invention of Special Relativity....Pages 191-216
Front Matter....Pages 217-217
On Lorentz’s Methodology....Pages 219-235
Postscript: Further Comments on what Einstein, Lorentz, Planck, and Poincar? Did — circa 1905....Pages 237-251
Introduction....Pages 253-293
Back Matter....Pages 294-294
....