Buch, Englisch, 512 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 860 g
A History of Physics in the Twentieth Century
Buch, Englisch, 512 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 860 g
ISBN: 978-0-691-09552-3
Verlag: Princeton University Press
At the end of the nineteenth century, some physicists believed that the basic principles underlying their subject were already known, and that physics in the future would only consist of filling in the details. They could hardly have been more wrong. The past century has seen the rise of quantum mechanics, relativity, cosmology, particle physics, and solid-state physics, among other fields. These subjects have fundamentally changed our understanding of space, time, and matter. They have also transformed daily life, inspiring a technological revolution that has included the development of radio, television, lasers, nuclear power, and computers. In Quantum Generations, Helge Kragh, one of the world's leading historians of physics, presents a sweeping account of these extraordinary achievements of the past one hundred years.The first comprehensive one-volume history of twentieth-century physics, the book takes us from the discovery of X rays in the mid-1890s to superstring theory in the 1990s. Unlike most previous histories of physics, written either from a scientific perspective or from a social and institutional perspective, Quantum Generations combines both approaches. Kragh writes about pure science with the expertise of a trained physicist, while keeping the content accessible to nonspecialists and paying careful attention to practical uses of science, ranging from compact disks to bombs. As a historian, Kragh skillfully outlines the social and economic contexts that have shaped the field in the twentieth century. He writes, for example, about the impact of the two world wars, the fate of physics under Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin, the role of military research, the emerging leadership of the United States, and the backlash against science that began in the 1960s. He also shows how the revolutionary discoveries of scientists ranging from Einstein, Planck, and Bohr to Stephen Hawking have been built on the great traditions of earlier centuries.Combining a mastery of detail with a sure sense of the broad contours of historical change, Kragh has written a fitting tribute to the scientists who have played such a decisive role in the making of the modern world.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Fachgebiete
- Naturwissenschaften Physik Physik Allgemein Experimentalphysik
- Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Populärwissenschaftliche Werke
- Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politik: Sachbuch, Politikerveröffentlichungen
- Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte
- Naturwissenschaften Physik Physik Allgemein Geschichte der Physik
- Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
- Geowissenschaften Geographie | Raumplanung Geographie: Sachbuch, Reise
- Naturwissenschaften Physik Physik Allgemein Theoretische Physik, Mathematische Physik, Computerphysik
- Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Human- und Sozialwissenschaften
Weitere Infos & Material
Preface xi
PART ONE: FROM CONSOLIDATION TO REVOLUTION 1
CHAPTER ONE Fin-de-Siecle Physics: A World Picture in Flux 3
CHAPTER TWO The World of Physics 13
Personnel and Resources 13
Physics Journals 19
A Japanese Look at European Physics 22
CHAPTER THREE Discharges in Gases and What Followed 27
A New Kind of Rays 28
From Becquerel Rays to Radioactivity 30
Spurious Rays, More or Less 34
The Electron before Thomson 38
The First Elementary Particle 40
CHAPTER FOUR Atomic Architecture 44
The Thomson Atom 44
Other Early Atomic Models 48
Rutherford's Nuclear Atom 51
A Quantum Theory of Atomic Structure 53
CHAPTER FIVE The Slow Rise of Quantum Theory 58
The Law of Blackbody Radiation 58
Early Discussions of the Quantum Hypothesis 63
Einstein and the Photon 66
Specific Heats and the Status of Quantum Theory by 1913 68
CHAPTER SIX Physics at Low Temperatures 74
The Race Toward Zero 74
Kammerlingh Onnes and the Leiden Laboratory 76
Superconductivity 80
CHAPTER SEVEN Einstein's Relativity, and Others' 87
The Lorentz Transformations 87
Einsteinian Relativity 90
From Special to General Relativity 93
Reception 98
CHAPTER EIGHT A Revolution that Failed 105
The Concept of Electromagnetic Mass 105
Electron Theory as a Worldview 108
Mass Variation Experiments 111
Decline of a Worldview 114
Unified Field Theories 116
CHAPTER NINE Physics in Industry and War 120
Industrial Physics 120
Electrons at Work, I. Long-Distance Telephony 123
Electrons at Work, II: Vacuum Tubes 126
Physics in the Chemists' War 130
PART TWO: FROM REVOLUTION TO CONSOLIDATION 137
CHAPTER TEN Science and Politics in the Weimar Republic 139
Science Policy and Financial Support 139
International Relations 143
The Physics Community 148
Zeitgeist and the Physical Worldview 151
CHAPTER ELEVEN Quantum Jumps 155
Quantum Anomalies 155
Heisenberg'S Quantum Mechanics 161
Schrodinger's Equation 163
Dissemination and Receptions 168
CHAPTER TWELVE The Rise of Nuclear Physics 174
The Electron-Proton Model 174
Quantum Mechanics and the Nucleus 177
Astrophysical Applications 182
1932, Annus Mirabilis 184
CHAPTER THIRTEEN From Two to Many Particles 190
Antiparticles 190
Surprises from the Cosmic Radiation 193
Crisis in Quantum Theory 196
Yukawas Heavy Quantum 201
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Philosophical Implications of Quantum Mechanics 206
Uncertainty and Complementarity 206
Against the Copenhagen Interpretation 212
Is Quantum Mechanics Complete? 215
CHAPTER FIFTEEN Eddington's Dream and Other Heterodoxies 218
Eddington's Fundamentalism 218
Cosmonumerology and Other Speculations 221
Milne and Cosmophysics 223
The Modem Aristotelians 226
CHAPTER SIXTEEN Physics and the New Dictatorships 230
In the Shadow of the Swastika 230
Aryan Physics 236
Physics in Mussolini's Italy 238
Physics, Dialectical Materialism, and Stalinism 240
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Brain Drain and Brain Gain 245
American Physics in the 1930s 245
Intellectual Migrations 249
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN From Uranium Puzzle to Hiroshima 257
The Road to Fission 257
More than Moonshine 261
Toward the Bomb 265
The Death of Two Cities 269
PART THREE: PROGRESS AND PROBLEMS 277
CHAPTER NINETEEN Nuclear Themes 279
Physics of Atomic Nuclei 279
Modem Alchemy 283
Hopes and Perils of Nuclear Energy 285
Controlled Fusion Energy 290
CHAPTER TWENTY Militarization and Megatrends 293
Physics-A Branch of the Military? 295
Big Machines 302
A European Big Science Adventure 308
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Particle Discoveries 312
Mainly Mesons 312
Weak Interactions 317
Quarks 321
The Growth of Particle Physics 325
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Fundamental Theories 332
The Ups and Downs of Field Theory 336
Gauge Fields and Electroweak Unification 339
Quantum Chromodynamics 344
CHAPTER TWEN
