Lederman, Leon
on Anaximander’s apeiron, 22–23
on Democritus, 125
on Empedocles’s elements, 100–1
Leibniz, Gottfried, 33
Lemaître, Georges, 10–11
length contraction (in special relativity), 49, 50
leptons (particles of matter), 7, 8, 10, 12, 21–22, 23, 34, 36, 54, 56, 100–3, 120, 122–23. See also atom (s): D-atoms (ancient atoms) and QL-atoms (quarks and leptons)
Leucippus (atomic philosopher), 5, 12–13, 32, 33, 34, 76, 109, 118–19, 120, 121–22, 123–24, 126, 129, 134, 135, 138, 157, 159
Library of Alexandria, 157
light, speed of, 19, 48, 49, 50, 52, 56–57, 64, 71, 81–82, 83–84, 132, 142–43, 151. See also relativity
Locke, John, 158
Logos, in Heraclitean philosophy, 57
loop quantum gravity, 12–13, 57, 135–36, 138, 139, 141–42, 149–50, 151, 159–60. See also gravity; quantum gravity
Lorentz transformation, 49
Lucretius, 138, 142, 157–58
Lucy (a species of genus Australopithecus), 117
Lydia (or Lydians), 14–15
Mach, Ernst, 51–52, 160
Mach’s principle, 52–53
magnet, 9–10
magnetic (force), 9–10
mammals, 28
many-worlds (interpretation), 110, 113–14. See also Copenhagen (interpretation)
mass
in Democritean philosophy, 129–30, 132
and Higgs boson (or field or mechanism), 10, 22–23, 128, 132, 142
in Newtonian physics, 48, 55, 61–62, 130, 132
in quantum physics, 13, 21, 39, 56, 58–59, 60, 68, 78–79, 91–92, 94, 123–24, 132 (see also Higgs mechanism)
in relativity (special or general), 19–20, 50, 63–64, 77–78, 105, 128, 131, 159
mathematics, limitations of, 31, 40, 86, 89–90
matter, nature of, 30–31, 34, 98, 118–19, 120, 159. See also primary substance; universal substance
matter, ordinary, 129. See also dark matter
Maxwell, James Clerk, 9–10, 57, 152, 159
Medes (a people), 14–15
Mediterranean, Sea, 16
Mercury (the planet), 45, 46–47
metaphysics, 82
Miletus, 15–16, 27
Milky Way, 25
mind. See nous
momentum, 26, 57, 58–59, 61, 80, 81–82, 145, 146–47
monism (or monistic), 27, 71, 72, 76, 109, 116–17
monotheism, 11, 31
moon, 14–15, 38–39, 44–46, 51–52, 60–61, 64, 80–82, 108, 118, 121–22, 133
motion
absolute, 47–48, 49, 50, 52
quantum (jump), 92–93, 145–49
relative, 47–48, 49, 50, 51–52
unverifiable, 87–98passim
music, and Pythagoras, 36–40, 101–2
music of the spheres, 38–40
mutation, 117
natural selection, 108–9, 118
neutrino, 23, 65
neutron (s), 7, 10, 11–12, 56, 65, 101–2, 123
Newton, Isaac (or Newtonian), 10, 11–12, 25–26, 33, 39, 42, 47–48, 50, 51–52, 54, 55–56, 57, 58–59, 63–64, 73–74, 79, 80–82, 97, 100, 121, 130–31, 139, 140, 144–45, 152, 157–58, 160. See also classical physics
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 160
Nile, River, 16
Noether, Emmy, 26
nonexistence, 77–79, 84–85. See also nothingness; Parmenides
nothingness, 2, 72–73, 75, 76, 77–79, 100, 126, 133. See also nonexistence
nous (mind), 6, 109, 110, 116–18
nuclear strong (force), 7, 10–11, 23, 56, 76, 100–1. See also forces
nuclear weak (force), 7, 10, 56, 76, 100–1. See also forces
Odysseus, 162
Odyssey (Homer), 162
Olbers’s paradox, 107–8
On Nature (Parmenides’s poem), 84–85
Oppenheimer, J. Robert, 92–93
Osiris (Egyptian god), 16
Ostwald, Wilhelm, 160
parable of the cave, 4
Parmenides (or Parmenidean), 2, 5–6, 66–67, 71, 72–86passim, 97, 99–100, 102, 109, 112–14, 120–21, 124–25, 126, 127, 128, 129, 133, 160
Parthenon, 117–18
particles, virtual, 128, 129
Pericles, 118
perihelion, and Kepler’s harmonic law, 39
periodic table of chemistry, 42, 123
phase transition (s), critical, 114–16
Philolaus, 45
photoelectric effect, 159
photon (s) (the particles of light), 34, 56–57, 58–59, 61–62, 83, 95, 101–2, 122, 123–24, 125, 142, 143, 147, 148–49, 159
pi, 41
Planck, Max, 151
Planck constant, 60, 71, 78–79, 151
Planck length, 12–13, 151
Planck time, 151
Planet of the Apes, 49
Plato, 2, 4, 5, 36–37, 42–44, 52–53, 103–4, 123, 157–59, 160
Platonic Forms, 36, 43–44
Pleiades, 14
Podolsky, Boris, 80
polytheism, 31
Popper, Karl, 2, 3, 25–26, 69–70, 74
positron (s), 19–20, 25, 65. See also antielectrons
pre-Socratics, 160
primary substance (s) (of matter, of the universe), 7, 8–9, 11, 12, 17, 18, 21, 23–24, 27, 29, 30, 31, 69–70, 98, 106–7, 109, 110, 125. See also matter, nature of; universal substance
primates, 28, 106, 117
probability, 11–12, 42, 60–61, 83–84, 95–96, 102, 111–12, 124–25, 153–54. See also chance; determinism; indeterminism
proton (s), 7, 10–12, 56, 58, 61–62, 65, 101–2, 105, 123, 155–56
pyramid (s), 14–15, 106, 117–18
Pythagoras (or Pythagorean [s]), 1, 5, 35, 36–53passim, 83, 101–2, 106–7, 160
Pythagorean theorem, 40
quantum entanglement, 52, 80–84, 130–31
quantum event (s), 140–41
quantum geometry, 139
quantum gravity, 11–13, 139. See also gravity; loop quantum gravity
quantum jump. See motion
quantum mechanics (or physics, or theory), 11–14, 22–23, 34, 38, 39, 42, 54, 56–57, 58, 61, 63, 66, 68, 77–78, 79, 80–82, 87, 91, 92–93, 95–96, 102, 110, 111–12, 113–14, 124–25, 127–28, 130, 135–36, 137, 137n.6, 139, 140–41, 149, 152, 153–55, 156
quantum numbers (or set), 37, 38, 39, 42
quantum space, 139, 146–47, 149–50. See also atom (s): of space
quantum time, 140. See also atom (s): of time
quark (s) (particles of matter), 7, 8, 10, 11–12, 21–22, 23, 34, 36, 54, 56, 100–3, 120, 122–23. See also atom (s): D-atoms (ancient atoms) and QL-atoms (quarks and leptons)
radioactive decay, 10
rarefaction (in Anaximenes philosophy), 30–35passim
rational, number (s), 40–41, 89–90. See also irrational, number (s)
redshift, 64–65
reductionism, 102–3, 122–23. See also emergentism
relativity, 2, 3, 12–13, 51–52, 79–80, 139, 140–41, 142–43, 152, 156
general (and topics related to), 10–12, 13, 14, 36, 42, 50, 51, 57, 63, 64–65, 66, 68–69, 87, 97, 104–5, 128, 130, 131, 139, 145, 149, 159
special (and topics related to), 8, 19, 47–50, 51, 73–74, 77–78, 81–82, 83–84, 97, 123–24, 143, 159
religion, 11, 31, 36–37, 117–18, 162
Renaissance, 127, 157–58, 160
repulsive gravity, 104–5. See also antigravity
Roman Catholic Church, 118
Rosen, Nathan, 80
Rovelli, Carlo, 141–42
Russell, Bertrand, 2, 126–27, 162
Rutherford, Ernest, 123, 159
Sagan, Carl, 33, 105–6
sage (s), 5, 14
Salam, Abdus, 10
Saturn (the planet), 45
Schrödinger eq
uation, 61
Schrödinger’s cat, 80–81, 111–13
Schrödinger, Erwin, 27, 32n.5, 34, 80–81, 159
scientific method, 2–3, 36, 41–42, 85–86n.18, 86
Sherrington, Charles, 27
singularity, 84, 86, 116–17, 140–41
Socrates, 1, 5, 162
solar system, 39, 105–6
solidification, 7
solstices, 14
Sommerfeld, Arnold, 39
space atoms. See atom (s): of space
space paradox, 96–97
special relativity. See relativity
spin (of elementary particles or primary substance), and neutrality, 23–24
spooky action at a distance, 81–82
standard model, of physics, 7, 10–12, 23–24, 56, 57, 99, 100–2, 125–26, 131, 132
Stoic (s), 135, 153–54, 157–58, 160
strife (the force), 99–100, 101–2, 131–32
string, theory (or strings [of string theory]), 12–13, 39–40, 57, 124, 125–26, 129, 138, 151
supernova, 105–6
survival of the fittest, 27–28, 108–9
swerve (atomic, in Epicurean philosophy), 135, 145–49passim, 152, 153–54, 156
symmetry (or symmetric or symmetrical), 26, 31, 43
technology, 117, 118, 159
Thales, 5, 6, 7–17passim, 25–26, 27, 99–100, 106, 125
Theogony (Hesiod’s), 135
theory of Forms (Plato’s), 42–44
thermodynamics
second law of, 63, 67, 103–4 (see also entropy)
third law of, 66
Thomson, J. J., 220, 123, 159
time atoms. See atom (s): of time
time, relative, 49. See also relativity
time dilation, 49, 50, 142–43
time paradox, 97
time-like dichotomy paradox, 150
time travel, 11–12, 49
uncertainty principle (s), 54, 57, 58–60, 61, 63, 66, 68, 77–79, 87, 91–93, 94, 127–28, 149
and cause of (a hypothesis), 135–36, 146–47, 148–49
and free will, 152, 153–54, 156
universal gravitation, 10, 52, 130. See also gravity
universal substance, 21–22, 24–25, 27, 125. See also matter, nature of; primary substance
universality, in fractals, 114–16
universe
age of, 86
center of, 47–48, 65, 86
closed, 103–4
observable (or the “afterglow” of big bang), 10, 20, 24–25, 105
open, 103–4
parallel, 113–14
size of, 25, 104–5
uranium, 10
vacuum, 96, 127, 128, 142. See also empty space; void
vacuum energy, 128
Venus (planet), 44–45, 46–47
void, 5, 32–33, 34, 52–53, 76, 77, 97, 98, 106–7, 120–23, 124, 125–29, 130, 133, 134, 137–38, 139, 141–42, 143, 158–59. See also empty space; vacuum
vortex, 129–30, 132
W’s (W+ and W-, particles of the weak force), 56, 132
water, as primary substance (in Thales’s philosophy), 7–9
wave function (s), 36, 42, 43–44, 61, 83, 95–96, 102
wave-particle duality, 42, 83. See also geometrical-arithmetical duality
weight
in Democritus’s philosophy, 122, 129–30
and force in modern physics, 130–32
Weinberg, Steven, 10
Wheeler, John Archibald, 131
Z’s (Z0, particles of the weak force), 56, 132
Zeno, 6, 41, 86, 87–98passim, 138n.9, 140, 149–51, 160
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