Discover the Influence of German Words in Physics and Mathematics"

[Edgardo]

Hi all,

in many English physics and mathematics texts I found German words like
Bremsstrahlung, Eigenvector, Welcher-Weg-information, Gedankenexperiment, Ansatz, ...

If you know more, then post them here.

 

[jtbell]

Eigenvector

Actually that one is a "hybrid" of German and English. The German word is Eigenvektor. Similarly we have "Eigenfunction" (Eigenfunktion) and "Eigenvalue" (Eigenwert).

On my tests I sometimes ask students to define words or at least give an equation related to them. Once when I asked for Bremsstrahlung on an intro modern physics test, a student answered, "The sound you make when you try to talk with your mouth full of peanut butter."

(He was actually one of my better students... his mind simply went blank on that question)

 

[GENIERE]

Galileo – First experimentalist

DePretto - First to publish E=MC^2

Galvani – Made 1st frog battery

Volta – Improved frog battery

Nobile – First to fly heavier-than-air craft

Fermi – Made smaller atoms from bigger atoms

Marconi – transmitted radio waves at the speed of light

Meucci - Invented the Telephone

 

[dextercioby]

DePretto - First to publish E=MC^2

Was it a joke...? If not,please infer me to a credible source (article in original,or just reference to that article) on this matter...

Daniel.

 

[GENIERE]

No joke.

http://www.italiansrus.com/articles/emc2.htm

 

[GENIERE]

AS published, note large font.

"La materia di un corpo qualunque, contiene in se stessa una somma di energia rappresentata dall'intera massa del corpo, che si muovesse tutta unita ed in blocco nello spazio, colla medesima velocità delle singole particelle. [...] La formula mv2 ci dà la forza viva e la formula mv2/8338 ci dà, espressa in calorie, tale energia. Dato adunque m=1 e v uguale a 300 milioni di metri [al secondo], che sarebbe la velocità della luce, ammessa anche per l'etere, ciascuno potrà vedere che si ottiene una quantità di calorie rappresentata da 10794 seguito da 9 zeri e cioè oltre dieci milioni di milioni" (pp. 458-459).

http://www.dipmat.unipg.it/~bartocci/st/depretto.htm

A poor translation:

Matter contains energy represented by its mass. The formula mv2/8338 gives us this energy expressed in calories. M=1 and v =300 million meters/sec, the speed of light possible in the ether. Everyone can see the calories obtained is beyond 10 million million.


...

 

[kirovman]

reststrahlen

About residual radiation in solid state physics, I think.

 

[dextercioby]

Interesting...I guess we'll never know if Einstein inspired from other sources...

Daniel.

 

[dextercioby]

"Zitterbewegung"...For an explanation in the context of Dirac's equation,see Roger G.Newton:"Quantum Physics:A Text for Graduate Students",Springer Verlag,2002.

Daniel.

 

[Edgardo]

Aufbau principle - a term used in chemistry


Quote from
http://www.chem.arizona.edu/~salzmanr/103a004/nts004/l21/l21.html

" The "Aufbau" Principle (German for "build up.")
The Aufbau principle says that we fill the lowest energy orbitals first (subject to the other rules to come)."

 

[Janitor]

In reading on the early history of quantum theory, I have seen the word Gespertenfeld, which is German for 'ghost field.'

 

[dextercioby]

What...?In what context,please offer details...


Daniel.

 

[Andrew Mason]

No joke.

http://www.italiansrus.com/articles/emc2.htm

This is a hoax. It was created by anti-semites who couldn't accept Einstein because he was jewish. It now appears to be working its way into mainstream lore.

If you think about it for a moment, you will quickly realize that it cannot be true. First of all, how would such a speculation ever get published in a reputable journal? No one is suggesting that De Pretto was able to explain it. If De Pretto was a real person, he never contributed anything to science. He is supposed to have been an industrialist.

But the real reason it can't be true is that it is not a concept but a mathematical relationship. It might be possible to conceive of the notion that matter was equivalent to energy but one cannot just intuitively guess that the relationship is E=mc^2. It would be like coming up with the 'concept' that centripetal force = mv^2/r without doing any math or understanding that F=ma. Impossible. Einstein only discovered the relationship as an after-thought after publishing his relativity paper in 1905. Einstein had no idea that matter and energy were equivalent until this relationship emerged from his analysis.

AM

 

[dextercioby]

Well,Andrew,if that article exists,then those anti-semites are right.It doesn't matter whether he was or not a physicist,he mai have been a janitor,for God's name,it matters only as a hystorical detail...

Daniel.

 

[Janitor]

In what context,please offer details...

I am not sure to whom Daniel was addressing that request. In case it was me, I just looked through some books on my shelf. There is one by Abe Pais which says that Einstein believed in the 1920s that a ghost field ("Gespensterfeld" is the correct spelling; pardon me) "showed the way" to corpuscular light quanta, and this ghost field determines the probability for a light quantum to take a definite path.

 

[Andrew Mason]

Well,Andrew,if that article exists,then those anti-semites are right.It doesn't matter whether he was or not a physicist,he mai have been a janitor,for God's name,it matters only as a hystorical detail...

I am suggesting that either the article does not exist or it does not say what is suggested. It is interesting that no one has produced the original article. I am saying that the suggestion that someone - a janitor, industrialist or physicist - came up with E = mc^2 by speculation is quite ludicrous. It is not a coincidence that this story is being promoted almost exclusively by anti-semites and aryan supremacists.

AM

 

[dextercioby]

To you;i've heard about Pais book,hmm,it looks interesting as a nonscientifical fact.I doubt the German name for "ghost field" is used anywhere in English...

Daniel.

 

[Janitor]

...I doubt the German name for "ghost field" is used anywhere in English...

You are probably right about that, since I have maybe only seen that German word in the one book.

 

[dextercioby]

I am saying that the suggestion that someone - a janitor, industrialist or physicist - came up with E = mc^2 by speculation is quite ludicrous. It is not a coincidence that this story is being promoted almost exclusively by anti-semites and aryan supremacists.

AM

I'd frankly doubt it has anything to do with his Jew origin...There have been other attempts do discredit Einstein's SR (even a book,in the 50's,close to his death,claimed that H.A.Lorentz & H.Poincaré are the only one which should diserve any credit),but this is definitely the most interesting...

Anyway,to us physicists,Einstein will be Einstein...A German.

Daniel.

 

[dextercioby]

You are probably right about that, since I have maybe only seen that German word in the one book.

Honestly,why would it...?I mean,we in Romanian use the word "ghost",when we speak about ghost fields...Why would the English/American use this word,when the Germans have no contribution to the birth of this concept...?

Daniel.

 

[Andrew Mason]

I'd frankly doubt it has anything to do with his Jew origin...There have been other attempts do discredit Einstein's SR (even a book,in the 50's,close to his death,claimed that H.A.Lorentz & H.Poincaré are the only one which should diserve any credit),but this is definitely the most interesting...

While it is true that others had made signficant progress, Einstein's work was independent and involved a unique conceptual approach that the others lacked. Although it appears that Einstein independently came up with the Lorentz transformation, it is named after Lorentz who first discovered it. For a writer suggest that Einstein deserves no credit belies an ulterior motive.

Anyway,to us physicists,Einstein will be Einstein...A German.

Actually he renounced his German citizenship as a teenager and became a Swiss citizen in 1901 and an American citizen later. His parents moved to Milan when he was young. He once made this rather pointed humourous remark:

"If relativity is proved right the Germans will call me a German, the Swiss call me a Swiss citizen, and the French will call me a great scientist. If relativity is proved wrong the French will call me a Swiss, the Swiss will call me a German, and the Germans will call me a Jew.'
​

AM

 

[GENIERE]

This is a hoax. …

There’s no doubt that De Pretto published the equation, and had a good knowledge of physics. Even if Einstein were aware of De Pretto’s work, he would have determined it was only intuitive, not derived, thus he would not need to cite it.

My post was intended to be humorous, not to denigrate Einstein. I should have started my own thread of physical units having Italian names.



...

 

[Edgardo]

To you;i've heard about Pais book,hmm,it looks interesting as a nonscientifical fact.I doubt the German name for "ghost field" is used anywhere in English...

Daniel.

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/physics/pdf/0212/0212090.pdf (page 3)
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/quant-ph/pdf/9502/9502017.pdf (page 2)

 

[dextercioby]

So what ??It's referred to as a citation...It still does not contradict my statement...

Daniel.

 

[Edgardo]

So what ??It's referred to as a citation...It still does not contradict my statement...

Daniel.

Of course it doesn't contradict your statement. My post doesn't even
contain any statement. All I did was quoting you and adding two links.


P.S.
This reminds of one Dirac anecdote:
http://www.dirac.ch/PaulDirac.html
Look under "Statement"