The Beginnings of Piezoelectricity

A Study in Mundane Physics
2006
ISBN: 978-1-4020-4669-8
Verlag: Springer Netherlands

Buch, Englisch, Band 246, 273 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 1330 g

Reihe: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science

Involving electricity, elasticity, thermodynamics and crystallography, several scientific traditions and approaches and leading physicists, the history of piezoelectricity provides an advantageous perspective on late nineteenth century physics and its development. The beginnings of piezoelectricity, the first history of the subject, exhaustively examines how these diverse influences led to the discovery of the phenomenon in 1880, and how they shaped its subsequent research until the consolidation of an empirical and theoretical knowledge of the field circa 1895. It studies a particular subdiscipline representative of many similar ‘mundane’ branches of physics that did not bear revolutionary consequences beyond their field. Although most research is of this kind, such branches have rarely been studied by historians of science. Shaul Katzir’s historical account shows that this mundane science was an intriguing intellectual and practical enterprise, which involved, among other things,originality, surprises and controversies. Thereby, it displays the fruitfulness of studying such a field.

Employing exceedingly rich material Katzir gains interesting insights into the nature of scientific development from this history. Among the themes raised here are: the sources of a discovery, the interplay between molecular-atomistic and phenomenological approaches and between scientific practice and protagonists’ philosophy of science, the role of thermodynamic formulation, the interaction of different levels of theories with experiment, the use and design of qualitative versus precise quantitative experiments, the employment of symmetry in physics and the role of national and local experimental and theoretical traditions. Observations regarding these and other issues in this book portray an unexpected picture of turn of the century physics.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Katzir, Shaul

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Thermodynamik Festkörperphysik, Kondensierte Materie
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Wissenschaften: Theorie, Epistemologie, Methodik
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Physik Allgemein Geschichte der Physik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschaftsphilosophie
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Elektromagnetismus Elektrizität, Elektrodynamik
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Elektromagnetismus Magnetismus
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Elektromagnetismus Halbleiter- und Supraleiterphysik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction.
1: The discovery of the piezoelectric effect.
2: The Road to the Descriptive Theory

3: Theories and models about the causes of the piezoelectric phenomena.
4: Theoretical elaboration of Voigt’s theory.
5: Empirical work in the 1890s

Concluding Remarks 
Appendix. 1. Earlier appearances of electricity by pressure.
Appendix 2.  Mathematical Works on Voigt's General Theory

Appendix 3.  Voigt's Concepts of Electric Charge

Appendix 4. Tables

Bilbliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Shaul Katzir is a historian of science.  He teaches history of science [and general history] at Bar Ilan, Ben Gurion, and Tel Aviv universities, at the Hebrew university of Jerusalem and at the Academic College of Tel Aviv Jaffa.