16
votes
What sort of impact did the discovery that water could be broken down (via electrolysis) into gas have?
First, one should note that the very notion of element was muddled at that point, and was somewhat dependent on the theory of chemical reaction one adopted.
Consider the following facts: by the late ...
4
votes
Who said in the 50s all the mathematics a physicist needed was a rudimentary knowledge of the Greek and Latin alphabet so that he can put indices on
The epigraph of chapter 2 of Streater and Wightman's 1964 PCT, Spin & Statistics, and All That says
In the thirties, under the demoralizing influence of quantum-theoretic perturbation theory, ...
4
votes
How did Kepler devise his three laws?
Q: "How did Kepler devise his three laws?"
Of Kepler's laws (not so called by Kepler himself), the first two appeared in 1609 (in 'Astronomia Nova Aitiologetos, seu Physica Coelestis', often ...
4
votes
What did Feynman mean when he said "Action" historically had a different meaning?
The earlier action concept is attributed to Maupertuis.
Pierre Louis Maupertuis attempted to formulate a unification of light propagation theory and mechanics theory.
In Maupertuis' time the ...
1
vote
Accepted
Who said in the 50s all the mathematics a physicist needed was a rudimentary knowledge of the Greek and Latin alphabet so that he can put indices on
This is a statement used by many authors in the epigraphs.
For example, Reed and Simon Methods of modern mathematical physics, vol. 4, Chap. XII cite this as:
In the 1930-s, under the relaxing ...
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