A Brief Guide to the Great Equations (44 page)

Adams, John,
86

Adams, Marilyn McCord,
109

Aeneid
(Virgil),
93

algebra,
95–98
,
105
,
242–43

algebraic proofs,
29
,
31

American Mathematical Monthly,
30–31

American Physical Society,
184

American Theatre,
236

Ampère, André-Marie,
83
,
134

Ampère’s law,
134
,
138
,
141

analogies,
113
,
136–37
,
139–43
,
151
,
211
,
280
n

analysis,
95–96
,
98–99
,
104
,
105
,
136

Annalen der Physik und Chemie,
119
,
146
,
165
,
168
,
170
,
199
,
246
,
251

anosognosia,
152–55

anschaulich
(visualizable) theories,
218–19
,
220
,
221
,
223–24
,
238–39
,
245–46
,
251
,
255–58
,
260
,
265

antiperistasis, doctrine of,
52
,
53

Anytus,
40
,
41

Apollodorus,
278
n

Arabs,
29
,
51
,
95

Aristotle,
48–58
,
62
,
63
,
64
,
67
,
70
,
74
,
75
,
277
n
–78
n,
280
n
–82
n

Islamic commentators on,
53–54

space viewed as boundary by,
57

successors’ modifications to work of,
51–58

arrow of time,
119–22
,
125

Ascent of Man, The
(Bronowski),
21

Assayer, The
(Galileo),
65
,
67

astrology,
15
,
71
,
72–73
,
76
,
273
n

astronomy,
24
,
33
,
56
,
72–77
,
145
,
297
n

ancient,
25–26
,
49
;
see also
celestial sphere

astrology vs.,
72–73

Copernican,
66
,
67
,
72
,
73–74
,
239
,
284
n

of Kepler,
73–74

Mercury’s orbital precession and,
190–91
,
194
,
198
,
200
,
202
,
206

photographing total solar eclipses in,
185–87
,
193–95
,
200
,
201–8

planetary orbits in,
57
,
74–77
,
78
,
79–80
,
82
,
284
n

supernovae in,
56
,
294
n

trigonometry as tool of,
95

astrophysics,
173

atomic bomb,
173–77
,
178–79
Atomic Energy for Military Purposes
(Smyth),
176–77

atomic physics,
130
,
168–69
,
171–77
,
216–17
,
220

nuclear fission in,
174–77

see also
quantum physics

Aubrey, John,
22

Avempace (Ibn Bājja),
54

average speed,
50
,
55–56
,
281
n

Averroës (Ibn Rushd),
54
,
56

Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā),
54

Babylonian cuneiform tablet,
24,
25
,
26
,
28
,
278
n
–79
n

Babylonians,
29
,
273
n

Balmer formula,
216

Banville, John,
154

Barthes, Roland,
178

Beller, Mara,
228
,
230
,
246
,
248
,
249
,
257
,
258

Berezin, F. A.,
214

Bernoulli, Johann,
94

Bernoulli, Nicolaus and Daniel,
94

Bernstein, Jeremy,
180
,
183
,
292
n

Besso, Michele,
165

Bhaskara,
29–30
,
31

Bible,
22

Garden of Eden story in,
70

nature as interpreted by,
65–68

Bible, Protestantism, and the Rise of Natural Science, The
(Harrison),
66

binding energy,
173

black body radiation,
122–25
,
214–15

Bodanis, David,
156

Bogart, Anne,
236

Bohr, Niels,
130
,
173
,
174
,
180
,
182
,
211
,
298
n

Heisenberg uncertainty principle and,
236–37
,
239
,
242
,
244
,
250–51
,
253
–
54
,
256–60

quantum theory and,
215
,
216
,
218–19
,
237
,
238
,
240
,
262–63

wave theory of,
218–19
,
225

Boltzmann, Ludwig,
112,
121–22
,
124
,
126
,
191

Boltzmann equation,
112
,
122

Boltzmann’s constant,
121

Bondi, Hermann,
210

book of nature, Galileo’s image of,
17
,
57
,
65–68

Borelli, Alfonso,
284
n

Borlaug, Norman,
153

Born, Max,
185
,
221
,
225–29

Heisenberg uncertainty principle and,
236–37
,
239
,
240–41
,
243–46
,
247
,
249
,
251
,
252
,
253
,
254

Boulliau, Ismael,
75–76
,
82

Boyle, Robert,
78

Bradwardine, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury,
55–56
,
57

Brahe, Tycho,
74
,
284
n

Brewster, David,
88

Bridgman, Percy,
261–62
,
263

Brief History of Time, A
(Hawking),
157

British Association for the Advancement of Science,
146–47

Bronowski, J.,
21

Buddha,
25

Buridan, John,
54–55

Burtt, E. A.,
75

Cabanis, Pierre,
86–87

calculus,
96
,
197
,
242

caloric theory,
113
,
114
,
115–17

Calvino, Italo,
110
,
209

Cambridge University,
134

Cavendish Laboratory of,
143

Newton at,
77
,
78
,
79–81
,
88

Philosophical Society of,
137

canonically conjugate variables,
244
,
251
–
52
,
253

Canterbury Tales, The
(Chaucer),
55

Carey, Mariah,
157

Carnot, Hippolyte,
112
,
115
,
116

Carnot, Lazare,
112,
115
,
116

Carnot, Sadi,
112,
115
,
116–17
,
118

Cassidy, David,
248

categorical intuition,
45

Catherine I, Empress of Russia,
94

Catherine II ‘the Great,’ Empress of Russia,
97

Catholic Church, books prohibited by,
66–67

Cavendish, Henry,
143

celestial sphere,
24
,
72–77
,
78
,
79–80
,
82

circular motions observed in,
49
,
58
,
63
,
70
,
74
,
281
n

earthly realm vs.,
49
,
51
,
53
,
55
,
56
,
63
,
70
,
71

God-given impetus of,
54–55
,
282
n

see also
astronomy

Chadwick, James,
172
,
174

Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan,
19–20

changing acceleration,
56

Chaucer, Geoffrey,
55

Chicago, University of,
175

China,
14

Pythagorean theorem known by,
25–26
,
28
,
29

Christina, Grand Duchess of Tuscany,
66–67

Christofilos, Nicholas,
182–83

circular arguments,
29

Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie,
42

Civil War, U.S.,
133
,
145

Classical Electrodynamics
(Jackson),
151

Clausius, Rudolf,
111
,
112,
118
,
119
,
120
,
124

clockwork universe,
61
,
84

Cockcroft, John,
172

Cohen, I. Bernard,
60
,
62
,
69
,
70
,
90
,
283
n

Columbia University,
24,
25
,
174

comets,
77
,
79

commutative law,
242–43
,
244
,
251–52
,
297
n

compensation factor,
163–64
,
170

complementarity, doctrine of,
263
,
298
n

complex numbers,
104
,
224

Compton, Arthur H.,
218

Compton effect,
218–19
,
250
,
256

Comte, Auguste,
75

configuration space,
224
,
225
,
227
,
246
,
247

congeners,
177–78

continuous force,
58
,
59
,
60

Copenhagen
(Frayn),
211
,
235
,
262–63

Copenhagen interpretation,
249
,
259–60

Copernicus, Nicolaus,
66
,
67
,
72
,
73–74
,
239
,
284
n

correspondence principle,
239

cosine function,
97
,
101–2

cosines, law of,
32

Cosmicomics
(Calvino),
110
,
209

‘Cosmological Considerations in the General Theory of Relativity’ (Einstein),
293
n
–94
n

Cotes, Roger,
16–17

Cottingham, E. T.,
204

Cottrell, William,
92

covariance,
159
,
189
,
192
,
197
,
198–200
,
291
n,
293
n
–94
n

crazy-idea letters,
180–84
,
292
n

creation myths,
14

‘Critique of the Foundations of Physics’ (Darwin),
218

Crommelin, A.C.D.,
203–4
,
206

Crystal Palace exhibition (1851),
42

cubic equations,
274
n

Dalai Lama,
156

Darrow, Karl,
247

Darwin, Charles,
83

Darwin, Charles G.,
218

Davidson, C. R.,
203–4

de Broglie, Louis,
216
,
222
,
223

Debye, Pieter,
222
,
223

decimal numbers,
95
,
99

De Magnete
(Gilbert),
72

De Motu
(Newton),
80–81

De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
(Copernicus),
66
,
67
,
72

Desaguliers, John Theophilus,
85

Descartes, René,
33–34
,
45
,
59
,
84
,
99

imaginary numbers named by,
96
,
97
,
104

vortices concept of,
75
,
78
,
81

de Sitter, Willem,
201

determinate equations,
15

Devlin, Keith,
91
,
106

diagonals,
33
,
36–37
,
38–39
,
39,
40
,
90

differential equations,
138
,
274
n

Dilworth, David,
280
n

Diophantine (indeterminate) equations,
15

Diophantus,
14

Dirac, Paul,
247
,
296
n
–97
n