scholarly journals The interpretation of the Einstein-Rupp experiments and their influence on the history of quantum mechanics

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (supplement) ◽  
pp. 121-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeroen Van Dongen
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
History Of

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henk W. de Regt
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Scientific Understanding ◽  
Related Question ◽  
History Of ◽  
Human Desire ◽  
Exciting Project ◽  
Understanding Science ◽  
The Way

This chapter introduces the theme of the book: scientific understanding. Science is arguably the most successful product of the human desire for understanding. Reflection on the nature of scientific understanding is an important and exciting project for philosophers of science, as well as for scientists and interested laypeople. As a first illustration of this, the chapter sketches an episode from the history of science in which discussions about understanding played a crucial role: the genesis of quantum mechanics in the 1920s, and the heated debates about the intelligibility of this theory and the related question of whether it can provide understanding. This case shows that standards of intelligibility of scientists can vary strongly. Furthermore, the chapter outlines and defends the way in which this study approaches its subject, differing essentially from mainstream philosophical discussions of explanatory understanding. It concludes with an overview of the contents of the book.

Transmitting Knowledge across Divides

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Jordi Taltavull
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Scientific Understanding ◽  
Resonance Model ◽  
Optical Dispersion ◽  
History Of

One model, the resonance model, shaped scientific understanding of optical dispersion from the early 1870s to the 1920s, persisting across dramatic changes in physical conceptions of light and matter. I explore the ways in which the model was transmitted across these conceptual divides by analyzing the use of the model both in the development of theories of optical dispersion and in the interpretation of experimental data. Crucial to this analysis is the integration of the model into quantum theory because of the conceptual incompatibility between the model and quantum theory. What is more, a quantum understanding of optical dispersion set the grounds for the emergence of the first theories of quantum mechanics in 1925. A long-term history of the model’s transmission from the 1870s to the 1920s illuminates the ways in which the continuity of knowledge is possible across these discontinuities.

The Standard Formulation of Quantum Mechanics

2019 ◽  
pp. 42-65
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Computer ◽  
Mathematical Formalism ◽  
Standard Formulation ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
Conceptual History ◽  
Standard Interpretation ◽  
Linear Dynamics ◽  
Von Neumann ◽  
History Of

The standard von Neumann-Dirac formulation of quantum mechanics is presented as a set of five basic rules. We discuss each rule is discussed in turn paying particular attention to the conceptual history of the theory. Of central importance is the standard interpretation of states (the eigenvalue-eigenstate link) and the dynamical laws of the theory (the random collapse dynamics and the deterministic linear dynamics) and how the interpretation and dynamics work together to predict and explain the results of basic quantum experiments. While the focus is on the behavior of electrons, we also briefly consider how the theory uses the same mathematical formalism to treat other phenomena like the behavior of neutral K mesons and qbits in a quantum computer.

Philosophical Issues in (Sub)Disciplinary Contexts: The Case of Quantum Chemistry

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kostas Gavroglu ◽  
Ana Simões
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Chemistry ◽  
Philosophical Problem ◽  
Ontological Status ◽  
Energy Resonance ◽  
Straightforward Application ◽  
History Of ◽  
Chemical Character ◽  
State Of Affairs

IN A WAY, QUANTUM chemistry was “born” as a philosophical problem: It was, of course, chemistry, but owed its scientific status to physics; it was physics with the promise of explaining all of chemistry. Thankfully, following P. A. M. Dirac’s verdict (1929), this state of affairs, at least some years after 1929, was for a future world, an almost utopian world. In the meantime, chemists, physicists, and mathematicians for about half a century defying Dirac’s soothing call that all is well, but only on principle, brought about a new subdiscipline and all the methodological, epistemological, and philosophical problems that go along with the formation of any subdiscipline. In this chapter we put forward a proposal as to how we can write the history of an “in-between” discipline such as quantum chemistry, suggesting that this proposal can be extended to other “in-between” disciplines. Then, we address the role of theory in chemistry, and specifically in quantum chemistry, including the issues surrounding the ontological status of theoretical entities, and proceed to discuss the implications of the introduction of computers in quantum chemistry and the concomitant reconceptualization of experiment. Finally, we reappraise the question of reductionism from the perspective of the practitioners of quantum chemistry. From the very beginning of the period when chemical problems were examined quantum mechanically, everyone involved in the subsequent developments tried to understand the chemical character of what was begotten in the encounter(s) of chemistry with quantum mechanics. Was quantum chemistry the subdiscipline for all those chemical problems formulated in the language of physics which could be dealt with by a straightforward application of quantum mechanics with, of course, the ensuing conceptual readjustments? Was it the case that chemical problems could be dealt with only through an intricate process of appropriation of quantum mechanics by the chemists’ culture? Furthermore, the development of quantum chemistry brought about new entities whose ontological status was continuously under negotiation: exchange energy, resonance, and orbitals were some of the more intriguing entities.

scholarly journals The location and composition of Group 3 of the periodic table

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
René E. Vernon
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Electronic Properties ◽  
Periodic Table ◽  
Natural Kinds ◽  
Physical Chemical ◽  
History Of ◽  
Group 3 ◽  
Philosophical Viewpoint ◽  
Way Of Thinking

Abstract Group 3 as Sc–Y–La, rather than Sc–Y–Lu, dominates the literature. The history of this situation, including involvement by the IUPAC, is summarised. I step back from the minutiae of physical, chemical, and electronic properties and explore considerations of regularity and symmetry, natural kinds, and quantum mechanics, finding these to be inconclusive. Continuing the theme, a series of ten interlocking arguments, in the context of a chemistry-based periodic table, are presented in support of lanthanum in Group 3. In so doing, I seek to demonstrate a new way of thinking about this matter. The last of my ten arguments is recast as a twenty-word categorical philosophical (viewpoint-based) statement.

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