Transmuted Past follows the development of theories of stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis in the twentieth century and describes radiometric methods for estimating the age of the Earth. Professor Brush also offers perspectives on the changing reputation of planetary science relative to the "pure" sciences, such as physics, and a comparison of history and geology as ways of studying the past.

This book introduces physics students and teachers to the historical development of the kinetic theory of gases, by providing a collection of the most important contributions by Clausius, Maxwell and Boltzmann, with introductory surveys explaining their significance. In addition, extracts from the works of Boyle, Newton, Mayer, Joule, Helmholtz, Kelvin and others show the historical context of ideas about gases, energy and irreversibility. In addition to five thematic essays connecting the classical kinetic theory with 20th century topics such as indeterminism and interatomic forces, there is...

During the past 200 years, astronomers and geologists have developed and tested several different theories about the origin of the solar system and the nature of the Earth. Together, the three volumes that comprise A History of Modern Planetary Physics present a survey of these theories. Nebulous Earth follows the development of Laplace's Nebular Hypothesis, its connection with ideas about the interior of the Earth, and its role in the establishment of the "evolutionary" worldview that dominated science in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Brush also explores Saturn's rings,...

Transmuted Past summarizes the attempts to estimate the age of the Earth during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Fruitful Encounters surveys the development of theories of the origin of the solar system in the twentieth century.

This book introduces physics students and teachers to the historical development of the kinetic theory of gases, by providing a collection of the most important contributions by Clausius, Maxwell and Boltzmann, with introductory surveys explaining their significance. In addition, extracts from the works of Boyle, Newton, Mayer, Joule, Helmholtz, Kelvin and others show the historical context of ideas about gases, energy and irreversibility. In addition to five thematic essays connecting the classical kinetic theory with 20th century topics such as indeterminism and interatomic forces, there is...

Ludwig Boltzmanns bekannte Vorlesung ueber Naturfilosofi von 1903-1906 wird hier zum ersten Mal der ffentlichkeit vorgestellt. Der Autor behandelt grundlegende Konzepte der Mathematik (Zahlenlehre und Geometrie), er diskutiert physikalische Begriffe wie Materie, Raum-Zeit, Kr mmung des Universums, sowie den Farbenraum. Daneben findet man philosophische Betrachtungen, vor allem eine ausf hrliche Auseinandersetzung mit Schopenhauer, und Bemerkungen zu den sch nen K nsten. Der Vorlesung vorangestellt ist eine kurze, reich bebilderte Biographie, ein Essay von S.G. Brush ber Boltzmann und eine...

Historically, the scientific method has been said to require proposing a theory, making a prediction of something not already known, testing the prediction, and giving up the theory (or substantially changing it) if it fails the test. A theory that leads to several successful predictions is more likely to be accepted than one that only explains what is already known but not understood. This process is widely treated as the conventional method of achieving scientific progress, and was used throughout the twentieth century as the standard route to discovery and experimentation.
But does...

Dies ist der zweite Band einer Sammlung grundlegender Arbeiten uber die kinetische Gastheorie; er enthalt ins- besondere die zwei Arbeiten von MAXWELL und BOLTz- MANN, in denen die Grundgleichungen fur Transport- prozesse in Gasen formuliert werden, einschlielich der ersten Herleitung des BOLTZMANNschen "H -Theorems," sowie eine Probe der spateren Diskussion dieses Satzes und des Irreversibilitatsproblems. Wahrend wir uns in Band I darauf beschrankt haben, kurze Arbeiten relativ elementaren Charakters nachzu- drucken, und von langeren Arbeiten nur Auszuge gegeben haben, wird der vorliegende...