Eddington and Uncertainty |
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Authors: | Email author" target="_blank">Ian?T?DurhamEmail author |
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Institution: | (1) Mathematical Institute, University of St. Andrews, ., KY16 9SS St. Andrews Fife, Scotland;(2) Department of Physics, Simmons College, 300 The Fenway, 02115 Boston, MA, USA |
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Abstract: | Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882-1944) is acknowledged to be one of the greatest astrophysicists
of the twentieth century, yet his reputation suffered in the 1930s when he embarked on a quest to
develop a unified theory of gravity and quantum mechanics. His attempt ultimately proved to be
fruitless and was regarded by many physicists as misguided. I will show, however, that Eddington s
work was not so outlandish. His theory applied quantum-mechanical uncertainty to the reference
frames of relativity and actually foreshadowed several later results. His philosophy regarding
determinism and uncertainty also was quite orthodox at the time. I first review Eddington s life
and philosophy and then discuss his work within the context of his search for a theory of quantum
gravity. |
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Keywords: | Arthur Stanley Eddington Edward Arthur Milne Joseph Larmor history of cosmology relativity quantum mechanics quantum gravity |
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