bibliography definition physics

• UWF Libraries

Creating Bibliographies

• Engineering Village/ Inspec
• CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
• Migrating Data From RefWorks
• Introduction
• Adding Citations
• Managing Citations

Sample Bibliography (APA Format)

• Exploring Advanced Features
• Other Resources
• Physics News
• Open Education Resources
• After Graduation

STEM Librarian

The output style can be the well known formats including ALA, Turabian, MLA, Council of Science Editors, and Chicago Manual of Style.

• You can also use the Citation Style Manager to select styles from specific journals, e.g., Academy of Management Journal.
• The customize citation style allows you to use or edit existing styles, or create a new one

The bibliography may be formatted as Word, Open Office, RTF, Text, and HTML documents. These may be copied and pasted into other documents (e.g, a Reference List at the end of a research paper)

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• Last Updated: Dec 7, 2023 9:19 AM
• URL: https://libguides.uwf.edu/physics

Introduction

Quick start, search engines, company & industry information, referencing and citing, research skills, welcome to the physics subject research guide                      .

Your subject librarians have designed this guide to highlight online resources at the University of Melbourne Library that are relevant to physics.

5 things you can do to start your research:                      

Note: The buttons below will open resources in new windows.

1. Get set up and connected with the Library

2. Research Essentials: Level up your researching, reading and writing skills with these essential tips

3. Search for an ebook on your topic in the Library Catalogue

4. Search Tools and Apps

5. Search for an article via Discovery

Physics eBook databases

• SpringerLink Books SpringerLink contains journals, books, series, protocols and reference works all aimed at supporting the research and academic community across all disciplines. The Palgrave Connect ebook collections were integrated into the Springer eBook collections during 2016.
• ProQuest Ebook Central Ebook Central provides access to thousands of e-books from trusted publishers in all academic subject areas.
• eBook Collection (EBSCO) EBSCO eBooks offers a selection of scholarly, frontlist and award-winning eBook titles from leading publishers. These titles cover a broad range of academic subject matter and topics. The Library has access to selected titles, as well as the thousands of public domain titles that are included in the database.
• Taylor & Francis Ebooks Taylor & Francis provide access to thousands of eBooks in science, technology, engineering, medicine, humanities and social science from well known publishers such as Routledge, CRC Press, Chapman and Hall, Ashgate, Psychology Press, Longman and Heinemann. Content spans all levels within higher education, from students to researchers, including topic-defining handbooks and ground-breaking research monographs. Download chapters or the entire book as a convenient PDF or read online.
• Wiley Online Library Books Wiley Online Library is a collection of online resources covering life, health, and physical sciences as well as social science and the humanities. It delivers access to journals, books, reference works, laboratory protocols, and databases from John Wiley & Sons and its imprints, including Wiley-Blackwell, Wiley-VCH, and Jossey-Bass.
• Cambridge Core Books Cambridge University Press publishes a wide range of research monographs, academic reference, textbooks, books for professionals, and large numbers of books aimed at graduate students. There are thousands of ebooks available across a wide range of disciplines including law, politics, history, language and literature, mathematics and astronomy with hundreds of new titles added each year
• Oxford Scholarship Online This link opens in a new window Oxford Scholarship Online is a vast and rapidly expanding cross-searchable library which offers quick and easy access to the full text of Oxford University Press ebooks. The University of Melbourne Library has purchased access to selected subject collections within Oxford Scholarship Online - Business and management; Economics and finance; Law; Philosophy; Political science; Public health and epidemiology.
• SPIE Digital Library eBooks SPIE eBooks provides access to the monograph publications of SPIE. The collection includes: Press Monographs - authoritative reference works, texts, and handbooks ; Tutorial Texts - works covering fundamental and emerging topics at introductory and intermediate levels ; Field Guides - concise quick-reference guides to key information that students, practicing engineers, and scientists need in the lab and in the field. The Library has access to titles published between 1989-2015.
• International Press Publishes journals dealing with fields of academic mathematics research, and statistics. Includes high-level mathematics and mathematical physics book titles.

Search for eBooks via the library catalogue, Discovery or specialist eBook databases

Visit the eBooks guide

Browsing for Physics resources

Once you find a good book in the library catalogue, click on the subject links at the bottom of the record to find more items on that topic, e.g.

• Mathematical physics
• Statistical mechanics
• Quantum theory   (used for Quantum mechanics in the catalogue)
• Relativity (Physics)
• Quantum field theory
• Metric spaces
• Hilbert space  (used for Hilbert spaces in the catalogue)
• Differential equations  (for Ordinary DE's. Add the words "numerical solutions" for computational methods in ODEs)
• Differential equations, Partial  (for Partial DE's. Add the words "numerical solutions" for computational methods in PDEs)
• Laplace transformation  (used for Laplace transforms in the catalogue. Use Fourier transformations  analogously)
• Vector analysis   (used for Vector Calculus in the catalogue)
• Functions of complex variables  ( used for complex analysis in the catalogue. Use the corresponding term for titles on real analysis )

Reading eBooks

Most of the ebooks provided by the library can simply be read online using a web browser and/or downloaded, by section or chapter, in PDF format.

To access, download, read, and print most ebooks from the library you simply need:

• A unimelb login and password.
• A device, such as a PC, laptop, or tablet, with access to the internet,
• An up-to-date web browser ( find the latest versions of common browsers here ), and
• A PDF reader, such as  Adobe Reader .

Some ebook providers require you to check-out or borrow ebooks and use particular software, such as  Adobe Digital Editions , to read their ebooks.

However, you will be prompted to do this when you try to access an ebook with special requirements and instructions will be provided.

Featured eBooks

• Lecture notes in physics (Book Series) The series Lecture Notes in Physics (LNP), founded in 1969, reports new developments in physics research and teaching - quickly and informally, but with a high quality and the explicit aim to summarize and communicate current knowledge in an accessible way.

eReference access during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the covid19 pandemic, a number of publishers and providers are giving free unlimited access to a range of online resources., you can see the list at our  library blog, key ereference databases.

Find a list of key databases below that give you access to online references works, such as encyclopedias, handbooks, dictionaries, and other fast facts such as reference data, graphs, tables, equations, and material or chemical properties, etc.

To find further reference information you can search:

• Library catalogue
• A-Z eJournals and Databases
• SpringerReference SpringerReference offers living editions of Springer's eReferences well in advance of their print editions. The articles within the reference works are constantly updated and peer reviewed. This collection covers a broad range of subjects: Behavioral science ; Biomedical and life sciences ; Business and economics ; Chemistry and material science ; Computer science ; Earth and environmental science ; Engineering ; Humanities, social sciences and law ; Mathematics and statistics ; Medicine ; Physics and Astronomy. The Library has access to selected titles only.
• JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments JoVE is devoted to publishing scientific research in a visual format to help researchers overcome two of the biggest challenges facing the scientific research community today; poor reproducibility and the time and labor intensive nature of learning new experimental techniques. JoVE publishes peer-reviewed scientific video protocols to accelerate biological, medical, chemical and physical research in JoVE Journal, and highly engaging scientific video demonstrations of essential laboratory techniques in the JoVE Science Education video database. The Library has access to selected modules: JoVE Journal - Behavior, Bioengineering, Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, Immunology & infection, Medicine, Neuroscience. JoVE Science Education - Basic Biology: General laboratory techniques, Basic Biology: Basic methods in cellular and molecular biology, Advanced Biology: Essentials of developmental biology.

Physics eReference examples

• A dictionary of physics by edited by Jonathan Law and Richard Rennie ISBN: 9780191860805 Publication Date: 2019 - 8th ed Fully revised, with many new entries and biographies of key scientists, this work covers all the commonly encountered terms and concepts in physics, as well as key terms from maths, astrophysics and physical chemistry

General eReference

• Oxford Reference Oxford Reference is the home of Oxford’s quality reference publishing. The collection provides quality, up-to-date reference content at the click of a button. The University of Melbourne subscribes to selected titles from this large collection of materials.
• Oxford English Dictionary The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world.
• Macquarie Dictionary and Thesaurus Online The Macquarie Dictionary Online is constantly updated with new words as they enter the Australian language. This online service gives you access to the latest edition of the Macquarie Dictionary and the latest edition of the Macquarie Thesaurus plus annual updates

Finding journals articles, conference proceedings & more

• You can use Discovery to search across most of the journals and other content the library subscribes to.
• Access Discovery via the search box on the library homepage .

eJournals and Databases

• Conduct a more thorough and advanced search by searching individual databases or e-journals.
• From the library homepage click the  A-Z eJournals and Databases link.
• Browse alphabetically or search by title. 

You can access some key databases directly by clicking the links below:

Key multidisciplinary databases

Scopus is an abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Delivering a comprehensive overview of the world's research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities, Scopus features smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research.

Web of Science Core Collection provides quick, powerful access to the world's leading citation databases. Authoritative, multidisciplinary content covers over 12,000 of the highest impact journals worldwide, including Open Access journals and over 150,000 conference proceedings. You'll find current and retrospective coverage in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities, with coverage to 1900.

• Google Scholar (With University of Melbourne authentication) Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.
• Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) Academic Search™ Complete is a multidisciplinary full-text database, providing access to more than 8,600 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,500 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text it offers indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 journals and a total of more than 13,200 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.
• ProQuest The ProQuest platform delivers a variety of full text databases and indexes covering a wide range of subject areas.

Key Physics databases

• Inspec A bibliographic database offering literature in: electrical engineering; electronics; physics; control engineering; information technology; communications; computers; computing; manufacturing and production engineering. Coverage from 1898 to the present day.
• ScienceDirect Journals (Elsevier) ScienceDirect is Elsevier's leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature. It is a large database of scientific, technical, and medical research with a wide variety of features and content.
• SpringerLink Journals (Springer) SpringerLink contains journals, books, series, protocols and reference works all aimed at supporting the research and academic community across all disciplines. The Palgrave journal collections were integrated into the Springer journal collections during 2016.
• arXiv.org arXiv is an open-access digital archive which presents papers in Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Quantitative Biology, Quantitative Finance and Statistics.
• AIP Journals (AIP) With an extensive catalog of top-cited journals, the American Institute of Physics (AIP) is one of the world's leading publishers in the physical sciences.
• American Physical Society The journals of the APS embody the mission of the Society "to advance and diffuse the knowledge of Physics."
• IOP Science IOPscience is an online service for journal content published by IOP Publishing. IOPscience embraces innovative technologies to make it easier for researchers to access scientific, technical and medical content. It provides a range of journals, magazines, websites and services that enable researchers and research organisations to reach the widest possible audience for their research. The Library has access to the IOP Journal Archive, with over 206,000 articles published between 1874-2002; and the Turpion Journal Archive, which contains articles published between 1958-2002; and the IOP current journal collection with access to articles published from 2003 to the present day.
• SPIE Digital Library Journals SPIE Journals publish peer-reviewed articles on applied research in optics and photonics. Covering topics such as optical engineering, electronic imaging, biomedical optics, microlithography, remote sensing, and nanophotonics. SPIE also publishes open-access articles on important emerging technology areas in SPIE Letters and SPIE Reviews.
• Optical Society Journals Optical Society Journals are the Optical Society of America's online library for OSA's publishing content. It contains the OSA's flagship, partnered and co-published peer-reviewed journals.
• Optical Society Conference Proceedings The Optical Society of America's online library for OSA's publishing content includes the full text proceedings of the OSA's Topical and Major meetings and conferences.
• ANSTI The Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Information (ANSTI) database, compiled by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), contains bibliographical references to the Australian scientific and technical literature covering the broad spectrum of nuclear science research and development, with special emphasis on its peaceful applications. ANSTI is a subset of the INIS Database, produced by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
• Zentralblatt MATH Zentralblatt MATH (zbMATH) is the world’s most comprehensive and longest running abstracting and reviewing service in pure and applied mathematics. The zbMATH database contains more than 3 million bibliographic entries with reviews or abstracts currently drawn from more than 3,000 journals and serials, and 170,000 books. The coverage starts in 1826 and is complete from 1868 to the present by the integration of the “Jahrbuch über die Fortschritte der Mathematik” database.
• MathSciNet (AMS) MathSciNet is a comprehensive database covering the world's mathematical literature. Continuing in the tradition of the paper publication, Mathematical Reviews (MR), which was first published in 1940, expert reviewers are selected by a staff of professional mathematicians to write reviews of the current published literature. Bibliographic data from retrodigitized articles dates back to the early 1800s, and over 100,000 new items are added each year, most of them classified according to the Mathematics Subject Classification. The database provides links to original articles and free access to Featured Reviews.
• SciFinder-n SciFinder-n is a research discovery application that provides integrated access to a comprehensive and authoritative source of references, substances and reactions in chemistry and related sciences. SciFinder-n includes: MethodsNow Synthesis which contains more than 5 million fully described synthesis methods and procedures, giving you step-by-step instructions on how to make the compounds important to your research; PatentPak which allows you to search through millions of patents sourced from more than 30 patent offices and instantly locate the chemistry within; Formulations information; Retrosynthesis Planner with predictive capabilities; Additional structure/reaction editor.
• Annual Reviews Annual Reviews publishes authoritative, analytic reviews in focused disciplines within the Biomedical, Life, Physical, and Social Sciences. The Reviews capture current understanding of a topic, including what is well supported and what is controversial; Set the work in historical context; Highlight the major questions that remain to be addressed and the likely course of research in upcoming years; and Outline the practical applications and general significance of research to society.
• Astrophysics Data System The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) is a Digital Library portal for researchers in Astronomy and Physics, operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) under a NASA grant. The ADS maintains three bibliographic databases containing more than 9.2 million records: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Physics, and arXiv e-prints. The main body of data in the ADS consists of bibliographic records, which are searchable through highly customizable query forms, and full-text scans of much of the astronomical literature which can be browsed or searched via our full-text search interface. Integrated in its databases, the ADS provides access and pointers to a wealth of external resources, including electronic articles, data catalogs and archives. We currently have links to over 9.2 million records maintained by our collaborators. Free full text - managed by publisher, holdings subject to change.
• American Association of Physics Teachers AAPT is a strong professional physics science society dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in physical science education. The teacher resources include two peer reviewed journals, digital collections of high-quality educational materials in physics and astronomy, and a Physical Sciences Resource Center.

Video: Basics of database searching

Basics of database searching from unilibrary on Vimeo .

Browzine e-Journals

Click on the buttons below to view a selection of online Science and Engineering eJournals that the Library subscribes to (these will open in a new window). For a complete list of eJournals please visit our A-Z eJournals page.

Browse Physics, Chemistry and Astronomy eJournals

Browse Physics eJournals

More information on e-Journals

The databases below provide further information on e-Journals, such as:

• Whether a journal is peer-reviewed/refereed.
• Whether the journal/publisher is suspected to be predatory.
• Which databases the journal is indexed in.
• Acceptance rates, and the typical time taken to review and publish papers.
• Metrics, such as the journal impact factor (JIF) and ranking within subject areas.
• UlrichsWeb : global serials directory (ProQuest) UlrichsWeb is an easy to search source of detailed information on more than 300,000 periodicals of all types: academic and scholarly journals, e-journals, peer-reviewed titles, popular magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and more. Ulrichsweb covers more than 900 subject areas. Ulrich's records provide data points such as ISSN, publisher, language, subject, abstracting & indexing coverage, full-text database coverage, tables of contents, and reviews written by librarians.
• Cabell's Scholarly Analytics Cabell's consists of two databases - Journalytics and Predatory Reports. Journalytics: explore more than 11,000 qualified academic journals within 18 disciplines to discover the perfect outlet for your research. Filter your results using advanced search options and suite of citation-backed metrics. Predatory Reports: in response to the growing number of predatory publishers, this resource aims to shine a light on the deceptive practices that threaten to undermine quality research.
• Serials Directory (EBSCOhost) This database provides accurate bibliographic information, as well as current pricing structures for popular serials. The Serials Directory contains nearly 250,000 U.S. and international titles, including newspapers, journals and magazines. With data from more than 108,000 publishers worldwide, including e-mail and Internet address, language, publication frequency, ISSN, Library of Congress, Dewey Decimal Classification, and more.
• InCites - Journal Citation Reports The Journal Citation Reports module within InCites allows you to evaluate and compare journals using citation data drawn from scholarly and technical journals and conference proceedings from thousands of publishers in over 60 countries. Journal Citation Reports is the only source of citation data on journals, and includes virtually all specialties in the areas of science, technology, and social sciences.

Search Engines & Digital Repositories

Turn on “ Find It @ Unimelb ” links when browsing Google Scholar at home.

Use the Lean Library  or LibKey Nomad  browser extension to access full-text online resources in your browser without going through the library website or Discovery.

• Google Scholar Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.
• Google: Advanced Search Use the more advanced features of Google Web Search.
• Duck Duck Go DuckDuckGo is an internet search engine that distinguishes itself from other search engines by not profiling its users and by showing all users the same search results for a given search term.
• The University of Melbourne's Institutional Repository : Minerva Access Minerva Access is the University's Institutional Repository. It aims to collect, preserve, and showcase the intellectual output of staff and students of the University of Melbourne for a global audience.
• Digital Collections (University of Melbourne) Digital Collections of the University of Melbourne Library. The collections include resources from individual items required for course delivery to large collections that are of a cultural or scholarly significance.
• Trove The search engine of the National Library of Australia. Allows you to search Australian state, university and local library catalogues at once.
• OCLC WorldCat Meta search engine for online catalogs of libraries all over the world. Search for any book using a geographic location for the closest sources. The search also includes OAIster a catalog of millions of records that represent open access resources.
• arXiv arXiv is an e-print service in the fields of physics, mathematics, non-linear science, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance and statistics.

Key News sources

Find below a list of useful databases for finding newspaper and magazine articles, television news broadcasts and broadcast transcripts:

• News and Newspapers (ProQuest) News and Newspapers provides a single search interface to all newspaper collections within ProQuest: Australia & New Zealand Newsstream; Canadian Newsstream; Global Breaking Newswires; International Newsstream; ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
• Gale OneFile: News Provides access to major U.S. regional, national, and local newspapers, global newspapers, and thousands of images, radio and TV broadcasts and transcripts. Includes over 300 Australian newspapers.
• Factiva Factiva provides access to the latest business and industry news. It is a valuable research tool for many disciplines, including political science, media studies, business, technology studies, social science, journalism, the arts, and more. The database allows users to browse through a collection of global content sources from 200 countries, in 26 languages – including newspapers, continuously updated newswires from Dow Jones and Reuters, journals and magazines, websites, blogs, and multimedia.
• Nexis Uni Nexis Uni provides quick comprehensive access to legal, business news, market insight, biographies and public records in a single location.

Looking for more news and newspapers?

Visit the News and Newspapers guide

Standards are documents setting out specifications, procedures and guidelines. They are designed to ensure products, services and systems are safe, reliable and consistent. They are based on industrial, scientific and consumer experience and are regularly reviewed to ensure they keep pace with new technologies.

Standards cover everything from consumer products and services, construction, engineering, business, information technology, human services to energy and water utilities, the environment and much more.

Key standards databases are listed below, for more information on standards, and how to search for them refer to the Standards Library Guide

Looking for Standards?

Visit the Standards guide

A patent is an exclusive right that is granted by a government to an inventor for any device, substance, method or process that is new, inventive and useful. It also provides a legal right for the inventor or creator to commercially exploit the invention for the life of the patent.

Looking for Patents?

Visit the Patents guide

• Espacenet patent search Espacenet offers free access to more than 90 million patent documents worldwide, containing information about inventions and technical developments from 1836 to today. The worldwide database contains information on published patent applications and granted patents from over 90 patent-granting authorities.

This video gives a brief introduction to Espacenet and how it can be used.

More Patents

• The Lens The Lens hosts more than 100 million patent records from over 95 different jurisdictions. The patent searching capability allows use of advanced Boolean functions, structured search, biological search, and classification search options.
• Google Patents Google Patents includes over 87 million patent publications from 17 patent offices around the world, as well as many more technical documents and books indexed in Google Scholar and Google Books.
• PatentScope : World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Using PATENTSCOPE you can search 59 million patent documents including 3.1 million published international patent applications (PCT).
• Australian Patent search AusPat is Australia's search database that allows inventors, industry and researchers to access patent applications lodged and granted in Australia.
• USPTO - United States Patent and Trademark Office Patents may be searched in the USPTO Patent Full-Text and Image Database (PatFT). The USPTO houses full text for patents issued from 1976 to the present and TIFF images for all patents from 1790 to the present.

Company, Industry & Country Information

• IBISWorld IBISWorld offers Australia’s most comprehensive collection of Industry Market Research, Industry Risk Ratings and Company Research. The Library has access to selected collections within IBISWorld: Australia Company Reports, Australia Industry Reports (ANZSIC), Australia Specialized Industry Reports, China Industry Reports.
• MarketLine Advantage MarketLine Advantage is an interactive platform providing access to a unique mix of company, industry, country and financial data for every major marketplace in the world. From Aerospace and Automotive to Media, Mining and Textiles, MarketLine covers every major industry in every major marketplace, worldwide. more... less... Contains 120 Australian industry profiles across 18 industries. Provide market size, share and segmentation data, analysis, leading company information, and 5 year market forecasts
• Fitch Connect Fitch Connect is a credit risk and macro intelligence platform from Fitch Solutions providing credit research, credit ratings, macroeconomic and financial fundamental data, country risk research and indices, Financial Implied Ratings and a curated news service.
• Orbis Orbis contains comprehensive information on companies worldwide. You can use it to research individual companies, search for companies with specific profiles, to analyse a group of companies and to export relevant company data into another package.
• Hoovers Hoovers delivers comprehensive insight and analysis about the companies, industries and people that drive the economy, along with the powerful tools to find and connect to the right people to get business done.

Looking for more information on Companies, Industries or Countries?

Visit the Company, Industry & Country Information guide

Looking for theses?

Visit the Theses guide

Need help with referencing?

Visit the re:cite guide to referencing

Learn how reference management software can help you with referencing:

Visit the Options for Managing References guide

Need help with referencing specialist scientific software?

Visit the LaTeX and BibTeX guide

Developing research skills

The library provides support and services for students and researchers completing more in-depth research for a major project or thesis:

• Book a research consultation University staff and graduate students can request an online individual research consultation via Zoom with a subject specialist Liaison Librarian. A consultation typically lasts for one hour, and can cover topics such as finding resources, searching effectively, literature reviews (narrative, scoping or systematic), managing information and data, referencing/citation styles, reference management software, researcher profiles, tools to assist with publishing decisions, and tracking citations.
• Researcher@Library Supporting you through the research process. The University Library offers high quality resources and services that support our researchers and graduate students through the complete research lifecycle. We can help maximise your research outcomes.
• Research Essentials Guide Level up your researching, reading and writing skills with these essential tips.
• Literature Reviews An introduction to researching and writing a literature review as well as resources to help you get started.
• Scholarly Publishing A guide to publishing strategically.
• Researcher Profiles, Identifiers and Social Networks: Maximise your Impact Tips on how to promote your research and profile as a researcher.
• Research Impact Tools and support to assist with measuring research.
• Research Data Services Directory Explore the data-focussed resources available to you as a researcher at the University. This is a collection of services and tools which can help you work with and manage your data.
• Research Data Management Responsible management of your data will make your research easier and more impactful. Resources on this page will help improve your research data management skills.
• Research Impact for STEMM - a self help guide
• Research Impact Library Advisory Service (RILAS) The University Library can assist academic staff to determine the impact of their publications and other research outputs for grant and promotion applications.
• More Library Guides

Baillieu Library

ERC (Parkville)

The ERC is part of the New Student Precinct Project .

Brownless Biomedical Library (Parkville)

Want to know about other libraries?

Visit the Library Branches page

Book an online Zoom Research Consultation

Would you like help with expert searching?

Do you want assistance with managing your data or understanding how to maximise your research’s impact?

Is reference management your weak spot?

Librarians can help.

Researchers and graduate research students are eligible for a one-on-one  1-hour online Zoom consultation with one of our subject specialist librarians.

Book an online Zoom consultation

Contact the Science and Engineering Library Team

You can contact the science and engineering library team directly:.

[email protected]

Ask a question on Library Chat

Visit us on social media.

• Last Updated: May 8, 2024 11:56 AM
• URL: https://unimelb.libguides.com/phys

Physics Bibliography

Prepared to accompany the book:, physics, the human adventure: from copernicus to newton and beyond       by gerald holton & stephen g. brush          rutgers university press, 2001.

***To search Physics Bibliography for specific words, terms, people, etc., type "Ctrl + F"*** 

• Chapter and section titles (linked to corresponding "Sources, etc." in item 2)
• Sources, Interpretations, and Reference Works (keyed to Chapters and Sections in the book)
• General Bibliography
• Answers to Selected Numerical Problems

1.   Chapter and section titles

(Click on Chapter title to go directly to that part of "Sources, Interpretations, and Reference Works")

General Information about Sources, Interpretations, and Reference Works in History of Science

PART A: THE ORIGINS OF SCIENTIFIC COSMOLOGY

Chapter 1. The Astronomy of Ancient Greece

1.1      The motions of stars, sun, and planets   1.2      Plato's problem   1.3      The Aristotelian system    1.4      How big is the earth?    1.5      The heliocentric theory    1.6      Modified geocentric theories  1.7      The success of the Ptolemaic system   

Chapter 2. Copernicus's Heliocentric Theory

2.1      Europe reborn 2.2      The Copernican system  2.3      Bracing the system    2.4      The opposition to Copernicus' theory 2.5      Historic consequences 

Chapter 3. On the Nature of Scientific Theory

3.1      The purpose of theories 3.2      The problem of change: Atomism 3.3      Theories of vision 3.4      Criteria for a good theory in physical science 

Chapter 4. Kepler's Laws

4.1      The life of Johannes Kepler    4.2      Kepler's first law 4.3      Kepler's second law  4.4      Kepler's third law 4.5      Kepler's theory of vision    4.5      The new concept of physical law 

Chapter 5. Galileo and the New Astronomy

5.1      The life of Galileo 5.2      The telescopic evidence for the Copernican system 5.3      Toward a physical basis for the heliocentric system 5.4      Science and freedom  

PART B: THE STUDY OF MOTION     Back to top

Chapter 6. Mathematics and the Description of Motion

6.1      René Descartes 6.2      Constant velocity 6.3      The Concept of Average Speed     6.4      Instantaneous Speed     6.5      Acceleration  6.6      Oresme's Graphical Proof of the Mean-Speed Theorem  6.7      Equations of Motion for Constant Acceleration  

Chapter 7. Galileo and the Kinematics of Free Fall

7.1      Introduction  7.2      Aristotelian physics   7.3      Galileo's Two New Sciences   7.4      Galileo's study of accelerated motion

Chapter 8. Projectile Motion

8.1      Projectile with initial horizontal motion 8.2      Introduction to vectors 8.3      The general case of projectile motion 8.4      Applications of the law of projectile motion 8.5      Galileo's conclusions   8.6      Summary 

PART C: NEWTON'S LAWS AND HIS SYSTEM OF THE WORLD    Back to top

Chapter 9. Newton's Laws of Motion

9.1      Science in the seventeenth century   9.2      A short sketch of Newton's life 9.3      Newton's Principia 9.4      Newton's first law of motion 9.5      Newton's second law of motion    9.6      Standard of mass 9.7      Weight   9.8      The equal-arm balance   9.9      Inertial and gravitational mass 9.10    Examples and applications of Newton's second law of motion    9.11     Newton's third law of motion 9.12     Examples and applications of Newton's third law    

Chapter 10. Rotational motion

10.1      Kinematics of uniform circular motion    10.2      Centripetal acceleration  10.3      Derivation of the formula for centripetal acceleration and force 10.4      The earth's centripetal acceleration and absolute distances in the solar system

Chapter 11.  Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation

11.1      Derivation of the law of universal gravitation   11.2      Gravitating planets and Kepler's third law 11.3      The Cavendish experiment: The constant of gravitation 11.4      The masses of the earth, sun, and planets 11.5      Some influences on Newton's work 11.6      Some consequences of the law of universal gravitation 11.7      The discovery of new planets using Newton's theory of gravity 11.8      Bode's law: An apparent regularity in the positions of the planets 11.9      Gravity and the galaxies 11.10     "I do not feign hypotheses" 11.11    Newton's place in modern science  

PART D: ON STRUCTURE AND METHOD IN PHYSICAL SCIENCE    Back to top

Chapter 12. On the Nature of Concepts

12.1      Introduction: The search for constancies in change 12.2      Science and nonscience 12.3      The lack of a single method 12.4      Physical concepts: Measurement and definition 12.5      Physically meaningless concepts and statements 12.6      Primary and secondary qualities 12.7      Mathematical law and abstraction 12.8      Explanation

Chapter 13. On the Duality and Growth of Science

13.1      The free license of creativity 13.2      "Private" science and "public" science 13.3      The natural selection of physical concepts 13.4      Motivation    13.5      Objectivity   13.6      Fact and interpretation 13.7      How science grows 13.8      Consequences of the model

Chapter 14. On the Discovery of Laws

14.1      Opinions on scientific procedure 14.2      A sequence of elements in formulations of laws 14.3      The limitations of physical law 14.4      The content of science; summary

PART E: THE LAWS OF CONSERVATION    Back to top

Chapter 15. The Law of Conservation of Mass

15.1      Prelude to the conservation law 15.2      Steps toward a formulation 15.3      Lavoisier's experimental proof 15.4      Is mass really conserved?   

Chapter 16. The Law of Conservation of Momentum

16.1      Introduction 16.2      Definition of momentum 16.3      Momentum and Newton's laws of motion 16.4      Examples involving collisions 16.5      Examples involving explosions 16.6      Further examples 16.7      Does light have momentum? 16.8      Angular momentum and the Nebular Hypothesis

Chapter 17. The Law of Conservation of Energy

17.1      Christiaan Huygens and the kinetic energy (vis viva) concept   17.2      Preliminary questions: The pile driver    17.3      The concept of work 17.4      Various forms of energy 17.5      The conservation law, first form; and applications  17.6      Extensions of the conservation law 17.7      Historical background of the generalized law of conservation of energy: the nature of heat 17.8      Mayer's discovery of energy conservation 17.9      Joule's experiments on energy conservation  17.10     General illustrations of the LCE 17.11     Conservation laws and symmetry

Chapter 18.  The Law of Dissipation of Energy

18.1      Newton's rejection of the "Newtonian World Machine" 18.2      The problem of the cooling of the Earth 18.3      The second law of thermodynamics and the dissipation of energy    18.4      Entropy and the heat death

PART F: ORIGINS OF THE ATOMIC THEORY IN PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY    Back to top

Chapter 19. The Physics of Gases

19.1      The nature of gases -- early concepts 19.2      Air pressure 19.3      The general gas law 19.4      Two gas models

Chapter 20. The Atomic Theory of Chemistry

20.1      Chemical elements and atoms 20.2      Dalton's model of gases 20.3      Properties of Dalton's chemical atom 20.4      Dalton's symbols for representing atoms 20.5      The law of definite proportions 20.6      Dalton's rule of simplicity 20.7      The early achievements of Dalton's theory 20.8      Gay-Lussac's law of combining volumes of reacting gases 20.9      Avogadro's model of gases 20.10     An evaluation of Avogadro's theory 20.11     Chemistry after AVogadro: the concept of valence 20.12     Molecular weights

Chapter 21. The Periodic Table of Elements

21.1      The search for regularity in the list of elements 21.2      The early periodic table of elements 21.3      Consequences of the periodic law 21.4      The modern periodic table

Chapter 22. The Kinetic-Molecular Theory of Gases

22.1      Introduction 22.2      Some qualitative successes of the kinetic- molecular theory 22.3      Model of a gas, and assumptions in the  kinetic theory 22.4      The derivation of the pressure formula 22.5      Consequences and verification of the kinetic theory 22.6      The distribution of molecular velocities 22.7      Additional results and verification of the kinetic theory 22.8      Specific heats of gases 22.9      The problem of irreversibility in kinetic theory: Maxwell's Demon 22.10     The recurrence paradox

PART G: LIGHT AND ELECTROMAGNETISM    Back to top

Chapter 23. The wave theory of light   

23.1      Theories of refraction and the speed of light    23.2      The propagation of periodic waves    23.3      The wave theory of Young and Fresnel 23.4      Color

Chapter 24. Electrostatics

24.1      Introduction 24.2      Electrification by friction 24.3      Law of conservation of charge 24.4      A modern model for electrification 24.5      Insulators and conductors 24.6      The electroscope  24.7      Coulomb's law of electrostatics 24.8      The electrostatic field 24.9      Lines of force 24.10     Electric potential difference -- qualitative discussion 24.11     Potential difference -- quantitative discussion 24.12     Uses of the concept of potential 24.13     Electrochemistry 24.14     Atomicity of charge

Chapter 25. Electromagnetism, X-Rays, and Electrons

25.1      Introduction  25.2      Currents and magnets   25.3      Electromagnetic waves and ether 25.4      Hertz's experiments 25.5      Cathode rays 25.6      X-rays and the turn of the century 25.7      The "Discovery of the Electron"

Chapter 26. The Quantum Theory of Light

26.1      Continuous emission spectra   26.2      Planck's empirical emission formula 26.3      The quantum hypothesis 26.4      The photoelectric effect 26.5      Einstein's photon theory 26.6      The photon-wave dilemma 26.7      Applications of the photon concept 26.8      Quantization in science

PART H: THE ATOM AND THE UNIVERSE IN MODERN PHYSICS    Back to top

Chapter 27. Radioactivity and the Nuclear Atom

27.1      Early Research on Radioactivity and Isotopes  27.2      Radioactive half life 27.3      Radioactive series 27.4      Rutherford's nuclear model 27.5      Moseley's x-ray spectra 27.6      Further concepts of nuclear structure

Chapter 28. Bohr's Model of the Atom

28.1      Line emission spectra 28.2      Absorption line spectra 28.3      Balmer's formula   28.4      Niels Bohr and the problem of atomic structure 28.5      Energy levels in hydrogen atoms 28.6      Further developments

Chapter 29. Quantum Mechanics

29.1      Recasting the foundations of physics once more 29.2      The wave nature of matter 29.3      Knowledge and reality in quantum mechanics 29.4      Systems of identical particles

Chapter 30. Einstein's theory of relativity

30.1      Biographical Sketch of Albert Einstein 30.2      The FitzGerald-Lorentz Contraction 30.3      Einstein's formulation (1905) 30.4      Galilean transformation equations 30.5      The relativity of simultaneity 30.6      The relativistic (Lorentz) transformation equations 30.7      Consequences and examples 30.8      The equivalence of mass and energy 30.9      Relativistic quantum mechanics 30.10     The general theory of relativity

Chapter 31. The origin of the solar system and the expanding universe

31.1      The nebular hypothesis 31.2      Planetesimal and tidal theories 31.3      Revival of monistic theories after 1940 31.4      Nebulae and galaxies 31.5      The expanding universe 31.6      Lemaître's primeval atom

Chapter 32. Construction of the elements and the universe

32.1      Nuclear physics in the 1930s 32.2      Formation of the elements in stars 32.3      Fission and the atomic bomb 32.4      Big Bang or Steady State? 32.5      Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Radiation 32.6      Beyond the Big Bang

Chapter 33. Thematic Elements and Styles in Science

33.1      The thematic element in science   33.2      Themata in the history of science 33.3      Styles of thought in science and culture

Appendix     Back to top

Appendix I.  Abbreviations and Symbols

Appendix II. Metric System Prefixes, Greek Alphabet, Roman Numerals

Appendix III. Defined Values, Fundamental Constants and Astronomical Data

Appendix IV.  Conversion Factors

Appendix V.  Systems of Units

Appendix VI.  Alphabetic List of the Elements

Appendix VII.  Periodic Tables of Elements

Appendix VIII.  Summary of Some Trigonometric Relations

Appendix IX.  Vector Algebra

Answers to Selected Problems

2.  Sources, interpretations and reference works

Recent scholarly work on the history of science is compiled in the annual Current Bibliography (formerly called Critical Bibliography ), published as an issue of the journal Isis; cumulations going back to the first CB in 1913 are also available, for example:

John Neu (editor), Isis Cumulative Bibliography 1986-1995: A Bibliography of the History of Science formed from the annual Isis Current Bibliographies , 4 volumes, Canton, MA: Science History Publications 1997.

The CB going back to 1975 is also available in major libraries, and to members of the History of Science Society, as a searchable on-line data base, together with bibliographies of the history of technology, through RLIN (HST file).

In the following list, works cited only by author and short title may be found with full citations in the General Bibliography which follows this section.

Chapter 1. The Astronomy of Ancient Greece    Back to top

M. R. Cohen and I. E. Drabkin, A Source Book in Greek Science , New York: McGraw-Hill, 1948; reprinted by Harvard University Press. A wealth of source material and penetrating comments; see pages 90-143 for astronomy.

D. R. Dicks, Early Greek Astronomy to Aristotle , Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1970.

Pierre Duhem, To Save the Phenomena, an Essay on the Idea of Physical Theory from Plato to Galileo , translated from the French edition of 1908 by E. Doland and C. Maschler. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969; Chapters 1, 2, 3

Norwood Russell Hanson, Constellations and Conjectures , pages 1-140.  Includes many good diagrams to show how the planetary models actually work.

M. K. Munitz (editor), Theories of the Universe , New York: Free Press, 1965. A valuable collection of sources and historical articles; see pages 1-138.

O. Neugebauer, The Exact Sciences in Antiquity , second edition, Dover, 1969. Egyptian, Babylonian, and Greek mathematics and astronomy.

S. Sambursky, The Physical World of the Greeks , London: Routledge & Paul, 1963.

G. Sarton, A History of Science , Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1952, 1959. Two volumes on Greek science; unfortunately Sarton was unable to complete this project before his death.

Section 1.2 Plato's problem

Plato, Phaedon , translated by David Gallop, New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Section 1.3  The Aristotelian System

Aristotle, On the Heavens , translated by Guthrie; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1960; another translation (same title) by Stuart Leggatt, Warminster, Eng.: Aris & Phillips, 1995.

Jonathan Barnes, Aristotle , New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.

J. D. G. Evans, Aristotle , New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987.

James Evans, The Theory and Practice of Ancient Astronomy , New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

W. Jaeger, Aristotle: Fundamentals of the History of his Development , second edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968.

G. E. R. Lloyd, Aristotelian Explanations , New York: Cambridge University Press, Chapter 8

Friedrich Solmsen, Aristotle's System of the Physical World , New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1970.

Section 1.4  How big is the earth?

Jacques Dubka, "Eratosthenes' measurement of the Earth reconsidered," Archive for History of Exact Sciences , Vol. 46, pages 55-66 (1993)

Edward Gulbekian, "The origin and the value of the station unit used by Eratosthenes in the 3rd century, B.C.," Archive for History of Exact Sciences , Vol. 37, pages 359-363

J. B. Russell, Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians , New York: Praeger, 1991. 

Section 1.6  Modified geocentric theories

Bernard R. Goldstein, "Saving the phenomena: The background to Ptolemy's planetary theory," Journal for the History of Astronomy , Vol. 28, pages 1-12 (1997)

Ptolemy, The Almagest , translated by G. J. Toomer, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998.

Glen van Brummelen, "Computer animations of Ptolemy's models of the motions of the sun, moon, and planets," Journal for the History of Astronomy , Vol. 29, pages 271-274 (1998)

Donn MacMinn, "An analysis of Ptolemy's treatment of retrograde motion," Journal for the History of Astronomy , Vol. 29, pages 257-270 (1998)

Section 1.7  The success of the Ptolemaic system

Dante Alighieri, Paradiso , translated by C. S. Singleton, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975.

Chapter 2. Copernicus's Heliocentric Theory    Back to top

Section 2.1   Europe reborn

Owen Gingerich, "'Crisis' versus Aesthetic in the Copernican Revolution," Vistas in Astronomy , Vol. 17, pages 85-95 (1975).  Rejects the story that Copernicus was responding to a "crisis" caused by pre-Copernican astronomers piling "epicycles on epicycles" in order to fit new data.  See comments by R. I. Griffiths, PSA 1988, Vol. 1, pages 127-132.

Edward Grant, Planets, Stars, and Orbs: The Medieval Cosmos , 1200-1687, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

M. B. Hall (editor), Nature and Nature's Laws , New York: Harper, 1970; paperback; pages 1‑52, extracts from sixteenth‑century writings on astronomy.

Section 2.2  The Copernican System

Peter Barker, "Copernicus, the orbs, and the equant," Synthese , Vol. 83 (1990), pages 317-323.  Argues that Copernicus accepted the reality of celestial spheres.

Peter Barker and Roger Ariew, "Introduction," in Revolution and Continuity: Essays in the History and Philosophy of Early Modern Science , edited by Barker and Ariew, pages 1-19, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1991.  They argue that the "originality of Copernicus" is a myth: he was probably aware of the work of Arabic astronomers who rejected the equant and replaced it with combinations of circles.  Their view is criticized in a review by Owen Gingerich, "Throwing out the baby with the bath water," Journal for the History of Astronomy , Vol. 27, pages 365-368 (1996).

Alan Chalmers, "Planetary Distances in Copernican Theory,"   British Journal for the Philosophy of Science , Vol. 32, pages 374-375 (1981);  see also articles by Martin Curd and Keith Hutchison and reply by Chalmers, ibid, Vol. 34, pages 367-374 (1983).

Nicolaus Copernicus, Commentariolus , translated with introduction and notes by E. Rosen in Three Copernican Treatises , New York: Dover, 1959.

Nicolaus Copernicus, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres , edited by J. Dobrzycki, translation and commentary by E. Rosen, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978.

C. A. Gearhart, "Epicycles, Eccentrics, and Ellipses: The Predictive Capabilities of Copernican Planetary Models," Archive for History of Exact Sciences , Vol. 32, pages 207-222 (1985).

Norwood Russell Hanson, "Contra-equivalence: a defense of the originality of Copernicus," Isis , Vol. 55, pages 308-325 (1964).  Comments on Price's article (1962).

Norwood Russell Hanson, Constellations and Conjectures , pages 141-249

M. K. Munitz (editor), Theories of the Universe , pages 141-189. Includes extracts from the writings of Copernicus and Bruno.

D. J. deS. Price, "Contra-Copernicus: a critical re‑estimation of the mathematical planetary theory of Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Kepler," in Critical Problems in the History of Science , edited by M. Clagett, Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1962, pages 197-218.  See comments by Hanson (1964).

Noel Swerdlow, "The Derivation and first Draft of Copernicus's Planetary Theory: A Translation of the Commentariolus with Commentary," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society , Vol. 117, Pages 423-512 (1973).

Noel Swerdlow and Otto Neugebauer, Mathematical Astronomy in Copernicus' De Revolutionibus , New York: Springer-Verlag, 1984.

Section 2.4   The Opposition to Copernicus's Theory

Martha Baldwin, "Magnetism and the anti-Copernican polemic," Journal for the History of Astronomy , Vol. 16, pages 155-174 (1985)

Section 2.5  Historic consequences

James M. Lattis, Between Copernicus and Galileo: Christoph Clavius and the Collapse of Ptolemaic Cosmology , Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.

Edward Rosen, Copernicus and the Scientific Revolution , Malabar, FL: Krieger, 1984.

Chapter 3. On the Nature of Scientific Theory    Back to top

David L. Hull, "Studying the study of science scientifically," Perspectives on Science , Vol. 6, pages 209-231 (1998).  On Planck's Principle, Popper's Principle, and other generalizations.

Alexandre Koyré, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe

Section 3.1   The Purpose of Theories

(William Thomson) Lord Kelvin, Notes of Lectures on Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light , Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1884.

Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery

Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations

A. N. Whitehead, Science and the Modern World

Section 3.2   The problem of change: Atomism

Patricia Curd, The Legacy of Parmenides: Eleatic Monism and later Presocratic Thought , Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998.

Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe

Alba Papa-Grimaldi, "Why mathematical solutions of Zeno's paradoxes miss the point: Zeno's one and many relation and Parmenides' prohibition," Review of Metaphysics , Vol. 50, pages 299-314 (1996)

Section 3.3   Theories of Vision

A. C. Crombie, "Expectation, Modelling and Assent in the History of Optics: Part I, Alhazen and the Medieval Tradition," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science , Vol. 21, pages 605-632 (1990); reprinted in Science, Art and Nature

David C. Lindberg, Theories of Vision

David Park, The Fire within the Eye: A Historical Essay on the Nature and Meaning of Light , Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997. 

Ptolemy, Ptolemy's Theory of Visual Perception: An English Translation of the Optics with Introduction and Commentary by A. Mark Smith, Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1996 ( Transactions , 86 [2])

A, Mark Smith, "Ptolemy, Alhazen, and Kepler and the problem of optical images," Arabic Sciences and Philosophy , Vol. 8, pages 9-44 (1998); "The physiological and psychological grounds of Ptolemy's visual theory: Some methodological considerations," Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences , Vol. 34, pages 231-246 (1998)

Arthur Zajonc, Catching the Light

Section 3.4  Criteria for a good theory in physical science

Henry H. Bauer, Beyond Velikovsky: The History of a Public Controversy , Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984.

P. W. Bridgman, Reflections of a Physicist , second edition, New York: Philosophical Library, 1955.

Albert Einstein, "Autobiographical Notes"

Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman, "Concerning the existence of alkaline earth metals resulting from the neutron irradiation of uranium" (in German), Naturwissenschaften , Vol. 27, page 11 (1939); English translation in The Discovery of Nuclear Fission (edited by H. G. Graetzer and D. L. Anderson), pages 44-47, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1971.

Max Planck, Philosophy of Physics , New York: Norton, 1936. 

Chapter 4. Kepler's laws    Back to top

E. J. Aiton, "Johannes Kepler in the light of recent research," History of Science , Vol. 14, pages 77-100 (1976).

J. V. Field, Kepler's Geometrical Cosmology , Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.

Job Kozhamthadam, The Discovery of Kepler's Laws: The Interaction of Science, Philosophy, and Religion , Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994.

Bruce Stephenson, Kepler's Physical Astronomy , Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994.

Section 4.1   The life of Kepler

Kepler's Dream , translated by P. F. Kirkwood, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965.  Probably the first recognizably-modern science fiction novel. 

Section 4.2   Kepler's First Law

Brian S. Baigrie, "The justification of Kepler's ellipse," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science , Vol. 21 (1990), pages 633-664

W. H. Donahue, "Kepler's first thoughts on oval orbits: Text, translation, and commentary," Journal for the History of Astronomy , Vol. 24, pages 71-100 (1993)

Owen Gingerich, "The computer versus Kepler," American Scientist , Vol. 52, pages 218-226 (1964).  The numerical problems involved in calculating the orbit of Mars are attacked by modern methods, with surprising results.

Section 4.3   Kepler's Second Law

E. J. Aiton, "Kepler's second law of planetary motion," Isis , Vol. 60, pages 75-90 (1969)

A. E. L. Davis, "Kepler's 'Distance Law' -- myth not reality," and three other papers on Kepler, Centaurus , Vol. 35, pages 103-191.

W. H. Donahue, "Kepler's invention of the second planetary law," Journal for the History of Astronomy , Vol. 27, pages 89-102 (1994)

Section 4.4   Kepler's Third Law

Johannes Kepler, Harmony of the World .

Johannes Kepler, New Astronomy , translated by W. H. Donahue, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Bruce Stephenson, The Music of the Heavens: Kepler's Harmonic Astronomy , Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994.

Section 4.5   Kepler's Theory of Vision

George Berkeley, An Essay towards a New Theory of Vision (1709), in his Philosophical Works, including the Works on Vision , Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield, 1975.

Edwin G. Boring, Sensation and Perception in the History of Experimental Psychology , New York: Appleton-Century, 1942.

A. C. Crombie, "Expectation, Modelling and Assent in the History of Optics -- II.  Kepler and Descartes," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science , Vol. 22, pages 89-115 (1991); reprinted in his Science, Art and Nature .

D. B. Klein, A History of Scientific Psychology , New York: Basic Books, 1970, Chapter 16

David Lindberg, Theories of Vision from al-Kindi to Kepler , Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.

A. Mark Smith, "Ptolemy, Alhazen, and Kepler and the problem of optical images," Arabic Sciences and Philosophy: A Historical Journal , Vol. 8, pages 9-44 (1998)

Stephen Straker, "Kepler, Tycho, and the 'Optical Part of Astronomy':  The genesis of Kepler's theory of pinhole images," Archive for History of Exact Sciences , Vol. 24, pages 267-293 (1981).

George M. Stratton, "Some preliminary experiments on vision without inversion of the retinal image," Psychological Review, Vol. 3, pages 611-617 (1896); "Vision without inversion of the retinal image," Psychological Review , Vol. 4, pages 341-360, 463-481 (1897)

Section 4.6  The new concept of physical law

Wilbur Applebaum, "Keplerian astronomy after Kepler: Researches and Problems," History of Science , Vol. 34, pages 451-504 (1996)

Bernard R. Goldstein, "What's new in Kepler's new astronomy," in The Cosmos of Science (edited by John Earman and John D. Norton), pages 3-23.  Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997.

N. R. Hanson, "The Copernican disturbance and the Keplerian revolution," Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 22, pages 169-184 (1961); Constellations and Conjectures , pages 251-282

Johannes Kepler, Mysterium Cosmographicum , second edition, translated by A. M. Duncan with introduction and commentary by E. J. Aiton, Preface by I. B. Cohen, New York: Abaris Books, 1981.

Johannes Kepler in seiner Briefen (edited by Max Caspar and Walter von Dyck), Munich & Berlin: Oldenbourg, 1930.

Alexandre Koyré, From the Closed World , Chapter III

Chapter 5. Galileo and the new astronomy     Back to top

Peter Machamer (editor), The Cambridge Companion to Galileo , New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998, articles by Machamer, W. A. Wallace, W. Shea, N. M. Swerdlow, E. McMullin, M. Segre

Jean Dietz Moss, Novelties in the Heavens: Rhetoric and Science in the Copernican Controversy , Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.

Section 5.1   The Life of Galileo

Mario Biagioli, Galileo, Courtier .  The Practice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.

Stillman Drake, Galileo Studies: Personality, Tradition, and Revolution , Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1970.

Stillman Drake, Galileo at Work: His Scientific Biography , Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.

Ludovico Geymonat, Galileo Galilei

Vincenzo Viviani, Racconto Istorico della Vita di Galileo Galilei , 1717; reprinted as Vita di Galileo, Milano: Rizzoli, 1954.  For another translation of the passage quoted in the text see Drake, Galileo at Work.

Michael White, Galileo Galilei, Astronomer , Woodbridge: Blackbirth Press, 1999.

Section 5.2  The telescopic evidence for the Copernican system

Harold I. Brown, "Galileo on the telescope and the eye," Journal of the History of Ideas , Vol. 46, pages 487-501 (1985)

Stillman Drake, Telescope, Tides, and Tactics , Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.

Samuel Y. Edgerton, Jr., "Galileo, Florentine 'Disegno' and the 'strange spottednesse' of the Moon," Art Journal , Vol. 44, pages 225-232 (1984)  Asserts "a clear case of cause and effect between the practice of Italian Renaissance art and the development of modern experimental science."

Galileo Galilei, Discoveries and Opinions

Kepler's Conversation with Galileo's Sidereal Messenger , translated by E. Rosen, New York: Johnson Reprint, 1965.

Eileen Reeves, Painting the Heavens: Art and Science in the Age of Galileo , Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997.  On the response of artists to Galileo's description of the moon; many Catholics associated the moon with the "immaculate conception" of Mary, and therefore rejected Galileo's portrayal of it as a rough, impure body.   

Wade L. Robison, "Galileo on the Moons of Jupiter," Annals of Science , Vol. 31, pages 165-169 (1974)

W. R. Shea, "The Revelations of the Telescope," Nuncius , Vol. 11, pages 507-526 (1996)

Francesco Sizzi, Dianoia Astronomica, Optica et Physica , Venice, 1611. See Drake, Telescope (cited above) and Galileo Studies, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1970, chapter 9. 

Engel Sluiter, "The telescope before Galileo," Journal for the History of Astronomy , Vol. 28, pages 223-234 (1997).

R. S. Westfall, "Science and Patronage: Galileo and the telescope," Isis , Vol. 76, pages 11-30 (1985)

Section 5.3  Toward a physical basis for the heliocentric system

P. Ariotti, "From the top to the foot of a mast on a moving ship," Annals of Science , Vol. 28, pages 191-203 (1972)

Aristotle, On the Heavens

Stillman Drake, "Galileo's experimental confirmation of horizontal inertia: Unpublished manuscripts (Galileo Gleanings XXII)," Isis , Vol. 64, pages 291-305 (1973)

Galileo Galilei, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

Galileo Galilei on Motion and on Mechanics , translated by I. E. Drabkin and S. Drake, Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1960.

Galileo Galilei, Two New Sciences

Galileo on the World Systems: A New Abridged Translation and Guide , translated and annotated by M. A. Finocchiaro, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

Michael Wolff, "Impetus mechanics as a physical argument for Copernicanism: Copernicus, Benedetti, Galileo," Science in Context , Vol. 1, pages 215-256 (1987).

Section 5.4   Science and Freedom

Richard J. Blackwell, Galileo, Bellarmine, and the Bible , Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1991.

Maurice Finocchiaro, The Galileo Affair: A Documentary History , Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.

Galileo, "Letter to Madame Christina of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Concerning the Use of Biblical Quotations in Matters of Science, 1615" in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo , translated by S. Drake, pages 173-216

Pietro Redondi, Galileo Heretic , translated by R. Rosenthal, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987.  Argues that the real reason for the Church's attack on Galileo was his support for the atomic theory, which undermined the basic assumptions of the Eucharist.

John L. Russell, "Catholic astronomers and the Copernican system after the condemnation of Galileo," Annals of Science , Vol. 46, pages 365-386 (1989). 

Michael Segre, "Redondi's theory and new perspectives on Galilean studies," Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences , Vol 40 (1990), pages 3-10

Michael Segre, "Light on the Galileo case?"   Isis , Vol. 88, pages 484-504 (1997). 

William A. Wallace (ed.), Reinterpreting Galileo , Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1986.

Richard S. Westfall, "The Trial of Galileo: Bellarmino, Galileo, and the clash of two worlds," Journal for the History of Astronomy , Vol. 20, pages 1-23 (1989)

Richard S. Westfall, Essays on the Trial of Galileo , Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990.

Chapter 6. Mathematics and the Description of Motion    Back to top

A. C. Crombie, Medieval and Early Modern Science  Vol. II, Chapter I

Peter Dear, Discipline and Experience: The Mathematical Way in the Scientific Revolution , Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

René Dugas, History of Mechanics , Part II, Chapter IV

A. Rupert Hall, The Revolution in Science , Chapter 4

Section 6.1   Descartes

René Descartes, Discourse on Method, Optics, Geometry, and Meteorology (1637), translated by P. J. Olscamp, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965. (The famous "Discourse on Method" was originally published as an introduction to the three other works; "Geometry" contains the methods of analytic geometry.)

René Descartes, Principles of Philosophy , translated by V. R. Miller and R. P. Miller, Boston: Reidel, 1983.

Stephen Gaukroger, Descartes: An Intellectual Biography , New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Emily R. Grosholz, Cartesian Method and the Problem of Reduction , New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Section 6.5  Acceleration

Stillman Drake, "Uniform acceleration, space, and time," British Journal for the History of Science, Vol. 5, pages 21-43 (1970);  "The uniform motion equivalent to a uniformly accelerated motion from rest," Isis , Vol.63, pages 28-38 (1972)

Chapter 7. Galileo and the kinematics of free fall    Back to top

Section 7.1  Introduction

Stillman Drake and I. E. Drabkin, Mechanics in Sixteenth Century Italy: Selections from Tartaglia, Benedetti, Guido Ubaldo and Galileo , translated and annotated, Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969

Edward Grant, "Bradwardine and Galileo: equality of velocities in the void," Archive for History of Exact Sciences , Vol. 2, pages 344-364 (1962-66); The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional, and Intellectual Contexts , New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Wallace Hooper, "Inertial problems in Galileo's preinertial framework," in Cambridge Companion to Galileo (edited by P. Machamer), pages 146-174

Alexandre Koyré, Documentary History of the Problem of Fall from Kepler to Newton , Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1955

Alexandre Koyré, Metaphysics and Measurement

Dudley Shapere, Galileo: A Philosophical Study , Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974.

Section 7.2  Aristotelian physics

Aristotle, On the Heavens , Book I, Chapter 6

Aristotle, Physics , translated by Robin Waterfield, New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Barry M. Casper, "Galileo and the fall of Aristotle: A case of historical injustice?" American Journal of Physics , Vol. 45, pages 325-330  (1977) 

Marshall Clagett, The Science of Mechanics in the Middle Ages , Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1959.

A. C. Crombie, Medieval and Early Modern Science , Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday Anchor Books,  paperback, Vol. II, pages 121-166

John Donne, "An Anatomy of the World, The First Anniversary" (1611),  in Complete Poetry and Selected Prose , New York: Modern Library, 1952.

F. S. Taylor,   A Short History of Science and Scientific Thought , New York: Norton, 1963.

William Wallace, "The enigma of Domingo de Soto: Uniformiter difformis and falling bodies in late medieval physics," Isis , Vol. 59, pages 384-401 (1968)

Section 7.3  Galileo's Two New Sciences

Stillman Drake, "Uniform acceleration, space, and time," British Journal for the History of Science , Vol. 5, pages 21-43 (1970)

Stillman Drake, Galileo Studies, Personality, Tradition, and Revolution , Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1970.

Galileo Galilei, On Motion and On Mechanics , translated by I. E. Drabkin and S. Drake, Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1960; Two New Sciences

W. C. Humphreys, "Galileo, falling bodies, and inclined planes. An attempt at reconstructing Galileo's discovery of the law of squares," British Journal for the History of Science , Vol. 3, pages 225-244 (1967)

Peter Machamer et al., "Galileo and science education" (special issue) Science & Education , Vol. 8, no. 2 (1999)

A. G. Molland, "The Atomisation of Motion: A Facet of the Scientific Revolution," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science . Vol. 13, pages 31-54 (1982).

R. H. Naylor, "Galileo's Experimental Discourse," in The Uses of Experiment , edited by D. Gooding et al., pages 117-134, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989. 

Dimitris A. Sardelis, "The Law of Free Fall: Myth and Historical Reality," Fundamenta Scientia , Vol. 2, pages 163-183 (1981).

Thomas B. Settle, "An Experiment in the History of Science," Science, Vol. 133, pages 19-23 (1961); "On Normal and Extraordinary Science," Vistas in Astronomy , Vol. 17, pages 105-111 (1975);  "Galileo and Early Experimentation," in Springs of Scientific Discovery , edited by R. Aris et al., pages 3-20, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983

Ian Wereley, "Galileo's Argument on Free Fall," The Physics Teacher , Vol. 26, Pages 394-395 (1988). 

Chapter 8. Projectile Motion    Back to top

René Dugas, Mechanics in the 17th Century , Chapters I‑IV, and the first part of Chapter XV

Galileo Galilei, Two New Sciences (Fourth Day)

A. Rupert Hall, From Galileo to Newton 1630-1720

Chapter 9. Newton's Laws of Motion    Back to top

D. Gjertsen, The Newton Handbook

Isaac Newton, Opticks , London, 4th edition 1730, reprinted by Dover, New York, 1952. The famous Queries at the end of Book Three include many of Newton's speculations on the nature of matter, force, and light.

Newton's Papers and Letters on Natural Philosophy and Related Documents , edited by I. B. Cohen et al., Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1958.

Newton's Philosophy of Nature

Newton's Unpublished Scientific Papers , edited by A. R. and M. B. Hall, London: Cambridge University Press, 1962.

C. Truesdell, "Reactions of Late Baroque Mechanics to Success, Conjecture, Error, and Failure in Newton's Principia ," in his book Essays in the History of Mechanics , pages 138-183

Section 9.1    Science in the Seventeenth Century

Joseph Ben-David, The Scientist's Role in Society: A Comparative Study , Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.

Section 9.2    Newton's Life

A. Rupert Hall, Isaac Newton: Adventurer in Thought , New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Frank Manuel, A Portrait of Isaac Newton , Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968.

Isaac Newton, The Correspondence of Isaac Newton , edited by H. W. Turnbull et al., New York: Cambridge University Press, 1959-1977.

Richard S. Westfall, Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton , New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980.

Section 9.3    Newton's Principia

J. B. Barbour, Absolute or Relative Motion?  A Study from a Machian Point of View of the Discovery and Structure of Dynamical Theories , Part 1: The Discovery of Dynamics , New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

I. B. Cohen, Introduction to Newton's Principia

I. B. Cohen, The Newtonian Revolution

Dana Densmore, Newton's Principia

René Dugas, History of Mechanics , Chapter VI

René Dugas, Mechanics in the 17th Century , Chapters XI and XII

Herman Erlichson, "Evidence that Newton used the calculus to discover some propositions in his Principia ," Centaurus, Vol. 39, pages 253-266 (the propositions pertain to resistive forces)

Alexandre Koyré, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe , Chapters VII, IX, XI

Alexandre Koyré, Newtonian Studies

R. P. Feynman et al., "Newton's laws of dynamics," in The Feynman Lectures on Physics , Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1963, Vol. 1

Section 9.4

John Herivel, The Background to Newton's Principia: A Study of Newton's Dynamical Researches in the Years 1664-84 , Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965.

Isaac Newton, Principia

Robert Rynasiewicz, "By their properties, causes and effects: Newton;s scholium on time, space, place and motion," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science , Vol. 26, pages 133-153, 295-321 (1995)

Section 9.5  Newton's Second Law of Motion

François De Gandt, Force and Geometry in Newton's Principia , Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995. 

Max Jammer, Concepts of Force , Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1957. 

Max Jammer, Concepts of Mass , Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1961. 

Ernst Mach, The Science of Mechanics , pages 226-342

M. R. Perl, "Newton's justification of the laws of motion," Journal of the History of Ideas , Vol. 27, pages 585-592 (1966)

Loup Verlet, "'F = MA' and the Newtonian Revolution," History of Science , Vol. 34, pages 303-346 (1996).

R. S. Westfall, Force in Newton's Physics , New York: American Elsevier, 1971.

Section 9.9   Inertial and gravitational mass

Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld, The Evolution of Physics from early Concepts to Relativity and Quanta , New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966.

Section 9.11  Newton's Third Law of Motion

R. W. Home, "The third law in Newton's mechanics," British Journal for the History of Science , Vol. 4, pages 39-51 (1968)

Chapter 10. Rotational Motion    Back to top

Section 10.4  The Earth's centripetal acceleration and absolute distances in the solar system

Albert Van Helden, Measuring the Universe , Chapters 12-14

Chapter 11. Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation    Back to top

Arthur Berry, A Short History of Astronomy , New York: Dover, 1961, Chapters VIII-XIII

I. Bernard Cohen, "Newton, Isaac," in Dictionary of Scientific Biography (edited by Gillispie), Vol. 10, pages 42-101; "Newton's determination of the masses and densities of the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Earth," Archive for History of Exact Sciences , Vol. 53, pages 83-95 (1998)

D. Gjertsen, The Newton Handbook , A collection of summaries of various aspects of Newton's work and short biographies of people who influenced or were influenced by him.

Section 11.1   Derivation of the Law of Universal Gravitation

J. Bruce Brackenridge, The Key to Newton's Dynamics: The Kepler Problem and the Principia , Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.

S. Chandrasekhar, Newton's Principia for the Common Reader , New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

I. B. Cohen, An Introduction to Newton's Principia

René Dugas, Mechanics in the 17th Century , Chapter XVIII

Isaac Newton, The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy

F. G. Watson, Between the Planets , Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, revised edition 1956.

F. L. Whipple, Earth, Moon and Planets , new edition, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981.

Section 11.3   The Cavendish Experiment

G. T. Gillies, "Resource Letter MNG-1: Measurements of Newtonian Gravitation," American Journal of Physics , Vol. 58, pages 525-534 (1990)

David Kerstenbaum, "Gravity Measurements Close in on Big G," Science , Vol. 282, pages 2080-2081 (1998).  A review of recent estimates of the gravitational constant.  For details and references see the article by J. P. Schwartz et al. starting on page 2230 of the same issue. 

Joshua P. Schwarz, Douglas S. Robertson, Timothy M. Niebauer, and James G. Faller, "A free-fall determination of the Newtonian constant of gravity," Science , Vol. 282, pages 2230-2234 (1998).  Their value is G = (6.6873 ± 0.0094) x 10-11 m3 kg-1 sec-2.

Section 11.4  The masses of the earth, sun, and planets

The Astronomical Almanac for the year 2000 , Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office/London: The Stationery Office, 1999.

Section 11.5  Some influences on Newton's work

J. E. McGuire, Tradition and Innovation: Newton's Metaphysics of Nature , Boston: Kluwer, 1995.

J. E. McGuire and P. M. Rattansi, "Newton and the 'pipes of Pan,'" Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London , Vol. 21, pages 108-143 (1966)

Robert Merton, On the Shoulders of Giants , New York: Free Press, 1965.

Section 11.6  Some consequences of the law of universal gravitation

Shinko Aoki, "The moon-test in Newton's Principia: Accuracy of inverse-square law of universal gravitation," Archive for History of Exact Sciences , Vol. 44, pages 147-190 (1992); Vol. 49, pages 393-396 (1996)

Robert Grant, History of Physical Astronomy , New York: Johnson Reprint, 1966.  Though first published in 1852, this book remains a useful detailed account of the development of theories of planetary motion in the 17th and 18th centuries.

J. L. Greenberg, The Problem of the Earth's Shape from Newton to Clairaut , New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Michael Hoskin, William Herschel and the Construction of the Heavens , New York: Norton, 1964.

N. Murray and M. Holman, "The origin of chaos in the outer solar system," Science , Vol. 283, pages 1877-1881 (1999).  Contrary to Laplace, Newtonian gravitation does not entail the long-term stability of the solar system; resonances between Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus produce chaotic motion, and Uranus may be expelled from the solar system in about 1018 years.

René Taton and C. Wilson, editors, The General History of Astronomy, Vol. 2, Planetary Astronomy from the Renaissance to the Rise of Astrophysics , Part B, The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries , New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995.  A collection of authoritative brief articles on several of the applications of Newton's theory of gravity.

Curtis A. Wilson, "The Great Inequality of Jupiter and Saturn: From Kepler to Laplace," Archive for History of Exact Sciences , Vol. 33, pages 15-290 (1985)

Section 11.7   The discovery of new planets using Newton's theory of gravity

Greg Bamford, "Popper and his commentators on the discovery of Neptune: A close shave for the law of gravitation?" Studies in History and Philosophy of Science , Vol. 27, pages 207-232 (1996).  If Neptune had not been discovered should (according to Popper's Principle) the law of gravitation have been abandoned?

Morton Grosser, The Discovery of Neptune , Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962.

W. G. Hoyt, Planets X and Pluto , Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1980.

Oliver Lodge, Pioneers of Science

Section 11.8   Bode's La

M. M. Nieto, The Titius-Bode Law of Planetary Distances: Its History and Theory , Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1972

Section 11.9   Gravity and the galaxies

Russell McCormmach, "John Michell and Henry Cavendish: weighing the stars," British Journal for the History of Science , Vol. 4, pages 126-155 (1968)

Ian Ridpath, A Dictionary of Astronomy , New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Section 11.11   Newton's Place in Modern Science

Margaret Jacob, "Reflections on the ideological meanings of modern science from Boyle and Newton to the postmodernists," History of Science , Vol. 33, pages 333-357 (1995)

H. Odom, "The estrangement of celestial mechanics and religion," Journal of the History of Ideas , Vol. 27, pages 533-548 (1966)

J. H. Randall, Jr., The Career of Philosophy, New York: Columbia University Press, 1962. Volume 1, Book 4, discusses Newton's influence on eighteenth-century thought; The Making of the Modern Mind , New York: Columbia University Press, 1976.

Paul Theerman and Adele F. Seeff (editors), Action and Reaction, Proceedings of a Symposium to Commemorate the Tercentenary of Newton's Principia , Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 1993.

Chapter 12. On the Nature of Concepts    Back to top

Section 12.2  Science and Nonscience

Johannes Kepler, Harmony of the World

Section 12.3  The Lack of a Single Method

Ludwig Boltzmann, Gustav Kirchhoff: Festrede zur Feier des 301. Gründungstages der Karl-Franzens-Universität zu Graz , Leipzig: Barth, 1888 (translation quoted from E. Broda, Ludwig Boltzmann, Woodbridge, CT: Ox Bow Press, 1983)

Charles Darwin, Autobiography and Selected Letters (edited by F. Darwin), New York: Dover, 1958.

George Sarton, The Study of the History of Science

Section 12.4  Physical Concepts: Measurement and Definition

P. W. Bridgman, The Logic of Modern Physics

Section 12.5  Physically Meaningless Concepts and Statements

Section 12.6  Primary and Secondary Quantities

Francis Bacon, The New Organon [Novum Organum] and related Writings , Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1960. 

James Bryant Conant, Science and Common Sense

Section 12.8  Explanation

Chapter 13. On the duality and growth of science    Back to top

Section 13.1  The Free License of Creativity

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, "Electrical Units of Measurement" (lecture given in 1883), in Popular Lectures and Addresses , Vol. 1, second edition, pages 80-143, London: Macmillan, 1891.

Section 13.4  Motivation

Isaac Newton, Opticks

Newton's Philosophy of Nature (edited by H. S. Thayer)

Wolfgang Pauli, Exclusion Principle and Quantum Mechanics, lecture given in Stockholm after the award of the Nobel Prize of Physics, 1945 , Neuchatel, Switzerland: Editions du Griffon, 1947.

Henri Poincaré, Science and Method

Alfred North Whitehead, Modes of Thought , New York: Macmillan, 1938.

Section 13.7  How science grows

Jonathan Cole and Stephen Cole, "The Ortega Hypothesis," Science , Vol. 178, pages 368-375 (1972)

José Ortega y Gasset, The Revolt of the Masses , translated by A. Kerrigan, Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1985.

Section 13.8  Consequences of the model

I. Bernard Cohen, Science and the Founding Fathers , New York: Norton, 1995.

Robert K. Merton, "Singletons and Multiples in Scientific Discovery" 

F. S. C. Northrop, The Meeting of East and West , New York: Macmillan, 1946, Chapter III

Harold Varmus, Plenary Lecture at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 13 February 1998.  Text available on the Website of the National Institutes of Health, http://www.nih.gov/welcome/directorcongress/htm

Chapter 14. The Discovery of Laws    Back to top

P. W. Bridgman,   Reflections of a Physicist , New York: Philosophical Library, 1950.

P. W. Bridgman, Philosophical Writings (reprint of Nature of Physical Theory and The Nature of some of our Physical Concepts ), New York: Arno Press, 1980.

S. G. Brush, "Dynamics of Theory Change: The Role of Predictions," in PSA 1994: Proceedings of the 1994 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , volume 2, edited by D. Hull et al., East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association, 1995, pages 133-145.

Pierre Duhem, Aim and Structure of Physical Theory

Albert Einstein, Collected Papers

Albert Einstein, Relativity

Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions  

Peter Galison, How Experiments End

N. R. Hanson, Patterns of Discovery , New York: Cambridge University Press, 1958.

David L. Hull, Peter D. Tessner, and Arthur M. Diamond, "Planck's Principle," Science , vol. 202, pages 717-723 (1978). 

Thomas S. Kuhn, Structure of Scientific Revolutions

L. Laudan, "Theories of scientific method from Plato to Mach," History of Science , Vol. 7, pages 1-63 (1969)

L. Laudan, Science and Hypothesis: Historical Essays on Scientific Methodology , Boston: Reidel, 1981.

John Losee, A Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Science , third edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Ernst Mach, "On the economical nature of physical inquiry," pages 186-213 in his Popular Scientific Lectures

Max Planck, Scientific Autobiography

Plato, Phaedon  

Henri Poincaré, The Value of Science

Henri Poincaré, Science and Hypothesis

Henri Poincaré, Mathematics and Science: Last Essays , translated by J. W. Bolduc, New York: Dover, 1963.

Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery  

Joseph Priestley, Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air , New York: Kraus Reprint, 1970

Lewis Pyenson, "Without Feathers," Lingua Franca , vol. 9, no. 4 (May-June 1999), pages 5, 73. 

Bertrand Russell, Scientific Outlook , New York: W. W. Norton, 1931; Chapters II and III

M. H. Salmon et al., Introduction to the Philosophy of Science , Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1992.

Michael Turelli, "The Causes of Haldane's Rule," Science , vol. 282, pages 889-891 (1998).

Ryan D. Tweney, Michael E. Doherty and Clifford R. Mynatt, editors, On Scientific Thinking , New York: Columbia University Press, 1981.  Studies by psychologists show that both scientists and non-scientists prefer to look for confirmation of their hypotheses, even though a strategy of eliminating alternative hypotheses by refutation is more effective in simple situations; scientists who persistently advocate their own ideas while ignoring contrary evidence are criticized by other scientists for this behavior, yet they are also judged the most successful. 

J. Ziman, Public Knowledge, an Essay Concerning the Social dimension of Science , New York: Cambridge University Press, 1968

Chapter 15. The Law of Conservation of Mass    Back to top

Section 15.1   Prelude to the conservation law

Lucretius,   On the Nature of the Universe

Section 15.3   Lavoisier's experimental proof

J. B. Conant, The Overthrow of the Phlogiston Theory , Case 2 in the Harvard Case Histories in Experimental Science (edited by J. B. Conant)

J. B. Conant, Science and Common Sense , Chapter 7

Arthur Donovan (editor), "The Chemical Revolution: Essays in Reinterpretation," Osiris , series 2, Vol. 4 (1988), articles by Donovan, F. L. Holmes, and C. E. Perrin  

Henry Guerlac, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier: Chemist and Revolutionary , New York: Scribner's, 1975.

Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, Elements of Chemistry in a new systematic order, containing all the modern discoveries , translated by Robert Kerr, New York, Dover, 1965.

Evan Melhado, "Chemistry, Physics, and the Chemical Revolution," Isis , vol. 76, pages 195-211 (1983).

Alan Musgrave, "Why did Oxygen supplant Phlogiston?  Research Programmes in the Chemical Revolution," in Method and Appraisal in the Physical Sciences (edited by C. Howson), pages 181-209

Jean-Pierre Poirier, Lavoisier: Chemist, Biologist, Economist , Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996.

P. Pomper, "Lomonosov and the discovery of the law of conservation of matter in chemical transformations," Ambix , Vol. 10, pages 119-127 (1962)

Cecil J. Schneer, Mind and Matter

Charles Singer, A Short History of Science , Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1941.

J. Smedslund, "The acquisition of conservation of substance and weight in children: I. Introduction," Scandinavian Journal of Psychology , Vol. 2, pages 11-20, 85-87 (1961), reprinted in Readings in Child Behavior and Development (C. B. Stendler, editor), New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, second edition, 1964

Chapter 16. The Law of Conservation of Momentum    Back to top

Thomas Birch, The History of the Royal Society of London , New York: Johnson Reprint, 1968, Volume 2

R. J. Blackwell, "Descartes' laws of motion," Isis , Vol. 57, pages 220-234 (1966)

René Descartes, Principles of Philosophy , translated by V. R. Miller and R. P. Miller, Boston: Kluwer, 1983

René Dugas, Mechanics in the Seventeenth Century , Chapters VII and X

A. Rupert Hall, "Mechanics and the Royal Society, 1668-70," British Journal for the History of Science , Vol. 3, pages 24-38 (1966)  

A. Rupert Hall, Revolution in Science , Chapter 11.

Ernst Mach, The Science of Mechanics , pages 376-420

C. Truesdell, "Whence the Law of Moment of Momentum?" in his book Essays on the History of Mechanics , pages 239-271

E. T. Whittaker, From Euclid to Eddington: A Study of Conceptions of the External World , New York: Dover, 1958

Joella G. Yoder, Unrolling Time: Christiaan Huygens

Chapter 17. The Law of Conservation of Energy    Back to top

T. M. Brown, "Resource Letter EEC-1 on the Evolution of Energy Concepts from Galileo to Helmholtz," American Journal of Physics , Vol. 33, no. 10 (October 1965)

D. S. L. Cardwell, From Watt to Clausius

René Dugas, History of Mechanics , Part VI, Chapter X

Ernst Mach, The History and Root of the Principle of Conservation of Energy , translated from German, Chicago: Open Court Publishing Co., 1911

Ernst Mach, "On the principle of the conservation of energy," in his Popular Scientific Lectures

Section 17.1   Christiaan Huygens and the vis viva concept

Section 17.7  Historical Background of the Generalized Law of Conservation of Energy: The Nature of Heat

René Dugas,   Mechanics in the Seventeenth Century , Chapter XIV

S. C. Brown, Count Rumford: Physicist Extraordinary , Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1962

S. C. Brown, Benjamin Thompson -- Count Rumford: Count Rumford on the Nature of Heat , New York: Pergamon Press, 1967. Includes extracts from his writings.

S. G. Brush, "The wave theory of heat," in The Kind of Motion We Call Heat , Chapter 9

Yehuda Elkana, The Discovery of the Conservation of Energy , London: Hutchinson, 1974.

Erwin N. Hiebert, Historical Roots of the Principle of Conservation of Energy , Madison, Wisconsin: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1962.

Robert Fox, The Caloric Theory of Gases from Lavoisier to Regnault , New York: Oxford University Press, 1971.

P. M. Heimann, "Conservation of Forces and the Conservation of Energy," Centaurus , Vol. 18, pages 147-161 (1974); "Helmholtz and Kant: The Metaphysical Foundations of Über die Erhaltung der Kraft," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science , Vol. 5, pages 205-238 (1974)

D. Roller, "The early developments of the concepts of temperature and heat: The rise and decline of the caloric theory" in J. B. Conant (editor), Harvard Case Histories in Experimental Science , pages 117-214

Section 17.8  Mayer's discovery of energy conservation

K. L. Caneva, Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Energy , Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993.

Eduard Farber, "The color of venous blood," Isis , Vol. 45, pages 3-9 (1954)

W. B. Ober, "Robert Mayer, M. D. (1814-1878) and mechanical equivalent of heat," New York State Journal of Medicine , Vol. 68, pp. 2447-2454 (1968).

P. M. Heimann, "Mayer's Concept of 'Force': The 'Axis' of a New Science of Physics," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences , Vol. 7, pages 277-296 (1976)

Robert Mayer, "The Forces of Inorganic Nature" (1842), translation reprinted in Brush, Kinetic Theory , vol. 1, pages 71-77

Section 17.9   Joule's experiments on energy conservation

Fabio Bevilacqua, "Helmholtz's Über die Erhaltung der Kraft : The emergence of a theoretical physicist," in Hermann von Helmholtz and the Foundations of Nineteenth-Century Science (edited by D. Cahan), Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993.

Per Dahl, Ludvig Colding and the Conservation of Energy Principle , New York: Johnson Reprint, 1972; includes a translation of Colding's original papers (1850-1864).  He was one of the "simultaneous discoverers" of LCE.

J. Forrester, "Chemistry and the Conservation of Energy: The Work of James Prescott Joule," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science , Vol. 6, pages 273-313 (1975)

Hermann von Helmholtz, "The Conservation of Force" (1847), translation reprinted in S. G. Brush, Kinetic Theory , vol. 1, pages 89-110

T. S. Kuhn, "Energy conservation as an example of simultaneous discovery," in his book Essential Tension , pages 66-104

Robert K. Merton, "Singletons and Multiples in Scientific Discovery," "Behavior patterns of scientists," and other papers reprinted in his book Sociology of Science

Otto Sibum, "Reworking the mechanical value of heat: Instruments of precesion and gestures of accuracy in early Victorian England," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science , Vol. 26, pages 73-106 (1995)

Crosbie Smith, The Science of Energy: A Cultural History of Energy Physics in Victorian Britain , Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

H. J. Steffens, James Prescott Joule and the Concept of Energy , New York: Science History Pubs., 1979.

John Tyndall, Heat Considered as a Mode of Motion , London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1863; seventh edition, 1887.

Section 17.5  The conservation law, first form; and applications

J. V. Kline, "The Case of the Counting Balls"   American Journal of Physics , Vol. 28, page 102 (1960)

Section 17.11 Conservation laws and symmetry

Nina Byers, "The Life and Times of Emmy Noether: Contributions of Emmy Noether to Particle Physics," pages 945-964 in History of Original Ideas and Basic Discoveries in Particle Physics (edited by H. B. Newman and T. Ypsilantis), New York: Plenum Press, 1996; "E. Noether's discovery of the deep connection between symmetries and conservation laws," pages 67-91 in The Heritage of Emmy Noether (edited by M. Teicher), Ramat-Gan, Israel: Bar-Ilan University, 1999, and other papers in this book.

Chapter 18. The Law of Dissipation of Energy    Back to top

S. G. Brush, History of Modern Planetary Physics , Vol. 2, Part 1.

S. G. Brush, Kind of Motion We Call Heat , Chapter 14

S. G. Brush, The Temperature of History , New York: Franklin, 1978, Chapters III, V, VIII

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, "The Kinetic Theory of the Dissipation of Energy" (1874), reprinted in Kinetic Theory (edited by Brush), Vol. 2, pages 176-187

Section 18.1   Newton's rejection of the "Newtonian World Machine"

H. G. Alexander (editor), The Leibniz‑Clarke correspondence, with extracts from Newton's Principia and Opticks , New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.

Edward B. Davis, "Newton's rejection of the 'Newtonian World View': The role of Divine Will in Newton's natural philosophy," in Facets of Faith and Science (edited by J. M. van der Meer), Vol. 3, pages 75-96, Lanham, MD: University Press of American, 1996.  

Augustus de Morgan, A Budget of Paradoxes , second edition, Chicago: Open Court, 1915.

A. Rupert Hall, Philosophers at War: The Quarrel between Newton and Leibniz , New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980.

Alexandre Koyré, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe , Chapter XI

Alexandre Koyré and I. B. Cohen, "Newton and the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence," Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences , Vol. 15, no. 58-59, pages 63-126 (1962)

Ezio Vailati, Leibniz and Clarke: A Study of their Correspondence , New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Section 18.2   The Problem of the Cooling of the Earth

Joe D. Burchfield, Lord Kelvin and the Age of the Earth , Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

Francis C. Haber, The Age of the World from Moses to Darwin , Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1959.

I. Grattan-Guinness and J. R. Ravetz, Joseph Fourier 1768-1830 , Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1972.

John Herivel, Joseph Fourier: The Man and the Physicist , New York: Oxford University Press, 1975.

William Hopkins, "Anniversary Address of the President," Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London , Vol. 8, Part I, pages xxi-lxxx (1852)

Rachel Laudan, From Mineralogy to Geology: The Foundations of a Science, 1650-1830 , Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology , 3 vols., London: Murray, 1830-33

John Playfair, Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth , Edinburgh: Cadell & Davies, 1802.  

L. G. Wilson, Charles Lyell. The Years to 1841: The Revolution in Geology , New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1972.

Section 18.3   The Second Law of Thermodynamics and the Dissipation of Energy

Sadi Carnot, Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire, and Other Papers on the Second Law of Thermodynamics by E. Clapeyron and R. Clausius (edited by E. Mendoza), New York: Dover Publications, 1960.

Edward E. Daub, "Entropy and dissipation," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences , Vol. 2, pages 321-354 (1970).

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, "On a universal tendency in nature to the dissipation of mechanical energy," Philosophical Magazine , series 4, Vol. 4, pages 304-306 (1852)

Section 18.4   Entropy and the Heat Death

Henry Adams, The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma (essays first published 1894-1909),  New York: Capricorn Books (Putnam's), 1958.

Hermann von Helmholtz, "On the interaction of natural forces" (1854), in his Popular Scientific Lectures

Erwin Hiebert, "The uses and abuses of thermodynamics in religion," Daedalus , Vol. 95, pages 1046-1080 (1966)

John Playfair, Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth , Edinburgh: Cadell & Davies, 1802.

Crosbie Smith and M. Norton Wise, Energy and Empire , New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

C. P. Snow, The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution , New York: Cambridge University Press, 1960.

C. Truesdell, The Tragicomical History of Thermodynamics , New York: Springer-Verlag, 1980.

Chapter 19. The Physics of Gases    Back to top

S. G. Brush, Statistical Physics , pages 3-30

Lucretius, The Nature of the Universe

Section 19.2   Air pressure

Antonio Clericuzio, "The mechanical philosophy and the spring of the air: New light on Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke,"   Nuncius , Vol. 13, pages 69-75 (1998).

René Dugas, Mechanics in the Seventeenth Century , Chapter VIII

Galileo Galileo, Two New Sciences

M. B. Hall (editor), Nature and Nature's Laws , pages 184‑ 215. Extracts from writings of Torricelli, Pecquet, and Boyle.

R. Hooykaas, Robert Boyle: A Study in Science and Christian Belief , Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1997.

Michael Hunter (editor), Robert Boyle reconsidered , New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994, includes a review of recent historical scholarship and a bibliography of works about Boyle published since 1940.

Rose-Mary Sargent, The Diffident Naturalist: Robert Boyle and the Philosophy of Experiment , Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Section 19.3   The General Gas Law

I. B. Cohen, "Newton, Hooke, and 'Boyle's Law' (Discovered by Power and Towneley)," Nature , Vol. 204, page 618 (1964)

C. Webster, "The discovery of Boyle's law, and the concept of the elasticity of air in the seventeenth century," Archive for History of Exact Sciences , Vol. 2, pages 441-502 (1965)

Section 19.4   Two gas models

Daniel Bernoulli, Hydrodynamics (1738), translated by T. Carmody and H. Kobus, New York: Dover, 1968.

C. Truesdell, "Early kinetic theories of gases," in his book Essays in the History of Mechanics , pages 272-304

Chapter 20. The Atomic Theory of Chemistry    Back to top

A. J. Ihde, The Development of Modern Chemistry , New York: Harper & Row, 1964, Chapters 4 and 6

D. M. Knight, Atoms and Elements, a Study of Theories of Matter in England in the Nineteenth Century , London: Hutchinson, 1967.

J. R. Partington, A History of Chemistry , Vol. IV, London: Macmillan, 1964.

Alan J. Rocke, Chemical Atomism in the Nineteenth Century , Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1984.

Section 20.2  Dalton's model of gases

Theron Cole, Jr., "Dalton, mixed gases, and the origin of the chemical atomic theory," Ambix , Vol. 25, pages 117-130 (1978)

L. K. Nash, "The origins of Dalton's chemical atomic theory," Isis , Vol. 47, pages 101-116 (1956)

A. L. Smyth, John Dalton, 1766-1844: A Bibliography of Works by and about Him , Brookfield, VT: Ashgatre 1998.

Section 20.3  Properties of Dalton's chemical atom

John Dalton, A New System of Chemical Philosophy (1808-1827), reprinted, London: Dawson, 1950.

Kiyosha Fujii, "The Berthollet-Proust controversy and Dalton's chemical atomic theory 1800-1820," British Journal for the History of Science , Vol 19, pages 177-200 (1986)

H. E. Roscoe and A. Harden, A New View of the Origin of Dalton's Atomic Theory , New York: Johnson Reprint, 1970.

Arnold Thackray, John Dalton , Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972.

Section 20.6   Dalton's rule of simplicity

A. J. Bernatowicz, "Dalton's rule of simplicity," Journal of Chemical Education , Vol. 47, pages 577-579 (1970)

Section 20.9  Avogadro's model of gases

Nicholas Fisher, "Avogadro, the chemists, and historians of chemistry," History of Science , Vol. 20, pages 77-102, 212-231 (1982)

Section 20.10   An evaluation of Avogadro's theory

Martin Frické, "The rejection of Avogadro's hypotheses," in Method and Appraisal in the Physical Sciences (edited by C. Howson), pages 277-307

Mario Morselli, Amedeo Avogadro: A Scientific Biography , Boston: Reidel, 1984

Section 20.11  Chemistry after Avogadro: The Concept of Valence

S. G. Brush, "Dynamics of theory change in chemistry: Part 1. The benzene problem" and " ... Part 2. Benzene and molecular orbitals, 1945-1980," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science , Vol. 30, pages 21-99, 263-302 (1999).

W. G. Palmer, A History of the Concept of Valency to 1930 , New York: Cambridge University Press, 1965

Chapter 21. The Periodic Table of Elements     Back to top  

Section 21.1  The search for regularity in the list of elements

O. Theodore Benfey, "Precursors and cocursors of the Mendeleev table: The Pythagorean spirit in element classification," Bulletin for the History of Chemistry , nos. 13-14, pages 60-66 (Winter/Spring 1992-1993)

H. Cassebaum and G. B. Kauffman, "The periodic system of the chemical elements: The search for its discoverer," Isis , vol. 62, pages 314-327 (1971).  On the other scientists besides Mendeléeff who might deserve some of the credit. 

Ida Freund, The Study of Chemical Composition , Chapter XVI

A. J. Ihde, The Development of Modern Chemistry , New York: Harper & Row, 1964, Chapter 9

D. M. Knight, ed., Classical Scientific Papers -- Chemistry (second series), New York: American Elsevier, 1971. A collection of original sources pertaining to Prout's hypothesis and the arrangement of the elements

John A. B. Newlands, "On the Periodic Law," Chemical News , Vol. 38, pages 106-107 (1878), reviews his priority claims

Section 21.1    The early periodic table of elements

Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, "Mendeleev's periodic system of chemical elements," British Journal for the History of Science , Vol. 19, pages 3-17 (1986)

S. G. Brush, "The reception of Mendeleev's Periodic Law in America and Britain," Isis , Vol. 87, pages 595-628 (1996)

M. A. El'iashevich, "The Mendeleev periodic law, atomic spectra, and atomic structure: On the history of the physical interpretation of the periodic table of the elements," Soviet Physics Uspekhi , Vol. 13, pages 1-23 (1970).

D. I. Mendeléeff, The Principles of Chemistry , second English edition, New York: Collier, 1902.

Don C. Rawson, "The process of discovery: Mendeleev and the Periodic Law," Annals of Science , Vol. 31, pages 181-204 (1974)

S. Sambursky, "The equivalence of mass and energy: An anticipation by Mendeleev," Isis , Vol. 60, pages 104-106 (1969)

Section 21.4   The modern periodic table

Darleane Hoffman and Diana Lee, "Chemistry of the Heaviest Elements -- One Atom at a Time," Journal of Chemical Education , Vol. 76, pages 331-347 (1999)

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Commission on Atomic Weights and Isotopic Abundances, "Atomic weights of the elements, 1995" (report prepared by T. B. Coplen), Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data , Vol. 26, pages 1239-1253 (1997).  A new report is usually published every two years in this journal. 

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Chemistry Division, Commission on Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry, "Recommendations for the naming of elements of atomic numbers greater than 100," Pure and Applied Chemistry , Vol. 51, pages 381-384 (1979); "Names and symbols of transfermium elements," Pure and Applied Chemistry , Vol. 69, pages 2471-2473 (1997)

W. A. H. Scott, "Why stop there?" Education in Chemistry , Vol. 20, page 156 (1983).  Argues that the IUPAC system for naming elements with high atomic numbers should be extended to all elements.

J. W. von Spronsen, The Periodic System of Chemical Elements , New York: American Elsevier, 1969.

Chapter 22. The Kinetic-Molecular Theory of Gases    Back to top

Ludwig Boltzmann, Lectures on Gas Theory (1896-1898), translated by S. G. Brush, New York: Dover, 1995.

S. G. Brush, Kinetic Theory, includes reprints and translations of papers of Clausius, Maxwell, Boltzmann, William Thomson, Poincare, Zermelo, and others

S. G. Brush, The Kind of Motion We Call Heat

Carlo Cercignani, Ludwig Boltzmann: The Man Who Trusted Atoms, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998

A. S. Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World, Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1928, Chapter IV

Section 22.1   Introduction

E. W. Garber, "Clausius and Maxwell's kinetic theory of gases," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, Vol. 2, pages 299-319 (1970)

Eric Mendoza, "The kinetic theory of matter, 1845-1855," Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences, Vol. 32, pages 184-220 (1982)

C. Truesdell, "Early kinetic theories of gases," in his Essays in the History of Mechanics, pages 272-304

Section 22.3   Model of a gas

Elizabeth Garber et al. (editors), Maxwell on Molecules and Gases, includes his papers on atoms, molecules, and kinetic theory, with related manuscripts and correspondence

Elizabeth Garber, Stephen G. Brush and C. W. F. Everitt (editors), Maxwell on Heat and Statistical Mechanics, Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Press, 1995, includes his papers on thermodynamics and Maxwell's Demon, with related manuscripts and correspondence

James Clerk Maxwell, Scientific Letters and Papers (edited by P. M. Harman)

Section 22.5   Consequences and verification of the kinetic theory

S. G. Brush (editor), Kinetic Theory, Vol. 3

W. Fleischhacker and T. Schönfield (editors), Pioneering Ideas for the Physical and Chemical Sciences: Josef Loschmidt's Contributions and Modern Developments in Structural Organic Chemistry, Atomistics, and Statistical Mechanics, New York: Plenum, 1997.

H. D. Smyth, A General Account of the Development of Methods of Using Atomic Energy for Military Purposes Under the Auspices of the United States Government, 1940-1945, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, August 1945.

Section 22.6  The distribution of molecular velocities

James Clerk Maxwell, "Illustrations of the Dynamical Theory of Gases" (1860), reprinted with related documents and notes in Maxwell on Molecules and Gases (edited by E. Garber et al.); Letter to P. G. Tait (1867), and "[A Treatise on] The Kinetic Theory of Gases" (1877) [review of book by Watson], both reprinted with related documents and notes in Maxwell on Heat and Statistical Mechanics (edited by E. Garber, S. G. Brush, and C. W. F. Everitt), Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Press, 1995.

C. C. Gillispie, "Intellectual factors in the background of analysis by probabilities," pages 431-453 in Scientific Change (edited by A. C. Crombie), New York, Basic Books, 1963

T. M. Porter, "A statistical survey of gases: Maxwell's social physics," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, Vol. 12, pages 77-116 (1981)

Section 22.8   Specific heats of gases

Henk W. de Regt, "Philosophy and the kinetic theory of gases," British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 47, pages 31-62 (1996)

Section 22.9   The problem of irreversibility in kinetic theory: Maxwell's Demon

John Earman and John D. Norton, "Exorcist XIV: The wrath of Maxwell's Demon. Part II. From Szilard to Landauer and beyond," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, vol. 30, pages 1-40 (1999)

M. J. Klein, "Maxwell, his Demon, and the second law of thermodynamics," American Scientist, Vol. 58, pages 897 (1970)

H. S. Leff, "Resource Letter MD-1: Maxwell's Demon," American Journal of Physics, Vol. 58, pages 201-209 (1990)

Harvey S. Leff and Andrew F. Rex (editors), Maxwell's Demon: Entropy, Information, Computing, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 1990.

B. McGuinness (editor), Ludwig Boltzmann: Theoretical Physics and Philosophical Problems, Boston: Reidel, 1974

Chapter 23. The Wave Theory of Light    Back to top

Sidney Perkowitz, Empire of Light: A History of Discovery in Science and Art, New York: Holt, 1996

Alan E. Shapiro, Fits, Passions, and Paroxysms, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993; on light and spectroscopy to mid-19th-century

E. T. Whittaker, A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity, New York: Tomash/American Institute of Physics, 1987, Vol. I, Chapters I, IV and V

Section 23.1  Theories of refraction and the speed of light

Arlie Bailey, "Units, Standards and Constants," in Twentieth Century Physics, edited by L. M. Brown et al., pages 1233-1278, Philadelphia: Institute of Physics Publishing, 1995. 

J. G. Burke, "Descartes on the refraction and the velocity of light," American Journal of Physics, Vol. 34, pages 390- 400 (1966)

I. B. Cohen, "Roemer and the first determination of the velocity of light," Isis, Vol. 31, pages 327379 (1940). Includes facsimile reprints of Roemer's papers; reprinted as a book, New York: Burndy Library, 1944.

I. B. Cohen, "The first explanation of interference," American Journal of Physics, Vol. 8, pages 99-106 (1940)

Rene Descartes, Discourse on method, Optics, Geometry and Meteorology, translated by P. J. Olscamp, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1961.

Casper Hakfoort, Optics in the Age of Euler: Conceptions of the Nature of Light, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

A. Rupert Hall, All was Light: An Introduction to Newton's Opticks, New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Christiaan Huygens, Treatise on Light. In which are explained the causes of that which occurs In Reflexion, & in Refraction.  And particularly In the strange Refraction of Iceland Crystal, translated by S. P. Thompson, New York: Dover, 1962.

A. I. Sabra, Theories of light from Descartes to Newton, second edition, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Alan E. Shapiro, "Huygens' Traité de la lumière and Newton's Opticks: Pursuing and eschewing hypotheses," Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 43, pages 223-247 (1989)

F. R. Tangherlini, "On Snell's law and the gravitational deflection of light," American Journal of Physics, Vol. 36, pages 1001-1004 (1968)

Albert Van Helden, "Roemer's Speed of Light," Journal for the History of Astronomy, Vol. 14, pages 137-141 (1983).  While Roemer did not give an explicit value for c in his 1676 paper, it appears that he believed the earth-sun distance to be about 56 million miles (contrary to Cassini's and Flamsteed's result) so the corresponding value for c would have been only about 85,000 mi/sec or 135,000 km/sec. 

Section 23.3   The wave theory of Young and Fresnel

Peter Achinstein, Particles and Waves: Historical Essays in the Philosophy of Science, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Max Born and E. Wolf, Principles of Optics, 3rd edition, New York: Pergamon Press, 1965.

Jed Z. Buchwald, The Rise of the Wave Theory of Light: Optical Theory and Experiment in the early Nineteenth Century, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.

Geoffrey N. Cantor, Optics after Newton: Theories of Light in Britain and Ireland, 1704-1840, Dover, NH: Manchester University Press, 1983.

G. N. Cantor and M. J. S. Hodge (eds.), Conceptions of Ether: Studies in the History of Ether Theories, 1740-1900, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981.  See the editors' introduction and papers by P. M. Heimann, L. Laudan and J. Z. Buchwald

Xiang Chen, "Taxonomic Changes and the Particle-Wave Debate in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Vol. 26, pages 252-271 (1995); "The Debate on the 'Polarity of Light' during the optical revolution," Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Vol. 50, pages 359-393 (1997); "Dispersion, experimental apparatus, and the acceptance of the wave theory of light," Annals of Science, Vol. 55, pages 401-420 (1998)

Chris Eliasmith and Paul Thagard, "Waves, Particles, and Explanatory Coherence," British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 48, pages 1-19 (1997)

Naum Kipnis, History of the Principle of Interference of Light, Boston: Birkhäuser Verlag, 1991.

John Worrall, "Fresnel, Poisson and the White Spot: The Role of Successful Predictions in the Acceptance of Scientific Theories," in The Uses of Experiment, edited by D. Gooding et al., pages 135-157, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

John Worrall, "Thomas Young and the 'refutation' of Newtonian Optics: A case study in the interaction of philosophy of science and history of science," in Methods and Appraisal (edited by C. Howson), pages 107-179

Section 23.4  Color

Isaac Newton, New Theory of Light and Colors (1672), reprinted from Philosophical Transactions, Munich: Fritsch, 1965; also reprinted in Isaac Newton's Papers & Letters on Natural Philosophy (edited by I. B. Cohen), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1958.

Isaac Newton, The Optical Papers of Isaac Newton, edited by Alan E. Shapiro, Vol. I, The Optical Lectures 1670-1672, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

Simon Schaffer, "Glass works: Newton's Prisms and the Uses of Experiment," in The Uses of Experiment (edited by Gooding et al.), pages 67-104

Alan E. Shapiro, "The gradual acceptance of Newton's theory of light and color, 1672-1727," Perspectives on Science, Vol. 4, pages 59-140 (1996)

Chapter 24. Electrostatics    Back to top

E. T. Whittaker, A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity, Vol. I, Chapters II and III

Section 24.1   Introduction

I. B. Cohen, Franklin and Newton, Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1956.

Benjamin Franklin, Experiments and Observations on Electricity (edited by I. B. Cohen), Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1941.

J. L. Heilbron, Electricity in the 17th & 18th Centuries: A Study of Early Modern Physics, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.

Section 24.3  Law of conservation of charge

I. B. Cohen, "Conservation and the concept of electric charge: an aspect of philosophy in relation to physics in the nineteenth century," in Critical Problems in the History of Science (edited by M. Clagett), Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1959.

Section 24.7  Coulomb's law of electrostatics

Christine Blondel and Matthias Dörries, editors, Restaging Coulomb, Firenze: Olschki, 1994.  Discussion of Coulomb's experiment and attempts to replicate it.

Jon Dorling, "Henry Cavendish's Deduction of the Electrostatic Inverse-Square Law from the Result of a Single Experiment," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Vol. 4, pages 327-348 (1974)

C. S. Gillmor, Coulomb and the Evolution of Physics and Engineering in Eighteenth Century France.  Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971.

R. W. Home, The Effluvial Theory of Electricity, New York: Arno Press, 1981.

Joseph Priestley, The History and Present State of Electricity, with Original Experiments,  New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1966.

Bertrand Russell, The ABC of Atoms, New York: Dutton, 1923.

Chapter 25. Electromagnetism, X-Rays, and Electrons    Back to top

Nancy J. Nersessian, Faraday to Einstein, Dordrecht: Nijhoff, 1984.

Edmund T. Whittaker, A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity, 2nd ed., Vol. I, Chapters VI-X and XIII  

Section 25.1   Introduction

Lawrence Badash, "The Completeness of Nineteenth-Century Science," Isis, Vol. 63, pages 48-58 (1972)

A. A. Michelson, "Some of the Objects and Methods of Physical Science," University of Chicago Quarterly Calendar, August 1894, no. 3, page 15, quoted by Badash, above; see also Michelson, Light Waves and their Uses, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1902, pages 23-24

Section 25.2   Currents and magnets

Geoffrey Cantor, David Gooding and Frank A. J. L. James (editors), Michael Faraday, Atlantic Highland, NJ: Humanities Press, 1996.

Michael Faraday, Experimental Researches in Electricity, New York: Dover, 1965 (reprint of the 1839-1855 edition)

Hans Christian Oersted, Selected Scientific Works (edited by K. Jelved, A. D. Jackson, and O. Knudsen), Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998.

R. A. R. Tricker, Early Electrodynamics, the First law of Circulation, New York: Pergamon Press, 1965; The Contributions of Faraday and Maxwell to Electrical Science, New York: Pergamon Press, 1966.  Both books include historical and scientific commentary and extracts from original sources.

R. C. Stauffer, "Speculation and experiment in the background of Oersted's discovery of electromagnetism," Isis, Vol. 48, pages 33-50 (1957)

L. Pearce Williams, Michael Faraday,  New York: Basic Books, 1965.

Section 25.3   Electromagnetic waves and ether

Joan Bromberg, "Maxwell's displacement current and his theory of light," Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Vol. 4, pages 218-234 (1967)

Jed Buchwald, From Maxwell to Microphysics: Aspects of Electromagnetic Theory in the Last Quarter of the Nineteenth Century, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985; The Creation of Scientific Effects: Heinrich Hertz and Electric Waves, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.

Albert Einstein, "Maxwell's influence on the development of the conception of physical reality," and other articles in James Clerk Maxwell: A Commemoration Volume, London: Cambridge University Press, 1931.

P. M. Harman, The Natural Philosophy of James Clerk Maxwell, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

John Hendry, James Clerk Maxwell and the Theory of the Electromagnetic Field, Accord, MA: Hilger, 1982.

James Clerk Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, third edition, New York: Dover, 1954.

W. T. Scott, "Resource Letter FC‑1 on the evolution of the electromagnetic field concept," American Journal of Physics, Vol. 31, no. 11 (November 1963)

Daniel M. Siegel, Innovation in Maxwell's Electromagnetic Theory: Molecular Vortices, Displacement Current, and Light, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Daniel M. Siegel, "Text and Context in Maxwell''s Electromagnetic Theory," Physis, Vol. 33, pages 125-140 (1996)

T. K. Simpson, Maxwell on the Electromagnetic Field: A Guided Study, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997.

M. Norton Wise, "The Mutual Embrace of Electricity and Magnetism," in History of Physics (edited by S. G. Brush), pages 96-104

Section 25.4  Hertz's experiments

Salvo d'Agostino,  "Hertz's researches and their place in nineteenth century theoretical physics," Centaurus, Vol. 36, pages 46-82 (1993)

Jed Z. Buchwald, The Creation of Scientific Effects: Heinrich Hertz and Electric Waves, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.

Margaret Morrison, "Scientific conclusions and philosophical arguments: An essential tension," in Scientific Practice (edited by J. Buchwald), pages 224-256.  On Hertz's approach to electromagnetism.

Charles Süsskind, "Observations of Electromagnetic Wave radiation before Hertz," Isis, Vol. 55, pages 32-42 (1964)

Section 25.5   Cathode rays

Jed Buchwald, "Why Hertz was right about cathode rays," in Scientific Practice (edited by Buchwald), pages 161-169

25.6   X-rays and the turn of the century

[William] Lawrence Bragg,  The Development of X-ray Analysis,  New York: Hafner, 1975.

Bern Dibner, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen and the Discovery of X-Rays, New York: Watts, 1968.

J. L. Heilbron, "Fin-de-Siècle Physics" in Science, Technology, and Society in the Time of Alfred Nobel, edited by C. G. Bernhard et al., pages 51-73,  Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1982.

Heinrich Hertz, Electric Waves, New York, Dover, 1962. 

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, "Nineteenth Century Clouds over the Dynamical Theory of Heat and Light," Philosophical Magazine, series 6, Vol. 2, pages 1-40 (1901)

Bettyann Holtzmann Kevles, Naked to the Bone: Medical Imaging in the Twentieth Century, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997.

Alan Michette and Slawke Pfauntsch, X-rays: The First Hundred Years, New York: Wiley, 1997.

M. Teich and R. Porter, editors, Fin de siècle and its Legacy,  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Bruce R. Wheaton, The Tiger and the Shark: Empirical Roots of Wave-Particle Dualism,  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Section 25.7  The "Discovery of the Electron"

David Anderson,  The Discovery of the Electron, Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand, 1964.

David Anderson, "Resource Letter ECAN-1 on the electronic charge and Avogadro's number,"  American Journal of Physics, Vol. 34, pages 2-8 (1966)

Theodore Arabatzis, "Rethinking the "discovery" of the electron," Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, Vol. 27, pages 405-435 (1996)

P. F. Dahl, Flash of the Cathode Rays: A History of J. J. Thomson's Electron, Philadelphia: Institute of Physics Publishing, 1997.

E. A. Davis and I. Falconer, J. J. Thomson and the Discovery of the Electron, Levittown, PA: Taylor & Francis, 1997.

Isobel Falconer, "Corpuscles, Electrons and Cathode Rays: J. J. Thomson and the 'Discovery of the Electron,'" British Journal for the History of Science, Vol. 20, pages 241-276 (1987); "J. J. Thomson's Work on Positive Rays, 1906-1914," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, Vol. 18, pages 265-310 (1988).

Gerald Holton, "Subelectrons, Presuppositions, and the Millikan-Ehrenhaft Dispute," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, Vol. 9, pages 161-224 (1977)

Alfred Romer, "The speculative History of Atomic Charges,  1873-1895" and "The experimental History of Atomic Charges, 1895-1903," Isis Vol. 33, pages 671-683 and Vol. 34, pages 150-161 (1942); "Proton or Prouton?  Rutherford and the Depths of the Atom," American Journal of Physics, Vol. 65, pages 707-716 (1997).

George Thomson,  J. J. Thomson, Discoverer of the Electron,  London: Nelson/Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Anchor Books, 1966;

George Thomson, "An unfortunate experiment: Hertz and the nature of cathode rays,"  Notes & Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 25, pages 237-242 (1970)

J. J. Thomson, Electricity and Matter, New York: Scribner's Sons, 1904.

Chapter 26. The Quantum Theory of Light    Back to top

E. T. Whittaker, A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity, Vol. I, Chapter XII

Max Born, Atomic Physics, 4th edition, New York:: Hafner, 1946.

Section 26.2   Continuous emission spectra

S. G. Brush, Kind of Motion We Call Heat, Chapter 13

Hans Kangro, Early History of Planck's Radiation Law, New York: Crane Russak, 1976

Section 26.3   The quantum hypothesis

Peter Galison, "Kuhn and the Quantum Controversy," British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 32, pages 71-84 (1981).

Elizabeth Garber, "Some Reactions to Planck's Law, 1900-1914," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Vol. 7, pages 89-126 (1976)

Claudio Garola and Arcangelo Rossi (editors), The Foundations of Quantum Mechanics: Historical Analysis and Open Questions, Boston: Kluwer, 1995, papers on Planck and Kuhn's interpretation of his work, by P. Campogalliani and P. Cerreta

D. ter Haar, The Old Quantum Theory, New York: Pergamon Press, 1967: Part 1, Chapters I and II; Part 2, reprints of papers by Planck and Einstein, translated from German

John Hendry, "The Development of Attitudes to the Wave-Particle Duality of Light and Quantum Theory, 1900-1920," Annals of Science, Vol. 37, pages 59-79 (1980).

Max Jammer, Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics, Chapter 1.

Hans Kangro, Early History of Planck's Radiation Law, New York: Crane, Russak, 1976; Planck's Original Papers in Quantum Physics, London: Taylor & Francis, 1972

M. J. Klein, "Max Planck and the beginnings of the quantum theory," in History of Physics (edited by S. G. Brush), pages 111-131

Martin J. Klein, Abner Shimony, and Trevor J. Pinch, "Paradigms Lost?  A Review Symposium," Isis, Vol. 70, pages 429-440 (1979), on Kuhn's Black-Body Theory

Thomas S. Kuhn, Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity, 1894-1912, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. Argues that Planck did not propose a physical quantum hypothesis in 1900. 

Otto Oldenberg, Introduction to Atomic Physics, fourth edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967

Max Planck, A Survey of Physical Theory, translated by R. Jones and D. H. Williams, New York: Dover, 1960

Section 26.4  The Photoelectric effect

Roger H. Stuewer, "Non-Einsteinian interpretations of the photoelectric effect," in Historical and Philosophical Perspectives of Physics (edited by Stuewer), pages 246-263, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1970

Bruce R. Wheaton, "Philipp Lenard and the photoelectric effect, 1889-1911," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, Vol. 9, pages 299-322 (1978)

Section 26.5  Einstein's photon theory

Albert Einstein, Collected Papers, Vols. 2 and 5

Paul Kirkpatrick, "Confirming the Planck-Einstein equation hv = ½mv²," American Journal of Physics, Vol. 48 (1980), pages 803-806

Martin J. Klein, "Einstein's first paper on quanta," The Natural Philosopher, Vol. 2, pages 57-86 (1963)

Arthur I. Miller, "On Einstein, light quanta, radiation and relativity in 1905," American Journal of Physics, Vol. 44, pages 917-923 (1976)

Luis Navarro, "On Einstein's statistical-mechanical approach to the early quantum theory (1904-1916), Historica Scientiarum, new series, Vol. 1, pages 39-58 (1991)

Abraham Pais, "How Einstein got the Nobel Prize," American Scientist, Vol. 70, pages 358-365 (1982)

Chapter 27. Radioactivity and the Nuclear Atom    Back to top

Mario Bunge and William R. Shea, Rutherford and Physics at the Turn of the Century, New York: Science History Publications, 1979

Section 27.1  Early research on radioactivity and isotopes

Marie Curie, Radioactive Substances, New York: Philosophical Library, 1961

Francoise Giroud, Marie Curie: A Life, New York: Holmes and Meier, 1986

Norman E. Holden, "Table of the Isotopes (Revised 1995)," in Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 78th edition, 1997-1998 (edited by D. R. Lide), pages 11-41 to 11-146,  Boca Raton and New York: CRC Press, 1997

E. N. Jenkins, Radioactivity: A Science in Historical and Social Context, New York: Crane Russak, 1979

Helge Kragh, "The origin of radioactivity: From solvable problem to unsolved non-problem," Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Vol. 50, pages 331-358 (1997).

A. Pais, "Radioactivity's two early puzzles," Review of Modern Physics, Vol. 49, pages 925-938 (1977)

Susan Quinn, Marie Curie: A Life, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1995

A. Romer, The Discovery of Radioactivity and Transmutation, New York: Dover Publications, 1964; Radiochemistry and the Discovery of Isotopes, New York: Dover Publications, 1970.  Both books contain a selection of reprints and translations of original papers, with commentary.

Section 27.2  Radioactive half life

E. Amaldi, "Radioactivity, a pragmatic pillar of probabilistic conceptions," in Problems in the Foundations of Physics (edited by G. Toraldo di Francia), pages 1-28, New York: North-Holland, 1979

J. Van Brakel, "The possible influence of the discovery of radio-active decay on the concept of physical probability," Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Vol  31, pages 369-385 (1985)

Section 27.3  Radioactive series

Lawrence Badash, "Nuclear physics in Rutherford's laboratory before the discovery of the neutron," American Journal of Physics, Vol. 51, pages 884-889 (1983)

Lawrence Badash, Radioactivity in America, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975;

Lawrence Badash, "The suicidal success of radiochemistry," British Journal for the History of Science, Vol. 12, pages 245-256

Section 27.4   Rutherford's nuclear model

Ernest Rutherford, "The scattering of α- and ß-particles by matter and the structure of the atom," Philosophical Magazine, Vol. 21, pages 669-688 (1911); in World of the Atom (edited by Boorse & Motz), pages 707-722

Thaddeus J. Trenn, "The Geiger-Marsden Scattering Results and Rutherford's Atom, July 1912 to July 1913: The shifting significance of scientific evidence," Isis, Vol. 54, pages 74-82 (1974);

Section 27.5   Moseley's x-ray spectra

J. L. Heilbron, H. G. J. Moseley: The Life and Letters of an English Physicist, 1887-1915, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.

Section 27.6   Further concepts of nuclear structure

James Chadwick, "The Existence of a Neutron," Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Vol. A136, pages 692-707 (1932); in World of the Atom (edited by Boorse & Motz), pages 1294-1308

Ernest Rutherford, "Nuclear constitution of atoms," Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Vol. A97, pages 374-    (1920)

Thaddeus J. Trenn, The Self-Splitting Atom: The History of the Rutherford-Soddy Collaboration, London: Taylor & Frances, 1977

Thaddeus J. Trenn, Transmutation: Natural and Artificial, Philadelphia: Heyden, 1981

S. Wright, Classical Scientific Papers -- Physics, New York: American Elsevier, 1965

Chapter 28. Bohr's Model of the Atom    Back to top

Niels Bohr, Collected Works, Vol. 2: Work on Atomic Physics (1912-1917), edited by U. Hoyer, New York: North-Holland, 1981.

Jan Faye and Henry J. Folse (editors), Niels Bohr and Contemporary Philosophy, Boston: Kluwer, 1994

Hinne Hettema, "Bohr's theory of the atom, 1913-1923: A case study in the progress of scientific research programmes," Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, Vol. 26, pages 307-323 (1995)

Section 28.1   Line emission spectra

W. R. Hindmarsh, Atomic Spectra, New York: Pergamon Press, 1967.  Includes reprints of papers by Balmer, Rydberg, Bohr, and others.

J. MacLean, "On harmonic ratios in spectra," Annals of Science, Vol. 28, pages 121137 (1972).  Some precursors of Balmer.

William McGucken, Nineteenth Century Spectroscopy, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1969

Section 28.4   Niels Bohr and the problem of atomic structure

J. L. Heilbron, "Rutherford-Bohr Atom," American Journal of Physics, vol. 49, pages 223-231 (1977); "The Origins of the Exclusion Principle," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, Vol. 13, pages 261-310 (1983) 

J. L. Heilbron and T. S. Kuhn, "The genesis of the Bohr atom," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, Vol. 1, pages 211-290 (1969)

T. Hirosige and S. Nisio, "The genesis of the Bohr atom model and Planck's theory of radiation," Japanese Studies in the History of Science, No. 9, pages 3547 (1970)

M. Jammer, The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics

Helge Kragh, "Niels Bohr's Second Atomic Theory," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, Vol. 10, pages 123-186 (1979).

Section 28.6   Further developments

Sin-itiro Tomonaga, The story of spin

Chapter 29. Quantum Mechanics    Back to top

J. L. Heilbron, "Quantum historiography and the Archive for History of Quantum Physics," History of Science, Vol. 7, pages 90-111 (1968)

Max Jammer, The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics, Chapters 4-9

Wolfgang Pauli (editor), Niels Bohr and the Development of Physics

Section 29.1  Recasting the foundations of physics once more

Paul Forman, "Weimar culture, causality, and quantum theory, 1918-1927.  Adaptation by German physicists and mathematicians to a hostile intellectual environment," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, Vol. 3, pages 1‑115 (1971).  This article is often cited as an example of the (alleged) "social construction of scientific knowledge." See also the articles cited below by Kraft & Kroes, "Adaptation...," Hendry, "Weimar ..."  and Brush, "Chimerical Cat"

John Hendry, "Weimar Culture and Quantum Causality," History of Science, Vol. 18, pages 155-180 (1980); The Creation of Quantum Mechanics and the Bohr-Pauli Dialogue, Boston: Reidel, 1984.

P. Kraft and P. Kroes, "Adaptation of scientific knowledge to an intellectual environment. Paul Forman's 'Weimar culture, causality, and quantum theory, 1918-1927': Analysis and criticism," Centaurus, Vol. 27, pages 76-99 (1984)

Section 29.2   The wave nature of matter

Werner Heisenberg, The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory, translated by C. Eckart and F. C. Hoyt, New York: Dover, 1949

G. Ludwig, Wave Mechanics, New York: Pergamon Press, 1968.  Includes extracts from papers by de Broglie, Schrödinger, Heisenberg, Born, and Jordan.

V. V. Raman and P. Forman, "Why was it Schrödinger who developed de Broglie's ideas?" Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, Vol. 1, pages 291-314 (1969)

Helmut Rechenberg, "Quanta and Quantum Mechanics," in Twentieth Century Physics (edited by L. M. Brown et al.), pages 143-248

B. L. van der Waerden, Sources of Quantum Mechanics, New York: Dover, 1968

29.3   Knowledge and reality in quantum mechanics

Alain Aspect, Jean Dalibard, and Gerald Roger, "Experimental test of Bell's inequalities using time-varying analyzers," Physical Review Letters, vol. 49, pages 1804-1807 (1982).

J. S. Bell, "On the Einstein-Rosen-Podolsky paradox," Physics, Vol. 1, pages 195-200 (1964)

Mara Beller, "The rhetoric of antirealism and the Copenhagen spirit," Philosophy of Science, Vol. 63 (1996), pages 183-204

Michel Bitbol, Schrödinger's Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics, Boston: Kluwer, 1996

Max Born (ed.), The Born-Einstein Letters, New York: Walker, 1971.  See p. 91 for the original version of Einstein's "God does not play dice" statement.

S. G. Brush, "The Chimerical Cat: Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics in Historical Perspective," Social Studies of Science, vol. 10, pages 393-447 (1980).

James T. Cushing, Quantum Mechanics: Historical Contingency and the Copenhagen Hegemony.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.  Argues that David Bohm's causal version of quantum mechanics is as valid as the Copenhagen Interpretation and that it could have been accepted by physicists if certain historical events had been different or in a different sequence.

Albert Einstein, B. Podolsky, and N. Rosen, "Can quantum-mechanical description of reality be considered complete," Physical Review, series 2, Vol. 47, pages 477-480 (1935); reply by N. Bohr (same title), Vol. 48, pages 696-702 (1935)

Arthur Fine, The Shaky Game: Einstein, Realism, and the Quantum Theory, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, second edition, 1996.

A. Furusawa et al, "Unconditional quantum teleportation," Science, Vol. 282, pages 706-709 (1998), with explanatory article by C. M. Caves, "A tale of two cities," pages 637-638

Max Jammer, The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics, New York: Wiley/Interscience, 1974. 

Halley D. Sanchez, "Shimony, the Dilemma of Quantum Mechanics, and the History of Philosophy," Dialogos, volume 45, pages 79-92 (1985).

Abner Shimony, "Metaphysical Problems in the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics," International Philosophical Quarterly, volume 18, pages 3-17 (1978).  See the article by Sanchez (cited above) for another perspective on this topic.

John Archibald Wheeler and Wojciech Hubert Zurek (editors), Quantum Theory and Measurement, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983

Section 29.4   Systems of identical particles

M. H. Anderson, J. R. Esher, M. R. Matthews, C. E. Wieman, and E. A. Cornell, "Observation of Bose-Einstein Condensation in a Dilute Atomic Vapor," Science, vol. 269, pp. 198-201.  See also the articles by G. Taubes and K. Burnett in the same issue, pages 152-153 and 182-183.

S. G. Brush, "Dynamics of theory change in chemistry: Part 2, Benzene and molecular orbitals, 1945-1980," Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Science, Vol. 30, pages 263-302 (1999)

S. G. Brush, Statistical Physics, Chapters IV and V

Cathryn L. Carson, "The peculiar notion of exchange forces: I. Origins in quantum mechanics, 1926-1928," Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, Vol. 27, pages 23-45 (1996)

Kostas Gavroglu, Fritz London: A Scientific Biography, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995

Lillian H. Hoddeson, Gordon Baym, and Michael Eckert, "The Development of the Quantum Mechanical Electron Theory of Metals: 1926-1933," in Out of the Crystal Maze (edited by Hoddeson et al.), pages 88-181, New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Daniel Kleppner, quoted in Chronicle of Higher Education, 21 July 1995

Alexei Kohevnikov, "Freedom, collectivism, and quasiparticles: Social metaphors in quantum physics," Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, Vol. 29, pages 295-331 (1999)

Bernard Pullman, The Atom in the History of Thought, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, Chapter 20

Chapter 30. Einstein's theory of relativity    Back to top

Stephen G. Brush, "Why was Relativity Accepted?" Physics in Perspective, Vol. 1, pages 184-214 (1999). A review of studies of the reception of relativity theory in several countries.

Albert Einstein, Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, (edited by J. Stachel et al.).  A comprehensive edition of Einstein's published works and correspondence, with extensive annotations and commentary. English translations are published in separate paperback volumes.

H. A. Lorentz, A. Einstein, H. Minkowski and H. Weyl, The Principle of Relativity, A Collection of Original Memoirs on the Special and General Theory of Relativity, with Notes by A. Sommerfeld, translated by W. Perrett and G. B. Jeffery, New York: Dover, 1952.  This book, first published in 1923, was one of the major sources on relativity for English-speaking scientists for several decades, although the translations are not always accurate; see, e.g., Charles Scribner, Jr., "Mistranslation of a passage in Einstein's original paper on relativity," American Journal of Physics, Vol. 31, page 398 (1963)

John Stachel, "History of Relativity," in Twentieth Century Physics, edited by L. M. Brown et al., pages 249-356.  Philadelphia: Institute of Physics Publishing, 1995.

Richard Staley, "On the histories of relativity: The propagation and elaboration of relativity theory in participant histories in Germany, 1905-1911," Isis, Vol. 89, pages 263-299

Section 30.1  Biographical sketch of Albert Einstein

Mara Beller, Jürgen Renn and Robert S. Cohen (editors), "Einstein in Context," Science in Context, Vol. 6, no. 1, pages 1-368 (1993)

Gerald Holton, Advancement of Science, Chapters 2-6

Gerald Holton, Thematic Origins, Part II

Arthur I. Miller, Imagery in Scientific Thought, Boston: Birkhäuser, 1984

A. Pais, 'Subtle is the Lord': The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein, New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.

Section 30.2  The FitzGerald-Lorentz contraction

S. G. Brush, "A note on the history of the FitzGerald-Lorentz contraction," Isis, Vol. 58, pages 230-232 (1967)

Gerald Holton, "Einstein, Michelson, and the "Crucial" Experiment," in Thematic Origins, Chapter 8

Susan G. Sterrett, "Sounds like light: Einstein's special theory of relativity and Mach's work in acoustics and aerodynamics," Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, Vol. 29, pages 1-35 (1998)

Loyd S. Swenson, Jr., Genesis of Relativity, New York: Franklin, 1979.  Includes the 19th-century background.

Section 30.3   Einstein's Formulation (1905)

David Cassidy, "Understanding the History of Special Relativity," Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, Vol. 16, pages 177-195 (1986).  A review of historical writings.

Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld, The Evolution of Physics from Early Concepts to Relativity and Quanta, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966

Arthur I. Miller,  Albert Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity: Emergence (1905) and Early Interpretation (1905-1911), New York: Springer-Verlag, 1997 (corrected reprint of the 1981 edition).  Includes a new translation of the 1905 paper. 

Section 30.7   Consequences and examples

J. C. Hafele and R. E. Keating, "Around‑the‑world atomic clocks," Science, Vol. 177, pages 166‑170 (1972). Four cesium beam atomic clocks were flown on commercial jet flights around the world twice, once eastward and once westward. Relativity theory predicts that the clocks compared with reference clocks at the U.S. Naval Observatory, should have lost 40 + 23 nanoseconds during the eastward trip, and gained 276 + 21 nanoseconds during the westward trip; it was found that they lost 59 + 10 nanoseconds and gained 273 + 7 nanoseconds, respectively, thus confirming the theory of the "twin paradox."  For further discussion see R.  Schlegel, American Journal of Physics, Vol. 42, pages 183-187 (1974). 

Gerald Holton et al., Special Relativity Theory, selected Reprints, New York: American Institute of Physics. Includes the article "On the origins of the special theory of relativity" and the annotated bibliography prepared by G. Holton, and reprints of 15 other articles on the clock (twin) paradox and other aspects of relativity.

Section 30.8   The equivalence of mass and energy

Francisco Flores, "Einstein's 1935 derivation of E = mc²," Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, Vol. 29, pages 223-243 (1998)

Section 30.9   Relativistic quantum mechanics

Peter Galison, "Feynman's war: Modelling weapons, modelling nature," Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, Vol. 29, pages 391-434 (1998)

Helge Kragh, Dirac: A scientific biography, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990

Dalida Monti, "Dirac's holes model: From proton to positron," Nuncius, Vol. 20, pages 99-130 (1995)

Section 30.10   The general theory of relativity

S. G. Brush, "Prediction and theory evaluation: The case of light bending," Science, Vol. 246, pages 1124-1129 (1989)

Leo Corry, Jürgen Renn and John Stachel, "Belated decision in the Hilbert-Einstein priority dispute," Science, Vol. 278, pages 1270-1273 (1997).  Newly-discovered evidence that Einstein arrived at the equations of general relativity first.

John Earman and Clark Glymour, "Relativity and eclipses: The British eclipse expeditions of 1919 and their predecessors," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, Vol. 11, pages 49-85 (1980); "The Gravitational Red Shift as a Test of General Relativity Theory: History and Analysis," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Vol. 11, pages 175-214 (1980)

John Earman, Michel Janssen and John D. Norton (editors), The Attraction of Gravitation: New Studies in the History of General Relativity, Boston: Birkhäuser, 1993

H. Goenner, T. Sauer, J. Renn and J. Ritter (editors), The Expanding Worlds of General Relativity, Boston: Birkhäuser, 1998

Klaus Hentschel, "Measurements of gravitational red shift between 1959 and 1971," Annals of Science, Vol. 53, pages 269-295 (1996)

Jarrett Leplin (editor), The Creation of Ideas in Physics: Studies for a Methodology of Theory Construction, Boston: Kluwer, 1995.  Includes papers by J. D. Norton, J. Stachel, R. Torretti and J. Dorling on Einstein's relativity theory, pages 29-111

J. D. North, The Measure of the Universe, a History of Modern Cosmology, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965

Arthur I. Miller, "Einstein's first steps toward General Relativity: Gedanken Experiments and axiomatics," Physics in Perspective, Vol. 1, pages 85-104 (1999).

Jürgen Renn, Tilman Sauer and John Stachel, "The Origin of Gravitational Lensing: A postscript to Einstein's 1935 Science paper," Science, Vol. 275, pages 184-186 (1997).  Shows that he explored the possibility of lensing 3 years before completing his General Theory.

N. T. Roseveare, Mercury's Perihelion from Le Verrier to Einstein, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979.

R. Ruffini and J. A. Wheeler, "Introducing the black hole," Physics Today, January 1971, pages 30-41 (and cover illustration).

K. S. Thorne, Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy, New York: Norton, 1994

Virginia Trimble and Lodewijk Woltjer, "Quasars at 25," Science, volume 234, pages 155-161 (1986), describes the evidence that the energy source for a quasar is accretion onto a massive black hole.

C. M. Will, "Einstein on the firing line," Physics Today, Vol. 25, No. 10, pages 23‑29 (October 1972). A survey of tests of general relativity and similar theories; Was Einstein Right?: Putting General Relativity to the Test, New York: Basic Books, 1986.

Frank Wilczek, "The persistence of ether," Physics Today, Vol. 52, no. 1, pages 11, 13 (January 1999).  "At present, renamed and thinly disguised, [ether] dominates the accepted laws of physics" contrary to popular belief that Einstein "swept it into the dustbin of history."

Chapter 31. The Origin of the Solar System and the Expanding Universe    Back to top

David H. DeVorkin, History of Modern Astronomy

Owen Gingerich (ed.),  General History of Astronomy, vol. 4, Part A, Astrophysics and Twentieth-Century Astronomy to 1950.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

Kenneth R. Lang and Owen Gingerich (editors),  Source Book in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 1900-1975,  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979.

M. K. Munitz (editor),  Theories of the Universe,  New York: Free Press, 1957, pages 302-439, extracts from writings of W. de Sitter, G. Lemaitre, G. Gamow, H. Bondi, F. Hoyle and others.

Section 31.1   The nebular hypothesis

S. G. Brush, "Finding the Age of the Earth: By Physics or by Faith?" Journal of Geological Education, Vol. 30, pages 34-58 (1982)

S. G. Brush,  A History of Modern Planetary Physics

Section 31.2   Planetesimal and tidal theories

T. C. Chamberlin, Origin of the Earth, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1916

J. H. Jeans, "The evolution of the solar system," Endeavour, Vol. 2, pages 3-11 (January 1943)

Section 31.3  Revival of monistic theories after 1940

Alex N. Halliday and Michael J. Drake, "Colliding theories," Science, Vol. 283, pages 1861-1863 (1999), review of current theories on origin of earth and moon

Katherine Haramundanis (editor), Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: An Autobiography and other Recollections, second edition, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996

Cecilia H. Payne, "Astrophysical data bearing on the relative abundance of the elements," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, Vol. 11, pages 192-198 (1925)

Frank A. Podosek, "A couple of uncertain age," Science, Vol. 283, pages 1863-1864 (1999), review of current estimates of the ages of earth and moon

Section 31.4   Nebulae and Galaxies

Richard Berendzen, Richard Hart, and Daniel Seeley,  Man Discovers the Galaxies.  New York: Science History, 1976.

Michael Hoskin,  "The 'Great Debate': What Really Happened?"  Journal for the History of Astronomy 7: 169-182 (1976).

J.H. Oort, "The development of our insight into the structure of the galaxy between 1920 and 1940," in Education in and History of Modern Astronomy (edited by R. Berendzen), pages 255-266, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. 198, pages 255-266 (1972)

Harlow Shapley, "On the existence of external galaxies," Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 31, pages 261-268 (1919)

Harlow Shapley, Through Rugged Ways to the Stars, New York: Scribner, 1969 (reminiscences about his galactic research and interactions with other astronomers)

Harlow Shapley and Heber D. Curtis, "The scale of the universe," Bulletin of the National Research Council, Vol. 2, no. 11 (1921)

Robert W. Smith,  The Expanding Universe: Astronomy's "Great Debate" 1900-1931, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982

Section 31.5  The expanding universe

Jeremy Bernstein and Gerald Feinberg (editors), Cosmological Constants: Papers in Modern Cosmology, New York: Columbia University Press, 1986

Gale E. Christiansen, Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995

E. P. Hubble, The Realm of the Nebulae, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1936

Allan Sandage, "Inventing the beginning," Science 84, Vol. 5, no. 9, pages 111-113 (1984)

Virginia Trimble, "H0: The incredible shrinking constant, 1925-1975," Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol 108, pages 1073-1082 (1996); "Extragalactic distance scales: H0 from Hubble (Edwin) to Hubble (Hubble Telescope), Space Science Reviews, Vol. 79, pages 793-834 (1997).

Section 31.6  Lemaître's primeval atom

Michael Heller, Lemaître, Big Bang, and the Quantum Universe, Tucson, AZ: Pachart, 1996

Georges Lemaître, "The Beginning of the World from the Point of View of the Quantum Theory,"  Nature, Vol. 127, page 706 (1931); The Primeval Atom.  New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1950. 

Chapter 32. Construction of the elements and the universe    Back to top

Section 32.1   Nuclear physics in the 1930s

Laurie M. Brown and Helmut Rechenberg, The Origin of the Concept of Nuclear Forces, Philadelphia: Institute of Physics Publishing, 1996.

Erwin N. Hiebert, "The role of experiment and theory in the development of nuclear physics in the early 1930s," in Theory and Experiment (edited by D. Batens and J. P. van Bendegem), pages 55-76, Boston: Reidel, 1988

Jeff Hughes, "'Modernists with a vengeance: Changing cultures of theory in nuclear science, 1920-1930," Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, Vol. 29, pages 339-367 (1998)

Arthur I. Miller,  "Werner Heisenberg and the Beginnings of Nuclear Physics,"  Physics Today, Vol. 38, no. 11: 60-68 (1985). Roger H. Stuewer, "Artificial Disintegration and the Cambridge-Vienna Controversy," in Observation, Experiment, and Hypothesis in Modern Physical Science, edited by P. Achinstein and O. Hannaway, pp. 239-307; "Mass-Energy and the Neutron in the Early Thirties," Science in Context, Vol. 6, pages 195-238 (1993)

Section 32.2   Formation of the elements in stars

Jeremy Bernstein,  Prophet of Energy: Hans Bethe,  New York: Dutton, 1981;  "Three Degrees above Zero."  New Yorker, Vol. 60, no. 2, pages 42-70 (1984). A profile of R. W. Wilson and A. A. Penzias.

Donald D. Clayton, "Radiogenic iron," Meteoritics and Planetary Science, Vol. 34, pages A145-A160 (1999).  Historical review of the idea that most of the iron in the universe was created and rejected from stars not as iron but as radioactive nickel.  

Karl Hufbauer, "Astronomers take up the stellar-energy problem."  Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, Vol. 11, pages 277-303 (1981).

Section 32.3   Fission and the atomic bomb

Hanne Andersen, "Categorization, anomalies and the discovery of nuclear fission," Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, Vol. 27, pages 463-492 (1996)

Jeremy Bernstein (ed.), Hitler's Uranium Club: The Secret Recordings at Farm Hall.  New York: AIP Press, 1996.  Includes evidence that the project led by Heisenberg failed to produce an atomic bomb because of technical inadequacies rather than a morally-grounded refusal to make this weapon available to Hitler.

Hans G. Graetzer and David L. Anderson, The Discovery of Nuclear Fission, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1971

L. R. Morss and J. Fuger (editors), Transuranium Elements: A Half Century, Washington, DC: American Chemical Society, 1992, articles by G. T. Seaborg and others

Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb,  New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987.

Glenn T. Seaborg and Walter D. Loveland, The Elements beyond Uranium, New York: Wiley, 1990

Robert Serber, The Los Alamos Primer: The First Lectures on How to Build and Atomic Bomb, edited with an Introduction by Richard Rhodes,  Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.

Ruth Sime,  Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics,  Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.

C. P. Snow, "A new means of destruction," Discovery, new series, Vol. 2, no. 18, pages 443-444 (September 1939)

Section 32.4   Big Bang or Steady State?

Ralph A. Alpher and Robert C. Herman, "Origins of Primordial Nucleosynthesis and Prediction of Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation."  In Encyclopedia of Cosmology, edited by N. S. Hetherington, pages 453-475.  New York: Garland, 1993. 

Jeremy Bernstein and Gerald Feinberg (eds.),  Cosmological Constants: Papers in Modern Cosmology.  New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.

Geoffrey Burbidge, Fred Hoyle, and Jayant Narlikar, "A different approach to cosmology," Physics Today, Vol. 52, no. 4, pages 38-44 (April 1999). Summary: "In this unorthodox assault on mainstream cosmology, three venerable stalwarts argue for a quasi-steady-state universe, with some quasars quite nearby and no Big Bang."  Followed by Andreas Albrecht, "A reply to "A Different Approach to Cosmology," ibid., pages 44-46; summary: "Expanding surveys and galaxy redshifts and fluctuations in the microwave background continue to rein in the cosmologist's freedom to invent."

C. M. Copp,  "Relativistic Cosmology. I. Paradigm Commitment and Rationality" and " ... II. Social Structure, Skepticism, and Cynicism,"  Astronomy Quarterly, Vol. 4, pages 103-116, 179-188 (1982).

Eamon Harper and David Anderson (editors), The George Gamow Symposium, San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 1996

Fred Hoyle, Home is Where the Wind Blows: Chapters from a Cosmologist's Life, Mill Valley, CA: University Science Books, 1994.

Laurie John (editor),  Cosmology Now,  London: British Broadcasting Corp., 1973.  Includes M. Ryle, "Looking with new eyes" and other views on the Steady State/Big Bang controversy.

Helge Kragh, Cosmology and Controversy: The Historical Development of Two Theories of the Universe.  Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996.    A detailed study of the Steady State vs. Big Bang debate.

Malcolm S. Longair, "Astrophysics and Cosmology," in Twentieth Century Physics (edited by L. M. Brown et al.) pages 1691-1821.

M. P. Ryan and L. C. Shepley, "Resource Letter RC-1: Cosmology," American Journal of Physics, Vol. 44, pages 223-230 (1976)

L. C. Shepley and A. A. Strassenburg (eds.),  Cosmology: Selected Reprints.  Stony Brook, NY: American Association of Physics Teachers, 1979. 

Virginia Trimble, "Extra galactic distance scales: H0 from Hubble (Edwin) to Hubble (Hubble Telescope), Space Science Reviews, Vol. 79, pages 793-834 (1997)

Section 32.5   Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Radiation

Stephen G. Brush,  "Prediction and Theory Evaluation: Cosmic Microwaves and the Revival of the Big Bang,"  Perspectives on Science, Vol. 1, pages 565-602 (1993).  

Virginia Trimble, "Backgrounds and the Big Bang: Some extracts from their history," in Examining the Big Bang and Diffuse Background Radiation (edited by M. Kafatos and Y. Kondon), pages 9-16, Boston: Kluwer, 1996.

Section 32.6   Beyond the Big Bang

J. D. Barrow and F. J. Tipler, F. J.,  The Anthropic Cosmological Principle,  New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.

James Glanz, "No backing off from the accelerating universe," and "Cosmic motion revealed: Astronomers peered deep into the universe and found that it is flying apart ever faster, suggesting that Einstein was right when he posited a mysterious energy that fills 'empty' space," Science, Vol. 282, pages 1249-1251, 2156-2157 (1998)

Michael S. Turner and J. Anthony Tyson, "Cosmology at the millennium," in More Things in Heaven and Earth (edited by B. Bederson), pages 245-277

Chapter 33. Thematic elements and styles in science   Back to top

James Clerk Maxwell, "Molecules," reprinted in Maxwell on Molecules and Gases (edited by E. Garber et al.), with drafts and commentary, pages 133-154

Section 33.1   The thematic element in science

E. J. Dijksterhuis, The Mechanization of the World Picture, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961.

Gerald Holton, Thematic Origins, Chapter 1;  The Scientific Imagination, Chapters 1 and 4;  Science and Anti-Science

Bertrand Russell, Human Knowledge, London: Allen and Unwin, 1948.

Section 33.2   Themata in the history of science

F. M. Cornford, Principium Sapientiae, London: Cambridge University Press, 1952.

Gerald Holton, "The role of themata in science," Foundations of Physics, Vol. 26, pages 453-465 (1996)

Section 33.3   Styles of thought in science and culture

Charles Altieri, "The concept of force as modernist response to the authority of science," Modernism/Modernity, Vol. 5, no. 2, pages 77-93 (1998), on Hegel.

Stephen G. Brush, The Temperature of History: Phases of Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century, New York: Franklin, 1978; "The Chimerical Cat: Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics in Historical Perspective," Social Studies of Science, Vol. 10, pages 393-447 (1980).

Kenneth L. Caneva, "Physics and Naturphilosophie: A reconnaissance," History of Science, Vol. 35, pages 35-106 (1997)

Craig Dilworth, "Empiricism vs. Realism: High points in the debate during the past 150 years," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Vol. 21, pages 431-462 (1990)

Ian Hacking, "The Disunities of the Sciences," in The Disunity of Science, edited by P. Galison and D. J. Stump, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996, pages 37-74

Gerald Holton, Thematic Origins, Chapter 3

John Losee, Philosophy of Science and Historical Enquiry, New York: Oxford University Press, chapter 8

James W. McAllister, Beauty and Revolution in Science, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996.

Robert K. Merton, "Thematic Analysis in Science: Notes on Holton's Concept," Science, vol. 188, pages 335-338 (1975)

J. T. Merz, History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century, Edinburgh: Blackwood, 4 vols., 1904-1914.

Richard Olson, editor, Science as Metaphor: The Historical Role of Scientific Theories in forming Western Culture, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1971.

Jacob Opper, Science and the Arts: A Study in Relationships from 1600-1900, Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1973.

E. Rosen, Three Copernican Treatises, New York: Dover Publications, 1959, page 29.

Dorothy Ross, editor, Modernist Impulses in the Human Sciences, 1870-1930, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1994, especially the article by T. M. Porter on Fin de siècle philosophy of physics.

Meyer Schapiro, "Style," in Anthropology Today, edited by A. L. Kroeber, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pages 287-312

Section 33.4  Epilogue

Alistair Crombie, Styles of Scientific Thinking in the European Tradition, London: Duckworth, 1994, Volumes I and II

Appendix    Back to top

Arlie Bailey, "Units, Standards, and Constants," in L. M. Brown et al. (eds.), Twentieth Century Physics, Chapter 16.

T. B. Coplen, for the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Commission on Atomic Weights and Isotopic Abundances, "Atomic Weights of the Elements 1995," Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data, Vol. 26, pages 1239-1253 (1997). 

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Commission on Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry, "Recommendations for the Naming of Elements of Atomic Numbers greater than 100 (Rules Approved 1978)" Pure and Applied Chemistry, vol. 31, pages 381-384 (1979)

Mario Iona, "SI units," in Macmillan Encyclopedia of Physics (edited by J. S. Rigden), pages 1438-1443.

Peter J. Mohr & Barry N. Taylor, "CODATA Recommended Values of the Fundamental Physical Constants: 1998,"  Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data, Vol. 28, pages 1713-1852 (1999)

Standard for Use of the International System of Units (SI): The Modern Metric System.  New York: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/West Conshohocken, PA: American Society for Testing and Materials, 1997.

3. General Bibliography    Back to top

We list here books (and a few articles) that have been cited in more than one chapter (Recommended Reading or Sources), or are of general interest for students of the history of physical science.  A good small college library should have almost all of them, even if not in the latest edition. 

Alioto, Anthony M., A History of Western Science, second edition, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1993.

Aristotle, On the Heavens [De Caelo], translated by W. K. C. Guthrie, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960.

Bederson, Benjamin (editor), More Things in Heaven and Earth: A Celebration of Physics at the Millennium, New York: Springer Verlag, 1999. A collection of review articles, some historical.

Ben-David, Joseph, The Scientist's Role in Society: A Comparative Study, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.

Bensaude-Vincent, Bernadette and Stengers, Isabelle, A History of Chemistry, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996.

Blay, Michel, Reasoning with the Infinite: From the Closed World to the Mathematical Universe.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Boas, Marie, see Hall, Marie Boas

Boorse, H. A. and Motz, L. (editors), The World of the Atom.  New York: Basic Books, 1966.

Bridgman, P. W., The Logic of Modern Physics, New York: Macmillan, 1960.

Brock, William H., The Norton History of Chemistry, New York: Norton, 1993

Brown, Laurie M., Pais, Abraham, and Pippard, Brian (editors), Twentieth Century Physics, Philadelphia: Institute of Physics Publishing, 1995.

Brush, Stephen G., A History of Modern Planetary Physics, 3 vols., New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996

Brush, Stephen G. (editor), History of Physics: Selected Reprints, College Park, MD: American Association of Physics Teachers, 1988.

Brush, Stephen G., The Kind of Motion we call Heat: A History of the Kinetic Theory of Gases in the 19th Century, Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1986

Brush, Stephen G. (editor), Kinetic Theory, Vol. 1, The Nature of Gases and of Heat; Vol. 2, Irreversible Processes; Vol. 3, The Chapman-Enskog Solution of the Transport Equation for Moderately Dense Gases, New York: Pergamon Press, 1965-1972

Brush, Stephen G. (editor), Resources for the History of Physics, Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1972.

Brush, Stephen G., Statistical Physics and the Atomic Theory of Matter, from Boyle and Newton to Landau and Onsager, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983

Brush, Stephen G., and Belloni, L., The History of Modern Physics: An International Bibliography, New York: Garland, 1983.

Buchwald, Jed Z. (editor), Scientific Practice: Theories and Stories of Doing Physics, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995

Butterfield, Herbert, Origins of Modern Science, 1300-1800.  Revised edition.  New York: Free Press, 1997.

Cardwell, D. S. L., From Watt to Clausius: The Rise of Thermodynamics in the Early Industrial Age, Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1989

Cohen, I. Bernard, The Birth of a New Physics, revised & updated edition, New York: Norton,  new edition, 1985. 

Cohen, I. Bernard, An Introduction to Newton's Principia, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971

Cohen, I. Bernard, The Newtonian Revolution, With Illustrations of the Transformation of Scientific Ideas, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980

Cohen, I. Bernard and Westfall, Richard S. (editors), Newton: Texts, Backgrounds, Commentaries, New York: Norton, 1995.

Collingwood, R. G., The Idea of Nature, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964.

Conant, J. B. (editor), Harvard Case Histories in Experimental Science, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966

Conant, J. B., Science and Common Sense, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1961

Conant, J. B., On Understanding Science, New York: New American Library, 1951.

Crease, Robert P., and C. Mann, Charles C., The Second Creation: Makers of the Revolution in 20th-century Physics, revised edition, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996. 

Crombie, A. C., Medieval and Early Modern Science, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967.

Crombie, A. C., Science, Art and Nature in Medieval and Modern Thought, London: Hambledon Press, 1996.

Crowe, Michael J., Modern Theories of the Universe from Herschel to Hubble, New York: Dover, 1994.

Crowe, Michael J., Theories of the World from Antiquity to the Copernican Revolution, New York: Dover, 1990.

Cushing, J. T., Philosophical Concepts in Physics: The Historical Relation between Philosophy and Scientific Theories, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998

Davis, E. A. (editor), Science in the Making: Scientific Development as Chronicled by Historic Papers in the Philosophical Magazine, Levittown, PA: Taylor & Francis, 1995-1999.  Four volumes covering 1798-1998.

Dear, Peter (editor), The Scientific Enterprise in Early Modern Europe: Readings from Isis, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.

Densmore, Dana, Newton's Principia: The Central Argument, translation, notes & expanded proofs by Dana Densmore; translation and illustrations by W. H. Donahue, Santa Fe, NM: Green Lion Press, 1995.

DeVorkin, David, The History of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics: A Selected, annotated Bibliography, New York: Garland, 1982.

Dijksterhuis, E. J., The Mechanization of the World Picture, translated by C. Dikshoorn, New York: Oxford University Press, 1969

Drake, Stillman (editor and translator), Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo, Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1957

Drake, Stillman, Galileo, New York: Hill and Wang, 1980

Dugas, René, History of Mechanics, New York: Dover, 1988.

Dugas, René, Mechanics in the 17th Century, New York: Central Book Co., 1958.

Duhem, Pierre, Aim and Structure of Physical Theory, translated by P. P. Wiener, New York: Atheneum, 1962.

Einstein, Albert, "Autobiographical Notes," in Albert Einstein Philosopher-Scientist (edited by P. A. Schilpp), pages 1-95, La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1970; also reprinted as a separate book, Autobiographical Notes: A Centennial Edition, Chicago: Open Court, 1991

Einstein, Albert, Collected Papers, edited by John Stachel et al., Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987-

Einstein, Albert, Ideas and Opinions, translated by Sonja Bargmann, New York: Modern Library, 1994.

Einstein, Albert, Relativity: The Special and the General Theory, translated by R. W. Lawson, second edition, New York: Crown, 1995.

Einstein, Albert, and Infeld, Leopold, The Evolution of Physics, from early concepts to Relativity and Quanta, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966

Everdell, William R., The First Moderns: Profiles in the Origins of 20th-Century Thought, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997

Everitt, C. W. F., James Clerk Maxwell, Physicist and Natural Philosopher, New York: Scribner, 1975

Feynman, Richard P., The Character of Physical Law, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1973.

Frank, Phillipp, Einstein, His Life and Times, New York: Da Capo Press, 1979

French, A. P. and Greenslade, T. B., Jr. (editors), Physics History from AAPT Journals, II, College Park, MD: American Association of Physics Teachers, 1995.

Freund, Ida, The Study of Chemical Composition, An Account of its Method and Historical Development, New York: Dover, 1968

Galileo Galilei, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, translated with revised notes by S. Drake, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1967

Galileo Galilei, Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo, translated with notes by S. Drake, Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1957

Galileo Galilei, Two New Sciences, Including Centers of Gravity & Force of Percussion, translated by S. Drake, second edition, Toronto: Wall & Thompson, 1989

Galison, Peter, How Experiments End, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987

Galison, Peter, Image and Logic: A Historical Culture of Microphysics, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.

Garber, Elizabeth, The Language of Physics: The Calculus and the Development of Theoretical Physics in Europe, 1750-1914, Boston: Birkhäuser, 1999

Garber, Elizabeth, Brush, Stephen G., and Everitt, C. W. F. (editors), Maxwell on Molecules and Gases, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986

Geymonat, Ludovico, Galileo Galilei, A Biography and Inquiry into his Philosophy of Science, translated by S. Drake, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965

Gillispie, C. C. (editor), Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vols. 1-16, New York: Scribner, 1970-80; supplements, Vols. 17-18 (1990) edited by F. L. Holmes

Gjertsen, D., The Newton Handbook, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986

Grant, Edward, The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional, and Intellectual Contexts, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996

Hall, A. Rupert, From Galileo to Newton, 1630-1720, New York: Dover, 1981

Hall, A. Rupert, The Revolution in Science 1500-1750, New York: Longman, 1983

Hall, A. Rupert, and Hall, Marie Boas, A Brief History of Science, Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1988

Hall, Marie Boas (editor), Nature and Nature's Laws: Documents of the Scientific Revolution, New York: Harper & Row, 1970

Hall, Marie Boas, The Scientific Renaissance 1450-1630, New York: Harper, 1966

Hanson, Norwood Russell, Constellations and Conjectures, Boston: Reidel, 1973

Harman, P. M., Energy, Force, and Matter: The Conceptual Development of Nineteenth-Century Physics, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982

Heilbron, J. L., Elements of Early Modern Physics, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982

Heilbron, J. L., and B. R. Wheaton, B. R., Literature on the History of Physics in the 20th Century, Berkeley, CA: University of California, Office for the History of Science and Technology, 1981

Henry, John, The Scientific Revolution and the Origins of Modern Science, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997

Hetherington, Norriss S. (editor), Cosmology: Historical, Literary, Philosophical, Religious, and Scientific Perspectives, New York: Garland, 1993

Hetherington, Norriss S. (editor), Encyclopedia of Cosmology: Historical, Philosophical, and Scientific Foundations of Modern Cosmology, New York: Garland, 1993.

Hoffmann, Dieter, Bevilacqua, Fabio, and Stuewer, Roger H. (editors), The Emergence of Modern Physics, Pavia, Italy: Universita degli Studi di Pavia, 1996.

Holmes, F. L. (editor), Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Supplement II (Vols. 17 & 18), New York: Scribner, 1990, includes biographies of scientists who died since 1970.

Holton, Gerald, The Advancement of Science and its Burdens, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998.

Holton, Gerald, Einstein, History, and other Passions: The Rebellion against Science at the End of the Twentieth Century, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1996.

Holton, Gerald, The Scientific Imagination, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998.

Holton, Gerald, Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought, Kepler to Einstein, revised edition, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988.

Hoskin, Michael (editor), The Cambridge Illustrated History of Astronomy, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Howson, Colin (editor), Method and Appraisal in the Physical Sciences, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1976.

Ihde, Aaron J., The Development of Modern Chemistry, New York: Harper & Row, 1964.

Jacob, James R., The Scientific Revolution: Aspirations and Achievements, 1500-1700, Amherst, NY: Humanity Books, 1999.

Jammer, Max, Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics, second edition, New York: Tomash/American Institute of Physics, 1989.

Jungnickel, Christa, and McCormmach, Russell Intellectual Mastery of Nature, Vol. I, The Torch of Mathematics 1800-1870; Vol. 2, The Now Mighty Theoretical Physics 1870-1925, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986.

Kepler, Johannes, The Harmony of the World, translated with introduction and notes by E. J. Aiton, A. M. Duncan and J. V. Field, Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1997 (Memoirs, Vol. 209)

Kevles, Daniel J., The Physicists: The History of a Scientific Community in Modern America, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995.

Kitcher, Philip, The Advancement of Science: Science without Legend, Objectivity without Illusions, New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Knight, David, Ideas in Chemistry, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992.

Koyré, Alexandre, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1968.

Koyré, Alexandre, Metaphysics and Measurement, New York: Gordon & Breach, 1992.

Koyré, Alexandre, Newtonian Studies, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965.

Krige, John, and Pestre, Dominique (editors), Science in the 20th Century, Amsterdam: Harwood Academic, 1997.

Kuhn, Thomas S., The Copernican Revolution, New York: Fine Communications, 1997.

Kuhn, Thomas S., The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977.

Kuhn, Thomas S., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Lang, Kenneth R., and Gingerich, Owen (editors), Source Book in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 1900-1975, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979.

Lankford, John (editor), History of Astronomy: An Encyclopedia, New York: Garland, 1997.

Leverington, David, A History of Astronomy, from 1890 to the present, New York: Springer-Verlag, 1995.

Lightman, Alan, Great Ideas in Physics, second edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997.

Lindberg, David, The Beginnings of Western Science, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Lindberg, David, Theories of Vision from al-Kindi to Kepler, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.

Lodge, Oliver, Pioneers of Science, and the Development of their Scientific Theories, New York: Dover, 1960.

Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe, translated by Ronald Melville from De Rerum Natura, with introduction and notes by Don and Peta Fowler, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.

Mach, Ernst, Popular Scientific Lectures, translated by T. J. McCormack, Chicago: Open Court, 1986.

Mach, Ernst, The Science of Mechanics, translated by T. J. McCormack, sixth edition, LaSalle, IL: Open Court, 1960.

Machamer, Peter (editor), The Cambridge Companion to Galileo, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Mauskopf, Seymour H. (editor), Chemical Sciences in the Modern World, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.

Mason, Stephen F., A History of the Sciences, new revised edition, New York: Collier Books, 1962.

Maxwell, James Clerk, Maxwell on Molecules and Gases (edited by E. Garber et al.), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986.

Maxwell, James Clerk, The Scientific Letters and Papers (edited by P. M. Harman), New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990-

McClellan, James E., III, and Dorn, Harold, Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.

McKenzie, A. E. E., The Major Achievements of Science, Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1988.

Merton, Robert K., "Singletons and Multiples in Scientific Discovery," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 57, pages 1-23 (1969)

Merton, Robert K., The Sociology of Science, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973.

Moyer, Albert E., American Physics in Transition, Los Angeles: Tomash, 1983.

Moyer, Albert E., "History of Physics" [in 20th century America], Osiris, new series, Vol. 2, pages 163-182 (1985)

Newton, Isaac, Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections & Colours of Light, based on the fourth edition (1730), New York: Dover, 1979.

Newton, Isaac, Newton's Philosophy of Nature, selections from his writings, edited and arranged with notes by H. S. Thayer, New York: Hafner, 1953.

Newton, Isaac, The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, translated by I. B. Cohen and Anne Whitman, with the assistance of Julia Budenz, preceded by a Guide to Newton's Principia by I. B. Cohen, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.

North, John, Norton History of Astronomy and Cosmology, New York: Norton, 1995.

Nye, Mary Jo, Before Big Science: The Pursuit of Modern Chemistry and Physics 1800-1940, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.

Nye, Mary Jo, From Chemical Philosophy to Theoretical Chemistry: Dynamics of Matter and Dynamics of Disciplines, 1800-1950, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993.

Olby, R. C., Cantor, G. N., Christie, J. R. R., and Hodge, M. J. S. (editors), Companion to the History of Modern Science, New York: Routledge, 1996.

Pauli, Wolfgang, et al. (editors), Niels Bohr and the Development of Physics, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965.

Planck, Max, Scientific Autobiography and other Papers, translated by F. Gaynor, New York: Greenwood Press, 1968.

Plato, Phaedon, translated by D. Gallop, New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Poincaré, Henri, Science and Hypothesis, New York: Dover, 1952.

Poincaré, Henri, Science and Method, translated by F. Maitland, New York: Dover, 1952.

Poincaré, Henry, The Value of Science, translated by G. B. Halsted, New York: Dover, 1958.

Popper, Karl, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, second edition, New York: Basic Books, 1965.

Popper, Karl, Logic of Scientific Discovery, New York: Basic Books, 1959.

Purrington, Robert D., Physics in the Nineteenth Century, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997.

Pyenson, Lewis, and Sheets-Pyenson, Susan, Servants of Nature: A History of Scientific Institutions, Enterprises and Sensibilities.  New York: Norton, 1999.

Rayner-Canham, Marelene, and Rayner-Canham, Geoffrey W. (editors), A Devotion to their Science: Pioneer Women of Radioactivity, Philadelphia: Chemical Heritage Foundation, 1997.

Rigden, John S. (editor), Macmillan Encyclopedia of Physics, four volumes, New York: Macmillan Reference USA/Simon & Schuster Macmillan, 1996.

Ronan, Colin A., Science: Its History and Development among the World's Cultures, New York: Facts on File, 1982.  

Sambursky, S., Physical Thought from the Presocratics to the Quantum Physicists: An Anthology, New York: Pica, 1975.

Sarton, George, The Study of the History of Science, New York: Dover, 1957.

Schilpp, P. A. (editor), Albert Einstein Philosopher-Scientist, La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1970.

Schirmacher, Wolfgang (editor), German Essays on Science in the 20th Century, New York: Continuum, 1996.

Schlagel, Richard H., From Myth to Modern Mind: A Study of the Origins and Growth of Scientific Thought, Vol. 1, Theogony through Ptolemy, Vol. 2, Copernicus through Quantum Mechanics, New York: Peter Lang, 1996.

Schneer, Cecil J., The Evolution of Physical Science, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1984.

Schneer, Cecil J., Mind and Matter: Man's Changing Concepts of the Material World, Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1988.

Schorn, Ronald A., Planetary Astronomy: From Ancient Times to the Third Millenium, College Station, TX: Texas A & M University Press, 1998.

Segrè, Emilio, From X-Rays to Quarks: Modern Physicists and their Discoveries, San Francisco: Freeman, 1980.

Serres, M. (editor), A History of Scientific Thought, Oxford: Blackwell, 1995.

Solomon, Joan, The Structure of Matter: The Growth of Man's Ideas on the Nature of Matter, New York: Wiley/Halsted, 1974.

Stroke, H. Henry (editor), The Physical Review: The First Hundred Years. A Selection of Seminal Papers and Commentaries, Woodbury, NY: AIP Press, 1995.

Suplee, Curt, Physics in the 20th Century, New York: Abrams, 1999.

Tomonaga, Sin-itiro, The Story of Spin, translated by T. Oka., Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Torrance, John (editor), The Concept of Nature, New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Toulmin, Stephen, and Goodfield, June, The Architecture of Matter, New York: Harper, 1977.

Toulmin, Stephen, and Goodfield, June, The Fabric of the Heavens, New York: Harper, 1965.

Truesdell, C., Essays in the History of Mechanics, New York: Springer-Verlag, 1968.

Van Helden, Albert, Measuring the Universe: Cosmic Dimensions from Aristarchus to Halley, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Weart, Spencer R., and Phillips, Melba (editors), History of Physics: Readings from Physics Today, Number Two, New York: American Institute of Physics, 1985.

Weaver, Jefferson Hane (editor), The World of Physics: A small Library of the Literature of Physics from Antiquity to the Present, three volumes, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987.

Westfall, Richard S., The Life of Isaac Newton, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Wheaton, Bruce R., The Tiger and the Shark: Empirical Roots of Wave-Particle Dualism, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Whitehead, Alfred North, Science and the Modern World, New York: Free Press, 1967.

Whittaker, E. T., A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity, Volume I, The Classical Theories; Vol. II, The Modern Theories, New York: Tomash Publishers and American Institute of Physics, 1987.

Yoder, Joella G., Unrolling Time: Christiaan Huygens and the Mathematization of Nature, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Zajonc, Arthur, Catching the Light: The Entwined History of Light and Mind, New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

4. Answers to Selected Numerical Problems

1.1       Upper limit for circumference, 260,000 stadia; for radius, 41,500 stadia. Lower limit for circumference, 240,100 stadia; for radius, 38,300 stadia. For results in miles, divide each number by 10.

1.3       Least distance = 114 AU; α Centauri, 4,500 AU

2.4       For the minimum distance from earth to Venus, using data available to Copernicus gives the distance gives about 2 x 106 km; from modern data this is about 4.13 x 107 km.

4.2       Approximately 0.12

4.4       Saturn 9.66 AU (modern value 9.539); Venus 0.825 AU (0.723)

6.4       (a)75 m at 5 sec; just greater than 105 m at 7.005 sec; 150 m at 10 sec

6.7       8.3 mi/hr

6.9       2.02 sec (for the second post), 2.86 sec, 3.50 sec, 4.04 sec  

6.13      3.64 x 10-4 sec (assuming it was uniformly accelerated)

8.4       (a) +5.1 m, -34.2 m, -230.1 m; (b) +0.2 m/sec, -19.4      m/sec, -58.6 m/sec

8.5       2.02 sec

8.6       10.2 sec, 2433 m, 8820 m

9.5       25.9 kg; 0.263 m/sec

9.10      less than 10-5 N

9.13      1.56 kg

9.15      2.94 m/sec²; 127 N

9.18      -2 x 10-20 km/hr

10.2      0.7 mile

10.5      29.9 km/sec

11.6      5.38 x 1026 kg

11.9      (a) earth 5.53 x 103 kg/m3, moon 3.78 x 103 kg/m3,

              sun 1.73 x 103 kg/m3.  (c) (i) 1/6 gearth, (ii) 32 gearth

11.13     1.24 x 10-3 rad/sec, or 1 revolution in 84.5 min

11.18     A possible law is R = 2n + 1, in which case R5 = 33

16.2      (a) 10 m/sec.  (b) approx. 10-21 m/sec. (c) 12.5 x 5 N

16.3      5.351 m (independent of how fast he walks).

17.3      (a) 1. (b) 0.

17.8      (a)  0.99 m/sec. (b) 0.0495 J.  (c) 0.0245 J.

17.12     27.44 m above the floor; KE = 2.37 J, PE = 1.35 J

17.16     (b) 3/4 of the way down.

17.22     (a) 26 J.  (b) 0.77 (= 77%)

17.24     0.78 degree (C)

19.2      Volume of sample = 0.248 L.

20.2      (a) Oxynitric acid = NO3, nitrous acid = N2O3, etc.

20.11     Wood alcohol = 32.042, ethyl alcohol = 46.068, etc. 

20.15     AlCl3 + 3Na ® 3NaCl + Al

20.18     Mass of hydrogen atom = 1.67 x 10-24 g

22.1      (a) approx. 650 K.  (b) 1.25 x 1022  

22.4      At a given temperature hydrogen molecules will be traveling at a speed 3.74 times that for nitrogen molecules.

22.6      (a) 617 joule

24.9      (b) F = 9.2 x 10-8 N.  (c) The gravitational force is about 3 x 10-40 as strong as the electrostatic force. (d) 6.25 x 1018.

24.21     -3.6 x 1011 volts

26.1      207 nm for Vega; 1160 nm for Antares

26.6      Magnitude between successive steps is 3.97 x 10-19 J

27.13     (b) 0.028%

27.15     2.65 x 10-14 m

28.3      (b) 26

28.14     78,500 K

29.3      (a) ³ 1.16 x 10-4 m.  (b) ³ 1.05 x 10-35 m.  

30.11     (b) v/c = 0.86

30.14     m/m0 » 1 + 0.6 x 10-12 (your weight increases by less than one part in 1012).

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Aristotle’s Physics

Introduction, general overviews and monographs.

• Texts, Editions, Commentaries, and Translations
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• The Principles of the Things That Are by Nature ( Physics I)
• Aristotle’s Argument against the Eleatics ( Physics I.2-3 and 8)
• Nature, Matter, Form, and “the Snub” ( Physics II.1-2)
• The “Four Causes” ( Physics II.3 and 7)
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• The Argument for Teleology ( Physics II.8)
• Hypothetical Necessity ( Physics II.9)
• Change ( Physics III.1-3; See Also V and VI)
• Agency, Acting on, and Being Acted Upon ( Physics III.2-3)
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• Continuity and Continua ( Physics V.3 and VI)
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• Self-Movers and the Unmoved Mover ( Physics VII, VIII)

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Aristotle’s Physics by Lindsay Judson LAST REVIEWED: 23 November 2021 LAST MODIFIED: 23 November 2021 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195389661-0371

The word physics comes from the Greek word for nature: phusis . As Aristotle himself uses it, the Greek term translated as physics in this context refers to natural science as a whole, including cosmology, biology, chemistry and meteorology, as well as the sort of investigation of the fundamental elements of things, and the laws that govern their behavior, for which we use the term today. The work we call “Aristotle’s Physics ” was not published as a book in his own day, and it was not intended for publication as it stands. Instead, like his Metaphysics , it is a compilation—probably by Aristotle himself—of a number of separate writings: they may have been research papers and/or the basis for lectures (the ancient title for the Physics is Lectures on Natural Science , but there is no evidence that this title goes back to Aristotle). Nonetheless, the writings which make up the Physics exhibit a clear thematic unity. Aristotle explains “nature” as “an internal principle of change and rest”: change is thus central to the idea of nature as he understands it. Linked by the notions of nature and change , these writings are all concerned with foundational issues in natural science as Aristotle conceives of it. It is clear from other works that Aristotle took natural science as a whole to be a systematic body of knowledge which should be presented and studied in a systematic order (see Meteorologica I.1 338a20-26 and 333a5-9); in this order, the material in Physics comes first. Aristotle’s other works on natural science, such as De Caelo ( On the Heavens ), De Generatione et Corruptione ( On Coming to Be and Ceasing to Be ), De Anima ( On the Soul ), and De Partibus Animalium ( On the Parts of Animals ) constantly make reference, explicitly or implicitly, to notions developed and argued for in the Physics —most especially to matter and form; the four types of cause, chance, teleology, and hypothetical necessity; and the nature of change and agency. Matter and form, and the four causes, also play a key role in Aristotle’s metaphysics: see especially the so-called central books (Books Ζ, Η, and Θ), and Book Λ, chapters 1–5. The Physics is divided into eight Books (perhaps corresponding to the length of a scroll of the papyrus on which Aristotle’s works would have been written); in the Renaissance each Book was divided into chapters by the publishers of printed versions, and these are still used for ease of reference.

Perhaps because of the richness, diversity, and complexity of the material contained in the Physics , no recent systematic book-length treatments of the work as a whole are available. Bostock 1996 and Bodnár 2018 together provide a good if brief overview. Waterlow 1982 , Lear 1988 , and Shields 2007 provide good introductions to various key aspects of the Physics ; for more literature on these and other topics, see other sections.

Bodnár, István. 2018. Aristotle’s natural philosophy . In The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy Edited by Edward N. Zalta. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ.

A brief but helpful introduction to nature and motion, with a useful glossary and bibliography.

Bostock, David. 1996. Introduction. In Aristotle: Physics . Edited by Robin Waterfield and David Bostock, vii–lxxx. Oxford World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780199540280.book.1

A useful topic-by topic introduction to the Physics , with some brisk criticism of Aristotle’s views. An excellent starting point, though not the last word on any given subject. The bibliography is helpful, though now a little dated. Available online by subscription or for purchase.

Lear, Jonathan. 1988. Aristotle: The desire to understand . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.

DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511570612.002

Chapters 2–3 offer a good introductory discussion of nature, matter and form, causation, teleology, Aristotle’s response to Parmenides’s argument against change in Book I, infinity, and some of Zeno’s paradoxes of motion. Available online by subscription.

Shields, Christopher. 2007. Explaining nature and the nature of explanation. In Aristotle . By Christopher Shields, 49–115. London: Routledge.

DOI: 10.4324/9780203961940

A helpful introduction to Aristotelian explanation and the “four causes,” matter and form, and teleology.

Waterlow, Sarah. 1982. Nature, change and agency: A philosophical study . Oxford: Clarendon.

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198246534.001.0001

A much more advanced discussion, presenting a sustained argument for a sophisticated and distinctive account of how Aristotle’s general conception of a natural substance and of its “nature” explains his defense of teleology, his doctrine of natural motions and places, his accounts of agency and actuality, and his argument for a prime unmoved mover. A seminal book on Aristotle’s concepts of nature and change. Available online by subscription.

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Research and writing are integral parts of the professional work for researchers, academics, and biomedical professionals. Scientific manuscripts commonly include references to related information in literature. The inclusion of references in manuscripts substantiates arguments with evidence, as well as acknowledges the source of information being referred to. References may be cited from such a variety of sources as journals, books, conference proceedings, magazines, and newspapers, and the Internet. This chapter discusses the basic concepts related to the process of referencing as a foundation to the effective use of reference management software programs, such as EndNote.

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An annotated bibliography provides an overview of the research that has been done on a given topic. It is composed of an alphabetical list of research sources. Each source has two components:

• A reference (bibliographic data about the source), prepared in a specific citation style (e.g. APA, MLA, Chicago)
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Selecting the sources:

The quality and usefulness of your bibliography will depend on your selection of sources.

• What problem am I examining? What question(s) am I trying to explore?

If your bibliography is part of a research project, this project will probably be governed by a research question. If your bibliography is an independent project on a general topic (e.g. aboriginal women and Canadian law), try formulating your topic as a question or a series of questions in order to define your search more precisely.

• What kind of materials am I looking for? (Academic books and journal articles? Government reports or policy statements? Articles from the popular press? Primary historical sources? etc.)
• Am I finding essential studies on my topic? (Read footnotes in useful articles carefully to see what sources they use and why. Keep an eye out for studies that are referred to by several of your sources.)

Summarizing the argument of a source:

An annotation briefly restates the main argument of a source. An annotation of an academic source, for example, typically identifies its thesis (or research question, or hypothesis), its major methods of investigation, and its main conclusions. Keep in mind that identifying the argument of a source is a different task than describing or listing its contents. Rather than listing contents (see Example 1 below), an annotation should account for why the contents are there (see Example 2 below).

Example 1: Only lists contents:

McIvor, S. D. (1995). Aboriginal women's rights as "existing rights." Canadian Woman Studies/Les Cahiers de la Femme 2/3 , 34-38. This article discusses recent constitutional legislation as it affects the human rights of aboriginal women in Canada: the Constitution Act (1982), its amendment in 1983, and amendments to the Indian Act (1985). It also discusses the implications for aboriginal women of the Supreme Court of Canada's interpretation of the Constitution Act in R. v. Sparrow (1991).

Example 2: Identifies the argument:

McIvor, S. D. (1995). Aboriginal women's rights as "existing rights." Canadian Woman Studies/Les Cahiers de la Femme 2/3 , 34-38. This article seeks to define the extent of the civil and political rights returned to aboriginal women in the Constitution Act (1982), in its amendment in 1983, and in amendments to the Indian Act (1985). * This legislation reverses prior laws that denied Indian status to aboriginal women who married non-aboriginal men. On the basis of the Supreme Court of Canada's interpretation of the Constitution Act in R. v. Sparrow (1991), McIvor argues that the Act recognizes fundamental human rights and existing aboriginal rights, granting to aboriginal women full participation in the aboriginal right to self-government. ** * research question ** method & main conclusions

The following reading strategies can help you identify the argument of your source:

• Identify the author's thesis (central claim or purpose) or research question. Both the introduction and the conclusion can help you with this task.
• Look for repetition of key terms or ideas. Follow them through the text and see what the author does with them. Note especially the key terms that occur in the thesis or research question that governs the text.
• Notice how the text is laid out and organized. What are the main divisions or sections? What is emphasized? Why? Accounting for what will help you to move beyond listing contents and toward giving an account of the argument.
• Notice whether and how a theory is used to interpret evidence or data. Identify the method used to investigate the problems addressed in the text.
• Pay attention to the opening sentence(s) of each paragraph, where authors often state concisely their main point in the paragraph.
• Look for paragraphs that summarize the argument. A section may sometimes begin or conclude with such a paragraph.

Assessing the relevance and value of sources:

Your annotation should now go on to briefly assess the value of the source to an investigation of your research question or problem. If your bibliography is part of a research project, briefly identify how you intend to use the source and why. If your bibliography is an independent project, try to assess the source's contribution to the research on your topic.

• Are you interested in the way the source frames its research question or in the way it goes about answering it (its method)? Does it make new connections or open up new ways of seeing a problem?
• Are you interested in the way the source uses a theoretical framework or a key concept?
• Does the source gather and analyze a particular body of evidence that you want to use?
• How do the source's conclusions bear on your own investigation?

In order to determine how you will use the source or define its contribution, you will need to assess the quality of the argument: why is it of value? what are its limitations? how well defined is its research problem? how effective is its method of investigation? how good is the evidence? would you draw the same conclusions from the evidence?

Adapted from UTSC Writing Centre's Annotated Bibliography handout . (Based on materials originally developed for the Equity Studies Program, New College.)

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• P.W. Atkins and R.S. Friedman. Molecular Quantum Mechanics. OUP Oxford, 2011.
• P.W. Atkins and L.L. Jones. Chemistry: Molecules, Matter, and Change. W.H. Freeman and Company, 1997.
• C. Cohen-Tannoudji, B. Diu, and F. Laloë. Quantum mechanics. (Mécanique quantique). Vol. 1-2. Quantum Mechanics. Wiley, 1977.
• W. Demtröder. Atoms, Molecules and Photons: An Introduction to Atomic-, Molecular- and Quantum-physics. Advanced Texts in Physics Series. Springer-Verlag, 2006.
• W. Demtröder. Molecular Physics. Physics textbook. Wiley, 2008.
• W. Greiner. Quantum Mechanics: An Introduction. Physics and Astronomy. Springer Verlag, 2001.
• D.J. Griffiths. Introduction to quantum mechanics. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005.
• L.L.D. Landau and E.M. Lifshits. Quantum Mechanics: Non-Relativistic Theory. Butterworth-Heinemann, 1977.
• J.J. Sakurai. Advanced Quantum Mechanics. Pearson Education, Incorporated, 2006.
• J.J. Sakurai. Modern Quantum Mechanics. Pearson Education, 2006.
• N. Zettili. Quantum Mechanics: Concepts and Applications. Wiley, 2009.

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• Annotated Bibliography

PHS103 Physics Survey: Annotated Bibliography

• Finding Articles
• Citing Sources
• Evaluating Information
• Media Bias and Fact Checking

Mastering the Annotated Bibliography Video Series

A  bibliography  is a list of sources (books, journals, websites, periodicals, etc.) that someone has used for researching a topic. Bibliographies are sometimes called "References" or "Works Cited" depending on the style format being used. A bibliography usually just includes the bibliographic information (e.g. author, title, publisher, etc.). 

An  annotation  is a summary and/or evaluation.

Therefore, an  annotated bibliography  includes a summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources.

Examples & Samples

More Information on Annotated Bibliographies

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History of science, technology, & medicine.

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Finding Bibliographies

A bibliography is list of bibliographic citations, (also called Works Cited, Literature Cited, Reference List) at the end of a journal article or book that lists the sources used by an author.

Bibliographies can also be research tools that bring together in one location (either print or electronic) citations from articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, conference proceedings, primary materials, and other academic sources about a specific topic. That topic might be broad, such as "Medieval history" or very narrow, such as "Red-haired women mentioned in courtly literature."

Bibliographies can be useful for discovering additional sources for your research. Since they include many different types of sources, it is important to be able to identify the type of source from the citation, in order to locate it.

Do an Advanced Keyword search in the library catalog for your topic and combine it with bibliography in the subject field.  The term bibliography appears in multiple places in catalog records, looking for it in the subject field will limit your results to resources that have been identified as bibliographies.

Examples of Bibliographies

• Core Historical Literature of Agriculture An online collection of agricultural texts published between the early 19th century and middle-to-late 20th century.
• Environmental History Bibliography Contains over 45,000 annotated citations to books, articles, and dissertations published from 1633 to the present and is updated online quarterly. Approximately 1,000 citations are added each year.
• Information sources in the history of science and medicine Call Number: Q125 .I53 Doe Reference
• Medieval science and technology: a selected, annotated bibliography Call Number: Q124.97.A12 K73 1985 Doe Reference

• Science across cultures: an annotated bibliography of books on non-western science, technology, and medicine Call Number: Q175.5.A12 S4 1992 Main (Gardner) Stacks
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How to Write a Bibliography For a Science Fair Project

• Cell Biology
• Weather & Climate
• B.A., Biology, Emory University
• A.S., Nursing, Chattahoochee Technical College

When conducting a science fair project , it is important that you keep track of all the sources you use in your research. This includes books, magazines, journals, and Web sites. You will need to list these source materials in a bibliography . Bibliographic information is typically written in either Modern Language Association ( MLA ) or American Psychological Association (APA) format. Be sure to check with your science project instruction sheet in order to find out which method is required by your instructor. Use the format advised by your instructor.

Key Takeaways

• Keeping track of the sources used for your research is very important when completing a science fair project bibliography.
• The Modern Language Association (MLA) format is one common format used for bibliographies for science fair projects.
• The American Psychological Association (APA) format is a second common format used for science fair project bibliographies.
• Both the MLA format as well as the APA format have specified formats to use for resources like books, magazines, and websites.
• Always make sure to use the correct format, whether MLA or APA, specified in the instructions that you receive for completing your science fair project.

Here's How:

• Write the author's last name, first name and middle name or initial. End with a period.
• Write the title of the book in italics followed by a period.
• Write the place where your book was published (city) followed by a comma. The city of publication is only used when the book is published before 1900, if the publisher has offices in multiple countries or is otherwise unknown in North America.
• Write the publisher name followed by a comma.
• Write the publication date (year) followed by a period.

MLA: Magazine

• Write the author's last name, first name followed by a period.
• Write the title of the article in quotation marks. End the title with a period inside the quotation marks.
• Write the title of the magazine in italics followed by a comma.
• Write the publication date (abbreviating the month) followed by a comma and the page numbers preceded by pp. and followed by a period.

MLA: Website

• Write the name of the article or page title in quotation marks. End the title with a period inside the quotation marks.
• Write the title of the website in italics followed by a comma.
• If the name of the publisher differs from the name of the website, write the name of the sponsoring institution or publisher (if any) followed by a comma.
• Write the date published followed by a comma.
• Write the URL (website address) followed by a period.

MLA Examples:

• Here is an example for a book -- Smith, John B. Science Fair Fun . Sterling Publishing Company, 1990.
• Here is an example for a magazine -- Carter, M. "The Magnificent Ant." Nature, 4 Feb. 2014, pp. 10-40.
• Here is an example for a Web site -- Bailey, Regina. "How to Write a Bibliography For a Science Fair Project." ThoughtCo, 8 Jun. 2019, www.thoughtco.com/write-bibliography-for-science-fair-project-4056999 .
• Here is an example for a conversation -- Martin, Clara. Telephone conversation. 12 Jan. 2016.
• Write the author's last name, first initial.
• Write the year of publication in parenthesis.
• Write the title of the book or source.
• Write the place where your source was published (city, state) followed by a colon.

APA: Magazine

• Write the author's last name, first initial.
• Write the year of publication, month of publication in parenthesis .
• Write the title of the article.
• Write the title of the magazine in italics , volume, issue in parenthesis, and page numbers.

APA: Web site

• Write the year, month, and day of publication in parenthesis.
• Write Retrieved from followed by the URL.

APA Examples:

• Here is an example for a book -- Smith, J. (1990). Experiment Time. New York, NY: Sterling Pub. Company.
• Here is an example for a magazine -- Adams, F. (2012, May). House of the carnivorous plants. Time , 123(12), 23-34.
• Here is an example for a Web site -- Bailey, R. (2019, June 8). How to Write a Bibliography For a Science Fair Project. Retrieved from www.thoughtco.com/write-bibliography-for-science-fair-project-4056999.
• Here is an example for a conversation -- Martin, C. (2016, January 12). Personal Conversation.

The bibliography formats used in this listing are based on the MLA 8th Edition and APA 6th Edition.

Science Fair Projects

For additional information about science fair projects, see:

• Scientific Method
• Animal Project Ideas
• Human Body Project Ideas
• Plant Project Ideas
• Purdue Writing Lab. "APA Formatting and Style Guide." Purdue Writing Lab , owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html. 
• Purdue Writing Lab. "MLA Formatting and Style Guide." Purdue Writing Lab , owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html. 
• What Is a Citation?
• What Is a Bibliography?
• MLA Bibliography or Works Cited
• How to Write a Science Fair Project Report
• Biology Science Fair Project Ideas
• How to Organize Your Science Fair Poster
• How to Format a Biology Lab Report
• APA In-Text Citations
• Bibliography: Definition and Examples
• Science Fair Project Help
• MLA Sample Pages
• How to Select a Science Fair Project Topic
• What Judges Look for in a Science Fair Project
• Make a Science Fair Poster or Display
• Sports Science Fair Project Ideas
• How to Write a Research Paper That Earns an A

PHYS 354: Medical Physics Principles: Physics Citations

• Biomedical Optics
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Medical Physics Citation Style

Citations should be done in the format style of the journal Medical Physics .

They provide examples on their Information for Authors page . 

Read a sample issue of the Medical Physics journal  here .

Definitions

The in-text reference that gives brief details (author, date, page) of the source you are quoting or referring to. This citation corresponds with the full details of the work (title, publisher, etc) given in your reference list or bibliography, so that the reader can identify and/or find the source. 

The Medical Physics style uses a numerical superscript in-text that corresponds to the Reference List.

REFERENCE LIST

A list of references at the end of your paper that includes the full information for your citations so that the reader can easily identify and retrieve each work (journal articles, books, webpages, etc).   Your reference list contains all the items you have cited or directly quoted from.

The Medical Physics style lists publications in the order they appeared in the text.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A list of works you have consulted for your paper, but not cited in the Reference List. Works should be listed in alphabetical order by author and laid out in the same way as items in your reference list. If you can cite from every work you consulted, you will only need a reference list. 

Always check the guidance you are given for your research paper to find out if you are expected to submit work with a reference list and a bibliography. 

Zotero Citation Manager

Zotero  collects all your research in a single, searchable interface. You can add PDFs, images, audio and video files, snapshots of web pages, and automatically indexes the full-text content of your library, enabling you to find exactly what you're looking for. Zotero instantly creates references and bibliographies for any text editor, and directly inside Word, LibreOffice, and Google Docs and can (optionally) synchronize your data across devices, keeping your files, notes, and bibliographic records seamlessly up to date and can be accessed with any web browser. Zotero is  open source  and developed by an independent, nonprofit organization that has no financial interest in your private information. With Zotero, you always stay in control of your own data.

EndNote 20 Campus License

The Library has acquired an EndNote 20 license for the entire campus!   EndNote 20 is a software tool used to manage citations and references when writing a paper. If you’re utilizing EndNote 7, 8 or 9, please consider upgrading to EndNote 20, as updates will no longer be made to prior versions.  

--How does it work? 

• If you already have a previous subscription to EndNote and are looking to upgrade or are a new EndNote user, please go to our EndNote 20 webpage for more information and to download .

--EndNote 20 features

• Seamless Organization - Stay organized with a reliable system that stores unlimited references and provides powerful tools to help organize and manage references with ease and speed.
• Easy Collaboration - EndNote 20 offers flexible solutions for sharing that help everyone stay on the same page. Up to 100 people can work from a single reference library, no matter where they are located or what organization they are affiliated with.
• 7,000+ Reference Styles - Researchers can automatically build their bibliography with EndNote’s Cite While You Write tool in Microsoft Word, with access to a library of more than 7,000 styles – more than any other reference tool – or customize their own style.
• See what the new EndNote 20 has to offer by  contrasting past editions . 

Please contact  [email protected]  if you need any assistance or further clarification on how to upgrade or sign-up for EndNote 20. 

Quoted from Author Guidelines - Last Updated 8/15/2018

References should follow standard American Medical Association (AMA) Style. Do not alphabetize references; assign consecutive numbers as references are cited in the body of the text. Use superscript numbers for in-text citations. Provide the full reference list at the end of the text, using base-aligned numbers followed by a period. Full titles of articles, complete lists of authors, and inclusive pagination must be included . Do not use reference citation superscripts as parts of speech when discussing referenced material; this includes constructions such as " . . . in [5] . . . " or "Reference [10] states . . . ." References must be in the accessible, archival literature. “Private Communications” and commercial identifications and manuals are not appropriate for the reference list but can be identified as footnotes to the text. References should appear in the following formats from the AMA Manual of Style:

Journal article (1-6 authors):

1. Hu P, Reuben DB. Effects of managed care on the length of time that elderly patients spend with physicians during ambulatory visits. Med Care .2002;40(7):606-613.

Journal article with more than six authors:

1. Geller AC, Venna S, Prout M, et al. Should the skin cancer examination be taught in medical school? Arch Dermatol . 2002;138(9):1201-1203.

Journal article with no named author or group name:

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Licensure of a meningococcal conjugate vaccine (Menveo) and guidance for use--Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), 2010. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep . 2010;59(9):273.

Electronic Journal article: If you have a doi (preferred): 1. Gage BF, Fihn SD, White RH. Management and dosing of warfarin therapy. The American Journal of Medicine . 2000;109(6):481-488. doi:10.1016/S0002-9343(00)00545-3.

If you do not have a doi: 1. Aggleton JP. Understanding anterograde amnesia: disconnections and hidden lesions. Q J Exp Psychol . 2008;61(10):1441-1471. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pbh&AN=34168185&site=ehost-live Accessed March 18, 2010.

Journal article published online ahead of print:

1. Chau NG, Haddad RI. Antiangiogenic agents in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: tired of going solo [published online ahead of print September 20, 2016]. Cancer . doi: 10.1002/cncr.30352.

Entire Book:

1. McKenzie BC. Medicine and the Internet: Introducing Online Resources and Terminology . 2nd ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 1997.

Book Chapter:

1. Guyton JL, Crockarell JR. Fractures of acetabulum and pelvis. In: Canale ST, ed. Campbell's Operative Orthopaedics . 10th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Mosby, Inc; 2003:2939-2984.

American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts & Figures 2003 . http://www.cancer.org/downloads/STT/CAFF2003PWSecured.pdf. Accessed March 3, 2003. NOTE:

• If there are more than 6 author names in a reference, the first 3 author names are retained with “et al” (set in roman).
• The article title is set in roman and sentence case.
• The journal title is set in italics and abbreviated with a period at the end of the title only and not for all abbreviated terms.
• A semicolon is used between the year of publication and the volume number.
• A colon is used between the volume number and the page range.
• The full page range is used. - Set a period at the end of a reference.
• The place of publication is given first followed by publisher name.
• The year of publication is given after the publisher name, separated by a semicolon.
• The date of last access is required for Website citations.
• The chapter title is set in roman and sentence case.
• The book title is set in italics and title case.

A list of standard abbreviations for journal names appears in the AIP Style Manual . Additionally, potential authors can use software tools to format references correctly and abide by the Journal’s guidelines. Such a tool is Endnote, developed by Thomson Scientific, which can be accessed here . Authors are urged to exclude unnecessary and/or incomplete references.

Citation Examples

In-text citations are numerical references, in superscript 1 , numbered consecutively in order of appearance in the text. The REFERENCES section orders publications in the order they appeared in the text. Titles of articles, complete lists of authors, and inclusive pagination must be included. References must be in the accessible, archival literature. Author first names are abbreviated, journal names are abbreviated,the journal title is italicized , and followed by year;volume:page-range. You can also find more American Institute of Physics (AIP) style examples from Monash University Library online.

Citation examples listed are from Dynamic collimator trajectory algorithm for multiple metastases dynamicconformal arc treatment planning by R. Lee MacDonald, Christopher G. Thomas, and Alasdair Syme. Demonstrated here for educational purposes only.

IN-TEXT CITATION

In previous research, the inclusion of couch rotational motion has been explored. 1,2

[….]

Dynamic collimator motions in the age of modulated treatment deliveries were first introduced in the context of collimator rotation intensity-modulated radiotherapy (CR-IMRT), sometimes referred to as rotating aperture optimization (RAO). 3–6

Webb 7 first studied the potential benefits of dynamic collimator rotations from the point of view of minimizing patient dose that results from "parked" MLC leaves in the Elekta Beam Modulator system.

1. MacDonald RL, Christopher GT. Dynamic trajectory-based couch motion for improvement of radiation therapy trajectories in cranial SRT. Med Phys . 2015;42:2317–2325.

2. Yang Y, Zhang P, Happersett L, et al. Choreographing couch and colli- mator in volumetric modulated arc therapy. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys . 2011;80:1238–1247 .

3. Milette MP, Otto K. Maximizing the potential of direct aperture opti- mization through collimator rotation. Med Phys . 2007;34:1431–1438.

4. Otto K, inventor; BC Cancer Agency, assignee. Methods and apparatus for planning and delivering intensity modulated radiation fields with a rotating multileaf collimator. United States patent US 6,907,105; 2005.

5. Otto K, Milette MP, inventors; BC Cancer Agency, assignee. Method and apparatus for planning and delivering radiation treatment. United States patent US 7,734,010; 2010.

6. Siochi RA, inventor; Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., assignee. High definition radiation treatment with an intensity modulating multi- leaf collimator. United States patent US 6,757,355;2004.

7. Webb S. Does the option to rotate the Elekta beam modulator MLC during VMAT IMRT delivery confer advantage? a study of ‘parked gaps’. Phys Med Biol . 2010;55:N303–N319.

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A Dictionary of Physics (6 ed.)  

This is the most popular dictionary of physics available. It contains over 3,800 entries covering all commonly encountered physics terms and concepts, as well as terms from the related fields of astronomy, astrophysics, and physical chemistry. With 200 new entries and expanded coverage in areas including applied physics, statistical distributions, polymers, and nanoscience, A Dictionary of Physics is more comprehensive than ever before.

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Ideal for students of physics at A-Level and undergraduate level, as well as students of related science subjects. Also valuable for professionals and for anyone who comes into contact with physics terms and concepts.

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bibliography

Definition of bibliography

Examples of bibliography in a sentence.

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bibliography.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

probably from New Latin bibliographia , from Greek, the copying of books, from bibli- + -graphia -graphy

1689, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Articles Related to bibliography

Parts of a Book: Quire, Colophon, and...

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There are a lot of chapters in this collection.

Dictionary Entries Near bibliography

bibliographica

biblioklept

Cite this Entry

“Bibliography.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bibliography. Accessed 12 May. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of bibliography, more from merriam-webster on bibliography.

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