No Truth Except in the Details Essays in Honor of Martin J

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A.J. Kox, D.M. Siegel (Eds.) No Truth Except in the Details Essays in Honor of Martin J. Klein Series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, Vol. 167 Beginning with a couple of essays dealing with the experimental and mathematical foundations of physics in the work of Henry Cavendish and Joseph Fourier, the volume goes on to consider the broad areas of investigation that constituted the central foci of the development of the physics discipline in the nineteenth century: electricity and magnetism, including especially the work of Michael Faraday, William Thomson, and James Clerk Maxwell; and thermodynamics and matter theory, including the theoretical work and legacy of Josiah Willard Gibbs, some experimental work relating to thermodynamics and kinetic theory of Heinrich Hertz, and the work of Felix Seyler-Hoppe on hemoglobin in the neighboring field of biophysics/biochemistry. Moving on to the beginning of the twentieth century, a set of three articles on Albert Einstein deal with his early career and various influences on his work. Finally, a set of historiographical issues 1995, XXV, 382 p. 13 illus., 1 illus. in color. important for the history of physics are discussed, and the chronological conclusion of the volume is an article on the Solvay Conference of 1933. Printed book For physicists interested in the history of their discipline, historians and philosophers of Hardcover science, and graduate students in these and related disciplines. ▶ 79,95 € | £72.00 | $99.00 ▶ *85,55 € (D) | 87,95 € (A) | CHF 106.60 eBook Available from your bookstore or ▶ springer.com/shop MyCopy Printed eBook for just ▶ € | $ 24.99 ▶ springer.com/mycopy Order online at springer.com ▶ or for the Americas call (toll free) 1-800-SPRINGER ▶ or email us at: [email protected]. ▶ For outside the Americas call +49 (0) 6221-345-4301 ▶ or email us at: [email protected]. The first € price and the £ and $ price are net prices, subject to local VAT. Prices indicated with * include VAT for books; the €(D) includes 7% for Germany, the €(A) includes 10% for Austria. Prices indicated with ** include VAT for electronic products; 19% for Germany, 20% for Austria. All prices exclusive of carriage charges. Prices and other details are subject to change without notice. All errors and omissions excepted..

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Cavendish Weighs the Earth, 1797
CAVENDISH WEIGHS THE EARTH Newton's law of gravitation tells us that any two bodies attract each other{not just the Earth and an apple, or the Earth and the Moon, but also two apples! We don't feel the attraction between two apples if we hold one in each hand, as we do the attraction of two magnets, but according to Newton's law, the two apples should attract each other. If that is really true, it might perhaps be possible to directly observe the force of attraction between two objects in a laboratory. The \great moment" when that was done came on August 5, 1797, in a garden shed in suburban London. The experimenter was Lord Henry Cavendish. Cavendish had inherited a fortune, and was therefore free to follow his inclinations, which turned out to be scientific. In addition to the famous experiment described here, he was also the discoverer of “inflammable air", now known as hydrogen. In those days, science in England was often pursued by private citizens of means, who communicated through the Royal Society. Although Cavendish studied at Cambridge for three years, the universities were not yet centers of scientific research. Let us turn now to a calculation. How much should the force of gravity between two apples actually amount to? Since the attraction between two objects is proportional to the product of their masses, the attraction between the apples should be the weight of an apple times the ratio of the mass of an apple to the mass of the Earth. The weight of an apple is, according to Newton, the force of attraction between the apple and the Earth: GMm W = R2 where G is the \gravitational constant", M the mass of the Earth, m the mass of an apple, and R the radius of the Earth.
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Cronfa - Swansea University Open Access Repository _____________________________________________________________ This is an author produced version of a paper published in: Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion Cronfa URL for this paper: http://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40899 _____________________________________________________________ Paper: Tucker, J. Richard Price and the History of Science. Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 23, 69- 86. _____________________________________________________________ This item is brought to you by Swansea University. Any person downloading material is agreeing to abide by the terms of the repository licence. Copies of full text items may be used or reproduced in any format or medium, without prior permission for personal research or study, educational or non-commercial purposes only. The copyright for any work remains with the original author unless otherwise specified. The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder. Permission for multiple reproductions should be obtained from the original author. Authors are personally responsible for adhering to copyright and publisher restrictions when uploading content to the repository. http://www.swansea.ac.uk/library/researchsupport/ris-support/ 69 RICHARD PRICE AND THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE John V. Tucker Abstract Richard Price (1723–1791) was born in south Wales and practised as a minister of religion in London. He was also a keen scientist who wrote extensively about mathematics, astronomy, and electricity, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Written in support of a national history of science for Wales, this article explores the legacy of Richard Price and his considerable contribution to science and the intellectual history of Wales.
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Richard Price and the History of Science
69 RICHARD PRICE AND THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE John V. Tucker Abstract Richard Price (1723–1791) was born in south Wales and practised as a minister of religion in London. He was also a keen scientist who wrote extensively about mathematics, astronomy, and electricity, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Written in support of a national history of science for Wales, this article explores the legacy of Richard Price and his considerable contribution to science and the intellectual history of Wales. The article argues that Price’s real contribution to science was in the field of probability theory and actuarial calculations. Introduction Richard Price was born in Llangeinor, near Bridgend, in 1723. His life was that of a Dissenting Minister in Newington Green, London. He died in 1791. He is well remembered for his writings on politics and the affairs of his day – such as the American and French Revolutions. Liberal, republican, and deeply engaged with ideas and intellectuals, he is a major thinker of the eighteenth century. He is certainly pre-eminent in Welsh intellectual history. Richard Price was also deeply engaged with science. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for good reasons. He wrote about mathematics, astronomy and electricity. He had scientific equipment at home. He was consulted on scientific questions. He was a central figure in an eighteenth-century network of scientific people. He developed the mathematics and data needed to place pensions and insurance on a sound foundation – a contribution to applied mathematics that has led to huge computational, financial and social progress.
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