From Clockwork to Crapshoot: A History of PhysicsScience is about 6000 years old while physics emerged as a distinct branch some 2500 years ago. As scientists discovered virtually countless facts about the world during this great span of time, the manner in which they explained the underlying structure of that world underwent a philosophical evolution. From Clockwork to Crapshoot provides the perspective needed to understand contemporary developments in physics in relation to philosophical traditions as far back as ancient Greece. |
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... heavenly bodies , the goal of understand- ing was predictability and its causes . The Greek Leucippos articu- lated this purpose in the fifth century bce by declaring " Nothing happens without reason , everything has a cause and is ...
A History of Physics Roger G. Newton. happens without reason , everything has a cause and is the result of necessity . " Chinese Taoist writings expressed similar sentiments in the third century Bce : " All phenomena have their causes ...
... reason to regard the Babylonians as the founders of an early form of scientific astronomy . Two hundred years later , the precession of the equinoxes was clearly discovered by the great Greek astronomer Hipparchus , albeit relying not ...
... reasons for them . " Needham , " had no doubt that " the main motive of the Taoist philosophers in wishing to engage ... reason and truth . His teachings , which developed into a widespread religion , would have made an excellent basis ...
... reason ] , everything has a cause and is the result of necessity . " With a few exceptions , physical scientists would subscribe to this credo in one form or another until the nineteenth century , and it would not be decisively ...
Contents
1 | |
4 | |
11 | |
Science in the Middle Ages | 41 |
The First Revolution | 67 |
Newtons Legacy | 100 |
New Physics | 121 |
Relativity | 154 |
The Quantum Revolution | 210 |
Fields Nuclei and Stars | 248 |
The Properties of Matter | 279 |
The Constituents of the Universe | 290 |
Epilogue | 308 |
Notes | 313 |
Sources and Further Reading | 316 |
Index | 322 |