Quantum Mechanics: Science and Society

by Galison,Peter; Galison,Peter

• ISBN13: 9780415937184
• ISBN10: 0415937183
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-10-26
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Modern science has changed every aspect of life in ways that cannot be compared to developments of previous eras. This four-volume set presents key developments within modern physical science and the effects of these discoveries on modern global life. The first two volumes explore the history of the concept of relativity, the cultural roots of science, the concept of time and gravity before, during, and after Einstein's theory, and the cultural reception of relativity. Volume 3 explores the impact of modern science upon global politics and the creation of a new kind of war, and Volume 4 details the old and new efforts surrounding the elucidation of the quantum world, as well as the cultural impact of particle physics. This reprint collection pools the best scholarship available, collected from a large array of difficult to acquire books, journals, and pamphlets. Each volume begins with an introductory essay, written by one of the top scholars in the history of science. Students and scholars of modern culture,science, and society will find these volumes a veritable research gold mine.

Table of Contents

Volume Introduction	vii
Radiation, Oscillators, and Atoms
Revisiting Planck	1	(22)
Thomas Kuhn
Thermodynamics in Einstein's Thought	23	(8)
Martin Klein
Einstein, Specific Heats, and the Early Quantum Theory	31	(8)
Martin Klein
Classical Concepts in Bohr's Atomic Theory (1913-1925)	39	(24)
Olivier Darrigol
Matrix Mechanics and Wave Mechanics
Heisenberg, Models, and the Rise of Matrix Mechanics	63	(52)
Edward MacKinnon
Schrodinger's Route to. Wave Mechanics	115	(31)
Linda Wessels
Heisenberg, Uncertainty, and the Quantum Revolution	146	(7)
David Cassidy
Genesis of Dirac's Relativistic Theory of Electrons	153	(38)
Helge Kragh
Probability, Acausality, and Culture
Weimar Culture, Causality, and Quantum Theory, 1918-1927: Adaptation by German Physicists and Mathematicians to a Hostile Intellectual Environment	191	(36)
Paul Forman
Born's Probabilistic Interpretation: A Case Study of `Concepts in Flux'	227	(26)
Mara Beller
The Meanings of Quantum Mechanics
The Roots of Complementarity	253	(42)
Gerald Holton
The Earliest Missionaries of the Copenhagen Spirit	295	(37)
John Heilbron
Pascual Jordan: Quantum Mechanics, Psychology, National Socialism	332	(39)
M. Norton Wise
Einstein's Critique of Quantum Theory: The Roots and Significance of EPR	371	(12)
Arthur Fine
The Americanization of Molecular Physics	383	(34)
Alexi Assmus
Acknowledgments	417