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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. -
Aims of Education Address
The Aims of Education Address By Andrew Abbott September 26, 2002 elcome to the University of the future will assume you’re good, no in the big nationwide studies, most of that who is a farmer and two who are doctors. Chicago.” matter what you do or how you do while effect comes through the connection be- So overall there is some slight evidence W Of the dozens of persons you are here. And of course we know, tween major and occupation. For the real of tracks towards particular occupations who will say that to you during this orien- pretty certainly, that having gotten in you variable driving worldly success—as all of from particular concentrations, but really tation week, I am the only one who will will graduate. Colleges compete in part by you know perfectly well—the one that the news is the reverse. The glass is not so keep on talking for another sixty minutes having high retention rates, and so it is in shapes income more than anything else, is much one-third full as two-thirds empty. after saying it. I imagine that you have the college’s very strong interest to make occupation. Occupation and major are Remember that only 40 percent of the heard few such orations before and that sure you graduate, whether you learn any- fairly strongly associated within the broad biology majors became doctors. And, more will you will hear few hereafter. A full- thing or not. categories of nationwide data. But within important, remember that our alumni’s length, formal talk on a set topic is a rather All of this tells me that nearly everyone the narrow range of occupation and achieve- experience shows very plainly that no path- nineteenth-century kind of thing to do. -
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. -
Science, Sovereignty, and the Sacred Text: Paleontological Resources and Native American Rights Allison M
Maryland Law Review Volume 55 | Issue 1 Article 5 Science, Sovereignty, and the Sacred Text: Paleontological Resources and Native American Rights Allison M. Dussias Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/mlr Part of the Indian and Aboriginal Law Commons Recommended Citation Allison M. Dussias, Science, Sovereignty, and the Sacred Text: Paleontological Resources and Native American Rights, 55 Md. L. Rev. 84 (1996) Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/mlr/vol55/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Academic Journals at DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maryland Law Review by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SCIENCE, SOVEREIGNTY, AND THE SACRED TEXT: PALEONTOLOGICAL RESOURCES AND NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS ALLISON M. DussIAs* Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything... for 'tis the only thing in this world that lasts.... 'Tis the only thing worth working for, worth fightingfor-worth dying for.' -Gone with the Wind You have driven away our game and our means of livelihood out of the country, until now we have nothing left that is valuable except the hills that you ask us to give up.... The earth is full of minerals of all kinds, and on the earth the ground is covered with forests of heavy pine, and when we give these up to the Great Father we know that we give up the last thing that is valuable either to us or the white people.2 -Wanigi Ska (White Ghost) We believe that at the beginning of all things, when the earth was young, the thunderbirds were giants. -
Voigt Transformations in Retrospect: Missed Opportunities?
Voigt transformations in retrospect: missed opportunities? Olga Chashchina Ecole´ Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France∗ Natalya Dudisheva Novosibirsk State University, 630 090, Novosibirsk, Russia† Zurab K. Silagadze Novosibirsk State University and Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, 630 090, Novosibirsk, Russia.‡ The teaching of modern physics often uses the history of physics as a didactic tool. However, as in this process the history of physics is not something studied but used, there is a danger that the history itself will be distorted in, as Butterfield calls it, a “Whiggish” way, when the present becomes the measure of the past. It is not surprising that reading today a paper written more than a hundred years ago, we can extract much more of it than was actually thought or dreamed by the author himself. We demonstrate this Whiggish approach on the example of Woldemar Voigt’s 1887 paper. From the modern perspective, it may appear that this paper opens a way to both the special relativity and to its anisotropic Finslerian generalization which came into the focus only recently, in relation with the Cohen and Glashow’s very special relativity proposal. With a little imagination, one can connect Voigt’s paper to the notorious Einstein-Poincar´epri- ority dispute, which we believe is a Whiggish late time artifact. We use the related historical circumstances to give a broader view on special relativity, than it is usually anticipated. PACS numbers: 03.30.+p; 1.65.+g Keywords: Special relativity, Very special relativity, Voigt transformations, Einstein-Poincar´epriority dispute I. INTRODUCTION Sometimes Woldemar Voigt, a German physicist, is considered as “Relativity’s forgotten figure” [1]. -
Theory and Experiment in the Quantum-Relativity Revolution
Theory and Experiment in the Quantum-Relativity Revolution expanded version of lecture presented at American Physical Society meeting, 2/14/10 (Abraham Pais History of Physics Prize for 2009) by Stephen G. Brush* Abstract Does new scientific knowledge come from theory (whose predictions are confirmed by experiment) or from experiment (whose results are explained by theory)? Either can happen, depending on whether theory is ahead of experiment or experiment is ahead of theory at a particular time. In the first case, new theoretical hypotheses are made and their predictions are tested by experiments. But even when the predictions are successful, we can’t be sure that some other hypothesis might not have produced the same prediction. In the second case, as in a detective story, there are already enough facts, but several theories have failed to explain them. When a new hypothesis plausibly explains all of the facts, it may be quickly accepted before any further experiments are done. In the quantum-relativity revolution there are examples of both situations. Because of the two-stage development of both relativity (“special,” then “general”) and quantum theory (“old,” then “quantum mechanics”) in the period 1905-1930, we can make a double comparison of acceptance by prediction and by explanation. A curious anti- symmetry is revealed and discussed. _____________ *Distinguished University Professor (Emeritus) of the History of Science, University of Maryland. Home address: 108 Meadowlark Terrace, Glen Mills, PA 19342. Comments welcome. 1 “Science walks forward on two feet, namely theory and experiment. ... Sometimes it is only one foot which is put forward first, sometimes the other, but continuous progress is only made by the use of both – by theorizing and then testing, or by finding new relations in the process of experimenting and then bringing the theoretical foot up and pushing it on beyond, and so on in unending alterations.” Robert A. -
Ether and Electrons in Relativity Theory (1900-1911) Scott Walter
Ether and electrons in relativity theory (1900-1911) Scott Walter To cite this version: Scott Walter. Ether and electrons in relativity theory (1900-1911). Jaume Navarro. Ether and Moder- nity: The Recalcitrance of an Epistemic Object in the Early Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press, 2018, 9780198797258. hal-01879022 HAL Id: hal-01879022 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01879022 Submitted on 21 Sep 2018 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Ether and electrons in relativity theory (1900–1911) Scott A. Walter∗ To appear in J. Navarro, ed, Ether and Modernity, 67–87. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018 Abstract This chapter discusses the roles of ether and electrons in relativity the- ory. One of the most radical moves made by Albert Einstein was to dismiss the ether from electrodynamics. His fellow physicists felt challenged by Einstein’s view, and they came up with a variety of responses, ranging from enthusiastic approval, to dismissive rejection. Among the naysayers were the electron theorists, who were unanimous in their affirmation of the ether, even if they agreed with other aspects of Einstein’s theory of relativity. The eventual success of the latter theory (circa 1911) owed much to Hermann Minkowski’s idea of four-dimensional spacetime, which was portrayed as a conceptual substitute of sorts for the ether. -
Can Literary Studies Survive? ENDGAME
THE CHRONICLE REVIEW CHRONICLE THE Can literary survive? studies Endgame THE CHRONICLE REVIEW ENDGAME CHRONICLE.COM THE CHRONICLE REVIEW Endgame The academic study of literature is no longer on the verge of field collapse. It’s in the midst of it. Preliminary data suggest that hiring is at an all-time low. Entire subfields (modernism, Victorian poetry) have essentially ceased to exist. In some years, top-tier departments are failing to place a single student in a tenure-track job. Aspirants to the field have almost no professorial prospects; practitioners, especially those who advise graduate students, must face the uneasy possibility that their professional function has evaporated. Befuddled and without purpose, they are, as one professor put it recently, like the Last Di- nosaur described in an Italo Calvino story: “The world had changed: I couldn’t recognize the mountain any more, or the rivers, or the trees.” At the Chronicle Review, members of the profession have been busy taking the measure of its demise – with pathos, with anger, with theory, and with love. We’ve supplemented this year’s collection with Chronicle news and advice reports on the state of hiring in endgame. Altogether, these essays and articles offer a comprehensive picture of an unfolding catastrophe. My University is Dying How the Jobs Crisis Has 4 By Sheila Liming 29 Transformed Faculty Hiring By Jonathan Kramnick Columbia Had Little Success 6 Placing English PhDs The Way We Hire Now By Emma Pettit 32 By Jonathan Kramnick Want to Know Where Enough With the Crisis Talk! PhDs in English Programs By Lisi Schoenbach 9 Get Jobs? 35 By Audrey Williams June The Humanities’ 38 Fear of Judgment Anatomy of a Polite Revolt By Michael Clune By Leonard Cassuto 13 Who Decides What’s Good Farting and Vomiting Through 42 and Bad in the Humanities?” 17 the New Campus Novel By Kevin Dettmar By Kristina Quynn and G. -
Introduction 8
© Copyright, Princeton University Press. No part of this book may be distributed, posted, or reproduced in any form by digital or mechanical means without prior written permission of the publisher. Introduction 8 “It’s a crying shame that Weyl is leaving Zurich. He is a great master.”1 Thus Albert Einstein described Hermann Weyl (1885–1955), who remains a leg- endary figure, “one of the greatest mathematicians of the first half of the twentieth century.... No other mathematician could claim to have initi- ated more of the theories that are now being explored,” as Michael Atiyah put it.2 Weyl deserves far wider renown not only for his importance in math- ematics and physics but also because of his deep philosophical concerns and thoughtful writing. Tothat end, this anthology gathers together some of Weyl’s most important general writings, especially those that have become unavail- able, have not previously been translated into English, or were unpublished. Together, they form a portrait of a complex and fascinating man, poetic and insightful, whose “vision has stood the test of time.”3 This vision has deeply affected contemporary physics, though Weyl always considered himself a mathematician, not a physicist.4 The present volume emphasizes his treatment of philosophy and physics, but another complete anthology could be made of Weyl’s general writings oriented more directly toward mathematics. Here, I have chosen those writings that most accessibly show how Weyl synthesized philosophy, physics, and mathematics. Weyl’s philosophical reflections began in early youth. He recollects vividly the worn copy of a book about Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason he found in the family attic and read avidly at age fifteen. -
Gravity, Metaphysics Or Physics?
Fundamental Journals International Journal of Fundamental Physical Sciences (IJFPS) ISSN:2231-8186 IJFPS, Vol 3, No 4, pp 68-74, Dec , 2013 A.L. Guillen Gomez DOI:10.14331/ijfps.2013.330058 http://dx.doi.org/10.14331/ijfps.2013.330058 Gravity, Metaphysics or Physics? Alfonso Leon Guillen Gomez Independent scientific researcher, 127A Street 53A68 Flat 514, Bogota, Colombia Email: [email protected] (Received Sep 2013; Published Dec 2013) ABSTRACT Gravity is the foundation of the current physical paradigm. Due to that gravity is strongly linked to the curvature of space-time, we research that it lacks of a valid physical concept of space-time, nevertheless that from the science philosophy, via substantivalism, it has tried respond. We found that is due to that the gnoseological process applied from the general relativity, necessarily us leads to metaphysic because ontologically space-time is a metaphysical entity. Thus, we arrive to the super substantivalism that from metaphysics gives an answer on space-time rigorously exact with the vision of Einstein on physics. The result is that matter is nothing since all is space-time, i.e. geometry, therefore is a imperative of the physical science break the current paradigm.. Keywords: Gravity, Space-time, Metaphysics, Paradigm, DOI:10.14331/ijfps.2013.330058 INTRODUCTION threatens our ordinary distinctions between past, present and future, whilst GR suggests that space and time With the formulation of the general relativity is are not just the neutral stage upon which events take place, accepted that it has a scientific physics theory on gravity. but are themselves actors in the drama. -
Yet Another Introduction to Relativistic Astrophysics
Yet Another Introduction to Relativistic Astrophysics Luigi Foschini National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) Brera Astronomical Observatory Milano/Merate (LC) – Italy July 8, 2021 arXiv:1703.05575v4 [astro-ph.HE] 7 Jul 2021 2 Foreword Relativistic Astrophysics deals with what we can say about the Universe by using the language of the theory of relativity. This peculiar type of language is strongly required when some conditions are verified, such as velocities close to that of light (for example, relativistic jets), and extreme energies or gravita- tional fields (for example, spacetime around black holes). This research field has wide overlaps with other fields, such as high-energy astrophysics and cos- mology. Therefore, it is necessary to make a selection of topics. These notes have been prepared for a series of short lessons for PhD students held at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Padova in March 2017. Ten hours of lessons can give only a taste of what is available. Given my researches, I selected mainly topics about black holes and jets, par- ticularly about supermassive objects in the centre of galaxies. Anyway, the large bibliography should give enough information to widen the necessarily limited horizon of these notes. In addition, I have not imported many figures from other works, but I cited them, so that I hope the reader could be further motivated to read more works. A large part of these notes deals with well-grounded knowledge. For relativity theory, I made use of many well-known textbooks, particularly Rindler [142], Cheng [32], Good [85], and d’Inverno [43]. -
Bradford Hill's "Aspects of Association" Andrew C Ward
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE Epidemiologic Perspectives & provided by PubMed Central Innovations BioMed Central Analytic Perspective Open Access The role of causal criteria in causal inferences: Bradford Hill's "aspects of association" Andrew C Ward Address: Minnesota Population Center, 50 Willey Hall, 225 – 19th Avenue South, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA Email: Andrew C Ward - [email protected] Published: 17 June 2009 Received: 11 August 2008 Accepted: 17 June 2009 Epidemiologic Perspectives & Innovations 2009, 6:2 doi:10.1186/1742-5573-6-2 This article is available from: http://www.epi-perspectives.com/content/6/1/2 © 2009 Ward; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract As noted by Wesley Salmon and many others, causal concepts are ubiquitous in every branch of theoretical science, in the practical disciplines and in everyday life. In the theoretical and practical sciences especially, people often base claims about causal relations on applications of statistical methods to data. However, the source and type of data place important constraints on the choice of statistical methods as well as on the warrant attributed to the causal claims based on the use of such methods. For example, much of the data used by people interested in making causal claims come from non-experimental, observational studies in which random allocations to treatment and control groups are not present.