Kinetic Theory: The Nature of Gases and of Heat

Science & Math

Brush, Stephen G.

Physics

Pergamon

Compilation of the classic papers on kinetic theory, statistical mechanics, and Brownian motion.

Irreversible Processes: Kinetic Theory

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 science really work this way? In Making 20th Century Science, Stephen G. Brush discusses this question, as it relates to the development of science throughout the last century. Answering this question requires both a philosophically and historically scientific approach, and Brush blends the two in order to take a close look at how scientific methodology has developed. Several cases from the history of modern physical and biological science are examined, including Mendeleev's Periodic Law, Kekule's structure for benzene, the light-quantum hypothesis, quantum mechanics, chromosome theory, and natural selection. In general it is found that theories are accepted for a combination of successful predictions and better explanations of old facts. Making 20th Century Science is a large-scale historical look at the implementation of the scientific method, and how scientific theories come to be accepted.

Making 20th Century Science: How Theories Became Knowledge

History & Philosophy

Oxford University Press

James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) is generally considered the most important mathematical physicist in the period between Newton and Einstein. His work, like theirs, exhibits range as well as depth and extends from his grand synthesis of electrical, magnetic, and optical phenomena in the theory of electromagnetic fields to his contributions to the kinetic theory of gases and its generalization into statistical mechanics. Maxwell on Saturn's Rings (The MIT Press, 1983) focused on the early work that confirmed Maxwell's scientific promise. The present volume deals with the evolution of Maxwell's overview of atomic and statistical physics and with his work on the kinetic theory of transport phenomena in gases. It includes 92 documents and papers spanning the years 1859-1879. Among these are previously unpublished notes, drafts, and calculations and correspondence with Peter Guthrie Tait, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Herbert Spencer, George Gabbriel Stokes, Simon Newcomb, and others. The reader can trace Maxwell's insights from their inception to their fruition in the fully worked-out formal papers and shorter communications to Nature that are also included. The documents reveal the stages through which key concepts passed - such as the idea that diffusion, viscosity, and heat conduction in gases are parallel dynamical processes expressed in terms of the transfer of mass, momentum, and energy - and show Maxwell's skill in balancing abstract philosophical generalization with concrete practical detail. The editors have provided a comprehensive introduction that places the material in historical context. A forthcoming volume on thermodynamics and statistical mechanics will conclude their presentation of Maxwell's scientific development.

Maxwell on Molecules and Gases

Garber, Elizabeth

Mit Pr

The kind of motion we call heat: A history of the kinetic theory of gases in the 19th century (Studies in statistical mechanics)

History

sole distributors for the U.S.A. and Canada, American Elsevier

Statistical Physics and Irreversible Processes (Volume 2) (North-Holland Personal Library, Volume 2)

Chemistry

North-Holland

Lectures on Gas Theory

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1964.

Boltzmann, Ludwig

University of California Press

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, Poincaré's contributions to ideas about cosmic evolution, the use of seismology to probe the earth's core, and explanations of the Earth's magnetic field. This series will interest historians and philosophers of science as well as earth scientists and geologists.

A History of Modern Planetary Physics: Volume 1, The Origin of the Solar System and the Core of the Earth from LaPlace to Jeffreys: Nebulous Earth (History of Modern Planetary Physics, 1)

Astronomy & Space Science

Cambridge University Press

The early twentieth century saw the replacement of the Nebular Hypothesis with the Chamberlin-Moulton theory that the solar system resulted from the encounter of the Sun with a passing star. Fruitful Encounters follows the eventual refutation of the encounter theory and the subsequent revival of a modernized Nebular Hypothesis. Professor Brush also discusses the role of findings from the Apollo space program, especially the analysis of lunar samples, culminating in the establishment of the "giant impact" theory of the Moon's origin in the 1980s.

A History of Modern Planetary Physics: Volume 3, The Origin of the Solar System and of the Moon from Chamberlain to Apollo: Fruitful Encounters

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.

A History of Modern Planetary Physics: Volume 2, The Age of the Earth and the Evolution of the Elements from Lyell to Patterson: Transmuted Past

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Books by Brush, Stephen G.