A Brief Guide to the Great Equations (49 page)

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Authors: Robert Crease

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sacrifice in,
239

scientific laws in,
84–85
,
87

successful, gravity theory as paradigm of,
83–85
,
90

Science and the Founding Fathers
(Cohen),
86

secular equations,
297
n

See, Thomas J. J.,
202

set square,
24

Sheets-Johnstone, Maxine,
280
n

Shubin, M. A.,
214

Siegert, Arnold,
184

sine function,
97
,
100–102

sine wave,
101

Slater, John,
218–19
,
225

Smyth, Henry D.,
176–77

Snow, C. P.,
111
,
114

Socher, David,
42–43

social constructivism,
202

socialism,
86–87

Socrates,
29
,
35–41
,
39,
90

Software of the Universe, The
(Dorato),
84

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

Solvay, Ernest,
215–16
,
222

Sommerfeld, Arnold,
199

sound, speed of,
144
,
160–61

Soviet Union,
109

space,
57
,
144
,
153
,
217
,
219
,
220
,
221
,
252
,
268

absolute,
60–61
,
62–63
,
159
,
161
,
164
,
199

configuration,
224
,
225
,
227
,
246
,
247

contraction of,
163–64
,
166–67
,
191

Hilbert,
263
,
298
n

three-dimensional,
33
,
192
,
225

space-time,
63
,
250
,
251
,
255
,
265

curvature of,
185
,
186
,
196
,
206
,
207–8

four-dimensional,
33
,
197
,
238–39

geometry of,
196–97
,
199
,
208

Minkowski’s concept of,
191–93
,
196

speed,
50
,
53
,
55–56
,
61
,
128
,
160
,
189
,
281
n
–82
n

see also
light, speed of

square, doubled area of,
37–39
,
39

statistical methods,
120–22
,
124
,
221–22

steam engines,
116–17

Stefan-Boltzmann law,
122
,
123

Steiner, George,
268

Stephenson, Neal,
154

Stoppard, Tom,
71

Strassman, Fritz,
174

Strato,
52

Stukeley, William,
89

‘Subtle is the Lord’
(Pais),
210

Śulbasūtras,
25
,
26
,
28
,
276
n
–77
n

supernovae,
56
,
294
n

sympathies,
71

Taylor, Charles,
55

Taylor series,
100

telegraphy,
145
,
149–50

telos,
51

tensors,
192
,
196–97

Thābit Ibn Qurra,
29

theorem, derivation of term,
23

Theory of Heat
(Maxwell),
121

thermodynamics,
33
,
114–25
,
126

black body radiation in,
122–25
,
214–15

equipartition theorem in,
121
,
126–27

H-function and,
121–22

Maxwell’s ‘demon’ thought experiment on,
120–21
,
130

naming of,
118

reversibility vs. irreversibility in,
119

22
,
124–25

statistical interpretations of,
120–22
,
124

see also
heat

thermodynamics, first law of,
111
,
118
,
119–20
,
124–25
,
128
,
129

thermodynamics, second law of,
111–27
,
128
,
129
,
267
,
268

arrow of time in,
119–22
,
125

description of,
111

formulations of,
111
,
118
,
124

scientists involved in development of,
112–13
,
112,
113

Shakespearean qualities of,
114
,
127

Thomas Aquinas, Saint,
56

Thomson, Joseph J.,
185
,
186
,
205–7

Thomson, William,
see
Kelvin, William Thomson, Lord

Thucydides,
22

tidal motions,
70
,
71

time,
57–58
,
153
,
217
,
219
,
220
,
221
,
252
,
268

absolute,
60–61
,
62–63
,
159
,
161
,
164
,
199

arrow of,
119–22
,
125

contraction of,
163–64
,
166–67
,
191

Time,
147
,
209

E
=
mc
2
on cover of,
156
,
178–79
,
179

Times
(London),
186

topology,
98

transformations,
160–64
,
170
,
189

translation invariance,
159

Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, A
(Maxwell),
142–45
,
149

Treatise on Natural Philosophy
(Kelvin and Tait),
118

triangles,
95

law of cosines of,
31

see also
right triangles trigonometric functions,
99–106

trigonometry,
24,
25
,
32
,
95

Twain, Mark,
19

Two Cultures, The
(Snow),
111

2+2=4,
108–9

2+2=5,
87
,
109

Uhlenbeck, George,
245

uncertainty principle,
see
Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

uniform acceleration,
56

uniform speed,
50
,
56
,
160
,
189
,
282
n

universe:

clockwork,
61
,
84

expansion of,
293
n
–94
n

unmoved mover,
49
,
51
,
55

uranium,
174–77

Uranus,
98

vacuum, motion in,
53

vectors,
29
,
103
,
192

Vernias, Nicoletto,
72

‘Visualizable Content of Quantum Kinematics and Mechanics, The’ (Heisenberg),
255–58

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

Volta, Alessandro,
259

Voltaire,
64
,
89

vortices, Cartesian,
75
,
78
,
81

Vulcan (postulated planet),
190

Wallace, Alfred R.,
83

Wallace, David Foster,
154

Walton, Ernest,
172

water-powered machines,
115
,
116–17

wave equations,
221
,
222–25
,
226–28
,
246–54
,
257–58
,
268

wave functions,
223–25
,
226–28
,
264
,
265

wave mechanics,
226
,
246–54
,
257–58
,
259
,
263

wave theory,
217–19
,
226–27

see also
electromagnetic waves Weber, Wilhelm,
141

weight,
50
,
53
,
54
,
55
,
61
,
78

weightless conditions,
187–89

Westfall, Richard,
58
,
89
,
284
n

‘What Is a Natural Law?’ (Schrödinger),
221–22

Wheeler, John,
199
,
227

Whitehead, Alfred North,
15
,
186–87

Whittaker, Edmund,
129

Wien, Wilhelm,
112
,
113,
122–23
,
124
,
223
,
249

Wien’s law,
113
,
123
,
124
,
125

Wilczek, Frank,
19
,
46
,
64

Winner, Langdon,
211–12

Wizard of Oz
(film),
26

World Cup (2006),
92

World War I,
113
,
195
,
202

World War II,
43–44
,
113

atomic bomb in,
173–77
,
178–79

Wren, Christopher,
77

Zhou Bi Suan Jing
(‘Gnomon of the Zhou’),
25–26
,
25,
28
,
29–30
,
31
,
277
n

Zinn, Howard,
152–54

A Brief History of Infinity
Brian Clegg
The concept of infinity is a difficult one to grasp…
978-1-84119-650-3
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Philosophers and mathematicians have gone mad contemplating its nature and complexity – and yet it is a concept now routinely used by schoolchildren. In this highly entertaining and stimulating study, Brian Clegg takes us on a tour of that borderland between the extremely large and the ultimate, from Archimedes counting the grains of sand that would fill the universe, to the latest theories on the physical reality of the infinite.

 

 

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The origins of Liberty, the Rights of Man, Modern Science, and Evolution – and why they matter today
978-1-84529-804-3
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The eighteenth-century ‘Age of Enlightenment’ laid the foundations for much that informs the ideals of modern society. Philosophers, scientists and theorists from Western Europe asked many questions that we still debate: What is society? How do we know if something is truth, or not? What are man’s obligations to his fellow?
With an introduction by A.C. Grayling, Professor of Philosophy at Birbeck College, University of London,
The Britannica Guide to the Ideas that Made the Modern World
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