Greg Detre
Friday, April 25, 2003
gave the
Hofstadter physics lectures while a Visiting Professor at Stanford
Heisenberg
� got to matrix mechanics from fourier series by one super-crucial analogy
(table of energy states of a system � atom vs planet, momentum +
velocity)
refce: Stephen Weinberg � distinction between
sage and magician physicists (cf Feynman???)
negative
probability � is �of course meaningless� � it�s not of course meaningless
it�s of course meaningless for a particle to pass through two slits at
once, or to have zero mass
light as
like sound vs particle
then: all particles as like light (de Broglie, 1923), then sound as like
light
refce:
Japanese physicist autobiography Yukawa (1934) � invented the hypothetical
particle that turned out to be rule that mediated the nuclear force � only
creative at night when unhampered by the rows of equations
much of great physics has been and can only be done by analogy
because physics is so counter-intuitive
wants to write a book on subdivisions/types of analogies (cf Gunkel�s ideonomy)
resents people who cover up the transparency, and tries to resist the urge to J
grand sweeps
from f=ma to the present day
Legendre invents the notion of gravitational potential???
Poisson � invents the electric potential, then magnetic (scalar) potential
refce: Maxwell � article on analogy in physics
Maxwell � magnetic vector potential
Minkowki � 4-vectors
families of particles???
isomorphism vs analogy???
isomorphism as structural/mathematical, analogy as more slippages/aesthetic???
�just as every house needs a toilet, the toilet in the house of elementary particle theory is Higgs� theory� � Glashow J