What Is Energy? (eBook)

An Answer Based on the Evolution of a Concept

Ricardo Lopes Coelho (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2024 | 1. Auflage
IX, 195 Seiten
Springer-Verlag
978-3-031-51855-3 (ISBN)

Infos

This book provides a solution to the problem with the energy concept. This problem manifests itself in the fact that physicists clearly diverge regarding the question of what energy is. Some define it but others state that we do not know what it is. Although this is a problem for physicists who need to explain the concept, it is not a problem for physics that can be solved by laboratory means. Penetrating into the origin of the notion of energy, this book offers a clear idea of what was discovered and what was invented to interpret the findings.

Following the development of the concept, it provides an explanation of the trends in contemporary textbooks. The author's repetition, in his "History and Philosophy of Physics Laboratory", of Joule’s famous experiment – the paddle wheel experiment – with a calorimeter as originally used by Joule and with a calorimeter as proposed in textbooks, is presented, yielding new insight into the phenomenon. Thus, science teachers andstudents will benefit from reading the book as well as historians, philosophers, students of the history and philosophy of science, and all who are interested in knowing about what it is that we call energy.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.2.2024
• Reihe/Serie: History of Physics
• Zusatzinfo: IX, 195 p. 37 illus., 8 illus. in color.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Erkenntnistheorie / Wissenschaftstheorie
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Astronomie / Astrophysik
• Schlagworte: Energy as a Substance • Energy in Natural, Social Sciences and Ethics • Joule’s Experiments for Determining the Equivalent • Planck’s, Hertz’s and Poincaré’s Criticism of the Concept • The Concept of Energy • The Cooling of the Earth and the End of Life • The First Mechanical Equivalent of Heat • The Origin of the Laws of Thermodynamics • The Principle of Equivalence Instead of Energy Conservation • Trends in Contemporary Textbooks
• ISBN-10: 3-031-51855-1 / 3031518551
• ISBN-13: 978-3-031-51855-3 / 9783031518553