Examples of the Zeroth Theorem of the History of Physics

@misc{citeulike:3036467, abstract = {The zeroth theorem of the history of science (enunciated by E. P. Fischer) and widely known in the mathematics community as Arnol'd's Principle (decreed by M. V. Berry), states that a discovery (rule, regularity, insight) named after someone (often) did not originate with that person. I present five examples from physics: the Lorentz condition defining the Lorentz gauge of the electromagnetic potentials; the Dirac delta function (x); the Schumann resonances of the earth-ionosphere cavity; the Weizsacker-Williams method of virtual quanta; the BMT equation of spin dynamics. I give illustrated thumbnail sketches of both the true and reputed discoverers and quote from their "discovery" publications.}, author = {Jackson, J. D. }, citeulike-article-id = {3036467}, eprint = {0708.4249}, keywords = {history, physics}, month = {Oct}, posted-at = {2008-07-23 10:16:36}, priority = {2}, title = {Examples of the Zeroth Theorem of the History of Physics}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/0708.4249}, year = {2007} }

TY - ELEC ID - citeulike:3036467 L3 - citeulike-article-id:3036467 TI - Examples of the Zeroth Theorem of the History of Physics N2 - The zeroth theorem of the history of science (enunciated by E. P. Fischer) and widely known in the mathematics community as Arnol'd's Principle (decreed by M. V. Berry), states that a discovery (rule, regularity, insight) named after someone (often) did not originate with that person. I present five examples from physics: the Lorentz condition defining the Lorentz gauge of the electromagnetic potentials; the Dirac delta function (x); the Schumann resonances of the earth-ionosphere cavity; the Weizsacker-Williams method of virtual quanta; the BMT equation of spin dynamics. I give illustrated thumbnail sketches of both the true and reputed discoverers and quote from their "discovery" publications. KW - history KW - physics AU - Jackson, JD PY - 2007/Oct/11/ UR - http://arxiv.org/abs/0708.4249 ER -