Category: History of Science

Historical Physicist Smackdown: Electric Theory

I’m nearly done with Graham Farmelo’s biography of Dirac (honest), which discusses the major attempts to understand the behavior of electrons in quantum mechanics. this calls for a dorky poll: Which theorist of the electron was the best?(poll) Try not to base your selection on which of these historical physicists has the best biography written… Continue reading Historical Physicist Smackdown: Electric Theory

Philosophical Poll: Chickens and Eggs, Experiment and Theory

I’m halfway through Graham Farmelo’s Dirac biography at the moment, and enjoying it quite a bit. Farmelo cites Dirac as one of the first physicists to evaluate theories on their mathematical beauty, rather than waiting for experiments. This is in stark contrast to his Cambridge colleague Rutherford, who was highly skeptical of abstract theory, and… Continue reading Philosophical Poll: Chickens and Eggs, Experiment and Theory

Historical Quantum Smackdown Explained

This was delayed a day by yesterday’s ranting, but I wanted to explain the significance of the people in Monday’s lesser-known quantum mechanic smackdown. I’m happy to see that, as of this morning, three candidates have rallied past the “unique flower” option. In reverse order of popularity:

Historical Physicist Smackdown: Minor Quantum Edition

SteelyKid’s day care is closed today, meaning that I will be spending the day chasing her in circles in a variety of different places. this doesn’t allow a lot of blogging time, so you get a poll to pass the time. We’ll go back to the historical physics thing for this one. The following poll… Continue reading Historical Physicist Smackdown: Minor Quantum Edition

Dorky Poll: Maxwell’s Equations

One of the blogs I hyped at the science blogging panel at Worldcon was Built on Facts, Matt Springer’s blog explaining introductory physics concepts. You might not think that you want to read a blog that goes through freshman physics problems in detail– I would’ve been dubious on the concept, had you explained it to… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Maxwell’s Equations

Historical Physicist Smackdown: Precision Measurement Edition

Keeping up the string of poll questions about less-well-known physicists (started here), here’s a list of physicists who are known for having made very precise measurements of physical quanitites. Which of them is the best? Which of these physicists who made precision measurements is the best?(poll) (Note: I have deliberately limited this to physicists who… Continue reading Historical Physicist Smackdown: Precision Measurement Edition