Reflections on Relativity PDF Download

Author: Kevin Brown
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

View

Book Description

Author: Ulrich Majer
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401728720
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 165

View

Book Description
REFLECTIONS ON SPACETIME - FOUNDATIONS, PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY During the academic year 1992/93, an interdisciplinary research group constituted itself at the Zentrum fUr interdisziplinare Forschung (ZiF) in Bielefeld, Germany, under the title 'Semantical Aspects of Spacetime Theories', in which philosophers and physicists worked on topics in the interpretation and history of relativity theory. The present issue consists of contributions resulting from material presented and discussed in the group during the course of that year. The scope of the papers ranges from rather specialised issues arising from general relativity such as the problem of referential indeterminacy, to foundational questions regarding spacetime in the work of Carnap, Weyl and Hilbert. It is well known that the General Theory of Relativity (GTR) admits spacetime models which are 'exotic' in the sense that observers could travel into their own past. This poses a number of problems for the physical interpretation of GTR which are also relevant in the philosophy of spacetime. It is not enough to exclude these exotic models simply by stating that we live in a non-exotic universe, because it might be possible to "operate time machines" by actively changing the topology of the future part of spacetime. In his contribution, Earman first reviews the attempts of physicists to prove "chronology protection theorems" (CPTs) which exclude the operation of time machines under reasonable assumptions.

Author: Hanoch Gutfreund
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691200114
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 210

View

Book Description
New perspectives on the iconic physicist's scientific and philosophical formation At the end of World War II, Albert Einstein was invited to write his intellectual autobiography for the Library of Living Philosophers. The resulting book was his uniquely personal Autobiographical Notes, a classic work in the history of science that explains the development of his ideas with unmatched warmth and clarity. Hanoch Gutfreund and Jürgen Renn introduce Einstein's scientific reflections to today's readers, tracing his intellectual formation from childhood to old age and offering a compelling portrait of the making of a philosopher-scientist. Einstein on Einstein features the full English text of Autobiographical Notes along with incisive essays that place Einstein's reflections in the context of the different stages of his scientific life. Gutfreund and Renn draw on Einstein's writings, personal correspondence, and critical writings by Einstein's contemporaries to provide new perspectives on his greatest discoveries. Also included are Einstein's responses to his critics, which shed additional light on his scientific and philosophical worldview. Gutfreund and Renn quote extensively from Einstein's initial, unpublished attempts to formulate his response, and also look at another brief autobiographical text by Einstein, written a few weeks before his death, which is published here for the first time in English. Complete with evocative drawings by artist Laurent Taudin, Einstein on Einstein illuminates the iconic physicist's journey to general relativity while situating his revolutionary ideas alongside other astonishing scientific breakthroughs of the twentieth century.

Author: Nam-Hoon Lee
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030421015
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 264

View

Book Description
This textbook offers a geometric perspective on special relativity, bridging Euclidean space, hyperbolic space, and Einstein’s spacetime in one accessible, self-contained volume. Using tools tailored to undergraduates, the author explores Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometries, gradually building from intuitive to abstract spaces. By the end, readers will have encountered a range of topics, from isometries to the Lorentz–Minkowski plane, building an understanding of how geometry can be used to model special relativity. Beginning with intuitive spaces, such as the Euclidean plane and the sphere, a structure theorem for isometries is introduced that serves as a foundation for increasingly sophisticated topics, such as the hyperbolic plane and the Lorentz–Minkowski plane. By gradually introducing tools throughout, the author offers readers an accessible pathway to visualizing increasingly abstract geometric concepts. Numerous exercises are also included with selected solutions provided. Geometry: from Isometries to Special Relativity offers a unique approach to non-Euclidean geometries, culminating in a mathematical model for special relativity. The focus on isometries offers undergraduates an accessible progression from the intuitive to abstract; instructors will appreciate the complete instructor solutions manual available online. A background in elementary calculus is assumed.

Author: Ian McCausland
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781461903703
Category : SCIENCE
Languages : en
Pages :

View

Book Description

Author: M. Sachs
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401576661
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

View

Book Description
There exist essentially two levels of investigation in theoretical physics. One is primarily descriptive, concentrating as it does on useful phenomenological approaches toward the most economical classifications of large classes of experimental data on particular phenomena. The other, whose thrust is explanatory, has as its aim the formulation of those underlying hypotheses and their mathematical representations that are capable of furnishing, via deductive analysis, predictions - constituting the particulars of universals (the asserted laws)- about the phenomena under consideration. The two principal disciplines of contemporary theoretical physics - quantum theory and the theory of relativity - fall basically into these respective categories. General Relativity and Matter represents a bold attempt by its author to formulate, in as transparent and complete a way as possible, a fundamental theory of matter rooted in the theory of relativity - where the latter is viewed as providing an explanatory level of understanding for probing the fundamental nature ofmatter indomainsranging all the way fromfermis and lessto light years and more. We hasten to add that this assertion is not meant to imply that the author pretends with his theory to encompass all ofphysics or even a tiny part of the complete objective understanding of our accessible universe. But he does adopt the philosophy that underlying all natural phenomena there is a common conceptualbasis,and then proceeds to investigate how far such a unified viewcan take us at its present stage of development.

Author: Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9400704739
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 750

View

Book Description
Phenomenology is the philosophy of our times. Through the entire twentieth century this philosophy unfolded and flourished, following stepwise the intrinsic logic and dynamism of its original project as proposed by its founder Edmund Husserl. Now its seminal ideas have been handed over to a new era. The worldwide contributors to this volume make it manifest that phenomenological inspiration knows no cultural barriers. It penetrates and invigorates not only philosophical disciplines but also most of the sectors of knowledge, transforming our way of seeing the world, our actions toward others, and our lives. Phenomenology's universal spread has, however, oftentimes diluted its original sense, even beyond recognition, and led to a weakening of its dynamics. There is at present an urgent need to retrieve the original understanding of phenomenology, to awaken its dormant forces and redirect them. This is the aim of the present book: resourcement and reinvigoration. It is meant to be not only a reference work but also a guide for research and study. To restore the authentic vision of phenomenology, we propose returning to its foundational source in Husserl's project of a `universal science', unpacking all its creative capacities. In the three parts of this work there are traced the stages of this philosophy's progressive uncovering of the grounding levels of reality: ideal structures, constitutive consciousness, the intersubjective lifeworld, and beyond. The key concepts and phases of Husserl's thought are here exfoliated. Then the thought of the movement's classical figures and of representative thinkers in succeeding generations is elucidated. Phenomenology's geographic spread is reviewed. We then proceed to the culminating work of this philosophy, to the phenomenological life engagements so vigorously advocated by Husserl, to the life-significant issues phenomenology addresses and to how it has enriched the human sciences. Lastly the phenomenological project's new horizons on the plane of life are limned, horizons with so powerful a draw that they may be said not to beckon but to summon. Here is the movement's vanguard. This collection has 71 entries. Each entry is followed by a relevant bibliography. There is a helpful Glossary of Terms and an Index of Names.

Author: Santo Armenia
Publisher: Tektime
ISBN: 8893981602
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 79

View

Book Description
We had studied Einstein’s Theory of General relativity starting from elementary phenomena, together with the Galileo's principle on free fall of bodies that represent his precondition. We underlined the discrepancy of Galileo's principle, as the mass of the test body is not being subtract from the mass of the earth, and because the reciprocal attraction between the bodies has not been evaluated. Furthermore, we highlight that the free fall takes place along radial vertical lines that are not parallel. Finally, we verify the consequence of the shape of solid bodies for Galileo's principle and Einstein's theory, Archimedes' principle and the weighing (mass) of the bodies. Starting from elementary phenomena we study Einstein's theory of general relativity, together with Galileo's principle on free fall of bodies that represent his precondition. Galileo's principle estimates that all objects fall at a constant acceleration due to gravity regardless of their mass. On the contrary, we establish the non-effectiveness of that Galileo's principle as the mass of the test body is not being subtract from the mass of the earth (incorrectly thought to be constant) and moreover for not having been evaluated the reciprocal attraction of the bodies (superposition of effects). Likewise, we highlight that the free fall takes place along radial vertical lines that are not parallel. We study the shape of solid bodies, for which bodies that have the same mass but different shape (except from sphere, equilateral cylinder and cube) when varying their position on the reference plane they have different weight: a body a mass, a body infinite weight. Therefore, we verify the consequence of the shape of solid bodies according to the Galileo's principle (that is not effective) and for the confutation of Einstein's theory, Archimedes' principle and the weighing (mass) of the bodies. Translator: Termini Salvatore PUBLISHER: TEKTIME

Author: Samo Liu
Publisher: Scientific Research Publishing, Inc. USA
ISBN: 1649970935
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 225

View

Book Description
Humankind resides in the three-dimensional universe. It is a real materialistic universe where humans utilize their senses to perceive the dimension, temperature, color, or taste of all beings of the universe. However, the Universe that humankind discovered to date is not the entire Universe. The scientific results from researches performed by modern physicists and the knowledge passed down by ancient sages throughout generations have lead humankind to believe that the visible Universe is only a fraction of the whole Universe. The void invisible to humankind is where the Origin of the Universe lies.

Author: Roman U. Sexl
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3709162343
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 388

View

Book Description
This textbook bridges the gap between the level of introductory courses on mechanics and electrodynamics and the level of application in high energy physics and quantum field theory. After explaining the postulates that lead to the Lorentz transformation and after going through the main points special relativity has to make in classical mechanics and electrodynamics, the authors gradually lead the reader up to a more abstract point of view on relativistic symmetry - illustrated by physical examples - until finally motivating and developing Wigner's classification of the unitary irreducible representations of the inhomogeneous Lorentz group. Numerous historical and mathematical asides contribute to the conceptual clarification.