On the Shoulders of Giants: a Brief History of Physics in Göttingen
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Carl Runge 1 Carl Runge
Carl Runge 1 Carl Runge Carl David Tolmé Runge (30. august 1856 Bremen – 3. jaanuar 1927 Göttingen) oli saksa matemaatik. Ta pani aluse tänapäeva praktilisele matemaatikale kui õpetusele matemaatilistest meetoditest loodusteaduslike ja tehniliste ülesannete arvutuslikul lahendamisel. Ta sündis jõuka kaupmees Julius Runge ja inglanna Fanny Tolmé pojana. Oma esimesed aastad veetis ta Havannas, kus tema isa haldas Taani konsulaati. Kodune keel oli eeskätt inglise keel. Carl Runge ja tema vennad omandasid Briti kombed ja vaated, eriti spordi, aususe, õigluse ja enesekindluse kohta. Hiljem kolis perekond Bremenisse, kus Carli isa 1864 suri. Aastal 1875 lõpetas ta Bremenis gümnaasiumi. Seejärel saatis ta oma ema pool aastat kultuurireisil Itaalias. Siis läks ta Münchenisse, kus ta algul õppis kirjandusteadust ja filosoofias kuid otsustas pärast kuuenädalast õppimist 1876 matemaatika ja füüsika kasuks. Ta õppis koos Max Planckiga, kellega ta sõbrunes. Müncheni ülikoolis oli ta populaarne uisutaja. Aastal 1877 jätkas ta (koos Planckiga) oma õpinguid Berliinis, mis oli Saksamaa matemaatika keskus ja kus teda mõjutasid eriti Leopold Carl Runge Kronecker ja Karl Weierstraß. Viimase loengute kuulamine kallutas ta keskenduma füüsika asemel puhtale matemaatikale. Aastal 1880 promoveerus ta Weierstraßi ning Ernst Eduard Kummeri juures tööga "Über die Krümmung, Torsion und geodätische Krümmung der auf einer Fläche gezogenen Curven". Tol ajal tuli doktorieksamil püstitada kolm teesi ja neid kaitsta. Üks Runge teesidest oli: "Matemaatilise distsipliini väärtust tuleb hinnata tema rakendatavuse järgi empiirilistele teadustele." Ta habiliteerus 1883. Runge tegeles algul puhta matemaatikaga. Kronecker oli teda innustanud tegelema arvuteooriaga ja Weierstraß funktsiooniteooriaga. Funktsiooniteoorias uuris ta holomorfsete funktsioonide aproksimeeritavust ratsionaalsete funktsioonidega, rajades Runge teooria. Berliini ajal sai ta oma tulevaselt äialt (kelle perekonnas ta oli sagedane külaline) teada Balmeri seeriast. -
The Scientific Content of the Letters Is Remarkably Rich, Touching on The
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Elsevier - Publisher Connector Reviews / Historia Mathematica 33 (2006) 491–508 497 The scientific content of the letters is remarkably rich, touching on the difference between Borel and Lebesgue measures, Baire’s classes of functions, the Borel–Lebesgue lemma, the Weierstrass approximation theorem, set theory and the axiom of choice, extensions of the Cauchy–Goursat theorem for complex functions, de Geöcze’s work on surface area, the Stieltjes integral, invariance of dimension, the Dirichlet problem, and Borel’s integration theory. The correspondence also discusses at length the genesis of Lebesgue’s volumes Leçons sur l’intégration et la recherche des fonctions primitives (1904) and Leçons sur les séries trigonométriques (1906), published in Borel’s Collection de monographies sur la théorie des fonctions. Choquet’s preface is a gem describing Lebesgue’s personality, research style, mistakes, creativity, and priority quarrel with Borel. This invaluable addition to Bru and Dugac’s original publication mitigates the regrets of not finding, in the present book, all 232 letters included in the original edition, and all the annotations (some of which have been shortened). The book contains few illustrations, some of which are surprising: the front and second page of a catalog of the editor Gauthier–Villars (pp. 53–54), and the front and second page of Marie Curie’s Ph.D. thesis (pp. 113–114)! Other images, including photographic portraits of Lebesgue and Borel, facsimiles of Lebesgue’s letters, and various important academic buildings in Paris, are more appropriate. -
Abraham-Solution to Schwarzschild Metric Implies That CERN Miniblack Holes Pose a Planetary Risk
Abraham-Solution to Schwarzschild Metric Implies That CERN Miniblack Holes Pose a Planetary Risk O.E. Rössler Division of Theoretical Chemistry, University of Tübingen, 72076 F.R.G. Abstract A recent mathematical re-interpretation of the Schwarzschild solution to the Einstein equations implies global constancy of the speed of light c in fulfilment of a 1912 proposal of Max Abraham. As a consequence, the horizon lies at the end of an infinitely long funnel in spacetime. Hence black holes lack evaporation and charge. Both features affect the behavior of miniblack holes as are expected to be produced soon at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The implied nonlinearity enables the “quasar-scaling conjecture.“ The latter implies that an earthbound minihole turns into a planet-eating attractor much earlier than previously calculated – not after millions of years of linear growth but after months of nonlinear growth. A way to turn the almost disaster into a planetary bonus is suggested. (September 27, 2007) “Mont blanc and black holes: a winter fairy-tale.“ What is being referred to is the greatest and most expensive and potentially most important experiment of history: to create miniblack holes [1]. The hoped-for miniholes are only 10–32 cm large – as small compared to an atom (10–8 cm) as the latter is to the whole solar system (1016 cm) – and are expected to “evaporate“ within less than a picosecond while leaving behind a much hoped-for “signature“ of secondary particles [1]. The first (and then one per second and a million per year) miniblack hole is expected to be produced in 2008 at the Large Hadron Collider of CERN near Geneva on the lake not far from the white mountain. -
Autonomy and Automation Computational Modeling, Reduction, and Explanation in Quantum Chemistry Johannes Lenhard, Bielefeld Univ
Autonomy and Automation Computational modeling, reduction, and explanation in quantum chemistry Johannes Lenhard, Bielefeld University preprint abstract This paper discusses how computational modeling combines the autonomy of models with the automation of computational procedures. In particular, the case of ab initio methods in quantum chemistry will be investigated to draw two lessons from the analysis of computational modeling. The first belongs to general philosophy of science: Computational modeling faces a trade-off and enlarges predictive force at the cost of explanatory force. The other lesson is about the philosophy of chemistry: The methodology of computational modeling puts into doubt claims about the reduction of chemistry to physics. 1. Introduction In philosophy of science, there is a lively debate about the role and characteristics of models. The present paper wants to make a contribution to this debate about computational modeling in particular.1 Although there is agreement about the importance of computers in recent science, often their part is seen as merely accelerating computations. Of course, speed is a critical issue in practices of computation, because it restricts or enlarges the range of tractability for computational strategies.2 However, it will be argued in this paper that the conception of computational modeling, is not merely a matter of speed, i.e., not only amplifying already existing approaches, but has much wider philosophical significance. 1 There may be considerable overlap with the issue of simulation, but the argumentation of this paper does not depend on this part of terminology. 2 This has been aptly expressed in the part of Paul Humphreys’ book (2004) that deals with computational science. -
Twenty Five Hundred Years of Small Science What’S Next?
Twenty Five Hundred Years of Small Science What’s Next? Lloyd Whitman Assistant Director for Nanotechnology White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Workshop on Integrated Nanosystems for Atomically Precise Manufacturing Berkeley, CA, August 5, 2015 Democritus (ca. 460 – 370 BC) Everything is composed of “atoms” Atomos (ἄτομος): that which can not be cut www.phil-fak.uni- duesseldorf.de/philo/galerie/antike/ demokrit.html Quantum Mechanics (1920s) Max Planck 1918* Albert Einstein 1921 Niels Bohr 1922 Louis de Broglie 1929 Max Born 1954 Paul Dirac 1933 On the Theory of Quanta Louis-Victor de Broglie Werner Heisenberg 1932 Wolfgang Pauli 1945 Erwin Schrödinger 1933 *Nobel Prizes in Physics https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel- 00006807 Ernst Ruska (1906 – 1988) Electron Microscopy Magnifying higher than the light microscope - 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics 1986 www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates /1986/ruska-lecture.pdf Richard Feynman (1918-1988) There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom, An Invitation to Enter a New Field of Physics What would happen if we could arrange the atoms one by one the way we want them…? December 29, 1959 richard-feynman.net Heinrich Rohrer (1933 – 2013) Gerd Binnig Atomic resolution Scanning Tunneling Microscopy - 1981 1983 I could not stop looking at the images. It was like entering a new world. Gerd Binnig, Nobel lecture Binnig, et al., PRL 50, 120 (1983) Nobel Prize in Physics 1986 C60: Buckminsterfullerene Kroto, Heath, O‘Brien, Curl and September 1985 Smalley - 1985 …a remarkably stable cluster consisting of 60 carbon atoms…a truncated icosahedron. Nature 318, 162 (1985) http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatis chemistry/landmarks/fullerenes.html Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1996 Curl, Kroto, and Smalley Positioning Single Atoms with a Scanning Tunnelling Microscope Eigler and Schweizer - 1990 …fabricate rudimentary structures of our own design, atom by atom. -
Ion Trap Nobel
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2012 Serge Haroche, David J. Wineland The Nobel Prize in Physics 2012 was awarded jointly to Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland "for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems" David J. Wineland, U.S. citizen. Born 1944 in Milwaukee, WI, USA. Ph.D. 1970 Serge Haroche, French citizen. Born 1944 in Casablanca, Morocco. Ph.D. from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. Group Leader and NIST Fellow at 1971 from Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France. Professor at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and University of Colorado Collège de France and Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France. Boulder, CO, USA www.college-de-france.fr/site/en-serge-haroche/biography.htm www.nist.gov/pml/div688/grp10/index.cfm A laser is used to suppress the ion’s thermal motion in the trap, and to electrode control and measure the trapped ion. lasers ions Electrodes keep the beryllium ions inside a trap. electrode electrode Figure 2. In David Wineland’s laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, electrically charged atoms or ions are kept inside a trap by surrounding electric fields. One of the secrets behind Wineland’s breakthrough is mastery of the art of using laser beams and creating laser pulses. A laser is used to put the ion in its lowest energy state and thus enabling the study of quantum phenomena with the trapped ion. Controlling single photons in a trap Serge Haroche and his research group employ a diferent method to reveal the mysteries of the quantum world. -
Is It Time for a New Paradigm in Physics?
Vigier IOP Publishing IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1251 (2019) 012024 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1251/1/012024 Is it time for a new paradigm in physics? Shukri Klinaku University of Prishtina Sheshi Nëna Terezë, Prishtina, Kosovo [email protected] Abstract. The fact that the two main pillars of modern Physics are incompatible with each other; the fact that some unsolved problems have accumulated in Physics; and, in particular, the fact that Physics has been invaded by weird concepts (as if we were in the Middle Ages); these facts are quite sufficient to confirm the need for a new paradigm in Physics. But the conclusion that a new paradigm is needed is not sufficient, without an answer to the question: is there sufficient sources and resources to construct a new paradigm in Physics? I consider that the answer to this question is also yes. Today, Physics has sufficient material in experimental facts, theoretical achievements and human and technological potential. So, there is the need and opportunity for a new paradigm in Physics. The core of the new paradigm of Physics would be the nature of matter. According to this new paradigm, Physics should give up on wave-particle dualism, should redefine waves, and should end the mystery about light and its privilege in Physics. The consequences of this would make Physics more understandable, and - more importantly - would make it capable of solving current problems and opening up new perspectives in exploring nature and the universe. 1. Introduction Quantum Physics and the theory of relativity are the ‘two main pillars’ of modern Physics. -
EINSTEIN and NAZI PHYSICS When Science Meets Ideology and Prejudice
MONOGRAPH Mètode Science Studies Journal, 10 (2020): 147-155. University of Valencia. DOI: 10.7203/metode.10.13472 ISSN: 2174-3487. eISSN: 2174-9221. Submitted: 29/11/2018. Approved: 23/05/2019. EINSTEIN AND NAZI PHYSICS When science meets ideology and prejudice PHILIP BALL In the 1920s and 30s, in a Germany with widespread and growing anti-Semitism, and later with the rise of Nazism, Albert Einstein’s physics faced hostility and was attacked on racial grounds. That assault was orchestrated by two Nobel laureates in physics, who asserted that stereotypical racial features are exhibited in scientific thinking. Their actions show how ideology can infect and inflect science. Reviewing this episode in the current context remains an instructive and cautionary tale. Keywords: Albert Einstein, Nazism, anti-Semitism, science and ideology. It was German society, Einstein said, that revealed from epidemiology and research into disease (the to him his Jewishness. «This discovery was brought connection of smoking to cancer, and of HIV to home to me by non-Jews rather than Jews», he wrote AIDS) to climate change, this idea perhaps should in 1929 (cited in Folsing, 1998, p. 488). come as no surprise. But it is for that very reason that Shortly after the boycott of Jewish businesses at the the hostility Einstein’s physics sometimes encountered start of April 1933, the German Students Association, in Germany in the 1920s and 30s remains an emboldened by Hitler’s rise to total power, declared instructive and cautionary tale. that literature should be cleansed of the «un-German spirit». The result, on 10 May, was a ritualistic ■ AGAINST RELATIVITY burning of tens of thousands of books «marred» by Jewish intellectualism. -
On Frame-Invariance in Electrodynamics
On Frame-Invariance in Electrodynamics Giovanni Romanoa aDepartment of Structural Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, via Claudio 21, 80125 - Naples, Italy e-mail: [email protected] Abstract The Faraday and Ampere` -Maxwell laws of electrodynamics in space- time manifold are formulated in terms of differential forms and exterior and Lie derivatives. Due to their natural behavior with respect to push-pull operations, these geometric objects are the suitable tools to deal with the space-time observer split of the events manifold and with frame-invariance properties. Frame-invariance is investigated in complete generality, referring to any automorphic transformation in space-time, in accord with the spirit of general relativity. A main result of the new geometric theory is the assess- ment of frame-invariance of space-time electromagnetic differential forms and induction laws and of their spatial counterparts under any change of frame. This target is reached by a suitable extension of the formula governing the correspondence between space-time and spatial differential forms in electro- dynamics to take relative motions in due account. The result modifies the statement made by Einstein in the 1905 paper on the relativity principle, and reproposed in the subsequent literature, and advocates the need for a revision of the theoretical framework of electrodynamics. Key words: Electrodynamics, frame-invariance, differential forms 1. Introduction arXiv:1209.5960v2 [physics.gen-ph] 10 Oct 2012 The history of electromagnetism is a really fascinating one, starting from the brilliant experimental discoveries by Romagnosi-Ørsted in 1800-1820 and by Zantedeschi-Henry-Faraday in 1829-30-31, and from the early beautiful theoretical abstractions that soon led to Faraday’s and Ampere` - Maxwell laws of electromagnetic inductions. -
Einstein, Nordström and the Early Demise of Scalar, Lorentz Covariant Theories of Gravitation
JOHN D. NORTON EINSTEIN, NORDSTRÖM AND THE EARLY DEMISE OF SCALAR, LORENTZ COVARIANT THEORIES OF GRAVITATION 1. INTRODUCTION The advent of the special theory of relativity in 1905 brought many problems for the physics community. One, it seemed, would not be a great source of trouble. It was the problem of reconciling Newtonian gravitation theory with the new theory of space and time. Indeed it seemed that Newtonian theory could be rendered compatible with special relativity by any number of small modifications, each of which would be unlikely to lead to any significant deviations from the empirically testable conse- quences of Newtonian theory.1 Einstein’s response to this problem is now legend. He decided almost immediately to abandon the search for a Lorentz covariant gravitation theory, for he had failed to construct such a theory that was compatible with the equality of inertial and gravitational mass. Positing what he later called the principle of equivalence, he decided that gravitation theory held the key to repairing what he perceived as the defect of the special theory of relativity—its relativity principle failed to apply to accelerated motion. He advanced a novel gravitation theory in which the gravitational potential was the now variable speed of light and in which special relativity held only as a limiting case. It is almost impossible for modern readers to view this story with their vision unclouded by the knowledge that Einstein’s fantastic 1907 speculations would lead to his greatest scientific success, the general theory of relativity. Yet, as we shall see, in 1 In the historical period under consideration, there was no single label for a gravitation theory compat- ible with special relativity. -
Herbert Busemann (1905--1994)
HERBERT BUSEMANN (1905–1994) A BIOGRAPHY FOR HIS SELECTED WORKS EDITION ATHANASE PAPADOPOULOS Herbert Busemann1 was born in Berlin on May 12, 1905 and he died in Santa Ynez, County of Santa Barbara (California) on February 3, 1994, where he used to live. His first paper was published in 1930, and his last one in 1993. He wrote six books, two of which were translated into Russian in the 1960s. Initially, Busemann was not destined for a mathematical career. His father was a very successful businessman who wanted his son to be- come, like him, a businessman. Thus, the young Herbert, after high school (in Frankfurt and Essen), spent two and a half years in business. Several years later, Busemann recalls that he always wanted to study mathematics and describes this period as “two and a half lost years of my life.” Busemann started university in 1925, at the age of 20. Between the years 1925 and 1930, he studied in Munich (one semester in the aca- demic year 1925/26), Paris (the academic year 1927/28) and G¨ottingen (one semester in 1925/26, and the years 1928/1930). He also made two 1Most of the information about Busemann is extracted from the following sources: (1) An interview with Constance Reid, presumably made on April 22, 1973 and kept at the library of the G¨ottingen University. (2) Other documents held at the G¨ottingen University Library, published in Vol- ume II of the present edition of Busemann’s Selected Works. (3) Busemann’s correspondence with Richard Courant which is kept at the Archives of New York University. -
An Original Way of Teaching Geometrical Optics C. Even
Learning through experimenting: an original way of teaching geometrical optics C. Even1, C. Balland2 and V. Guillet3 1 Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, F-91405 Orsay, France 2 Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Université Paris 6, Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cite, CNRS-IN2P3, Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et des Hautes Energies (LPNHE), 4 place Jussieu, F-75252, Paris Cedex 5, France 3 Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, F- 91405 Orsay, France E-mail : [email protected] Abstract Over the past 10 years, we have developed at University Paris-Sud a first year course on geometrical optics centered on experimentation. In contrast with the traditional top-down learning structure usually applied at university, in which practical sessions are often a mere verification of the laws taught during preceding lectures, this course promotes “active learning” and focuses on experiments made by the students. Interaction among students and self questioning is strongly encouraged and practicing comes first, before any theoretical knowledge. Through a series of concrete examples, the present paper describes the philosophy underlying the teaching in this course. We demonstrate that not only geometrical optics can be taught through experiments, but also that it can serve as a useful introduction to experimental physics. Feedback over the last ten years shows that our approach succeeds in helping students to learn better and acquire motivation and autonomy. This approach can easily be applied to other fields of physics. Keywords : geometrical optics, experimental physics, active learning 1. Introduction Teaching geometrical optics to first year university students is somewhat challenging, as this field of physics often appears as one of the less appealing to students.