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Frasi di Gerald James Whitrow
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Gerald James Whitrow è stato un matematico, cosmologo e storico della scienza britannico.

Ultimati gli studi al Christ's Hospital, ottenne una borsa di studio al collegio Christ's Church, in Oxford, nel 1930, conseguendo il Bachelor in Matematica nel 1933, il Master nel 1937 e il dottorato di ricerca nel 1939. A Oxford si occupò di teoria della relatività, lavorando, in particolare, su una teoria alternativa alla relatività di Albert Einstein con Edward Arthur Milne.

Dopo la guerra, divenne lecturer all'Imperial College di Londra nel 1945 e, successivamente, reader in matematica applicata nel 1951, quindi professore di storia della matematica nel 1972. Ritiratosi dall'insegnamento nel 1979, fu professore emerito e Senior Research Fellow all'Imperial College. Per gran parte della sua vita, fu membro della Royal Astronomical Society, mentre, nel 1971, fu tra i fondatori della British Society for the History of Science, la società britannica per la storia delle scienze.

I suoi principali contributi furono nel campo della cosmologia e astrofisica, ma i suoi interessi inclusero la storia e la filosofia della scienza, in particolare il concetto di tempo. Tra le sue pubblicazioni, particolare attenzione ricevette The Natural Philosophy of Time .

✵ 9. Giugno 1912 – 2. Giugno 2000
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Gerald James Whitrow: Frasi in inglese

“It became clear that our Galaxy is only one system among many, and that the universe is far vaster than the particular stellar system to which the Sun and planets belong. Since then developments have been more rapid than at any time since the days of Copernicus, Digges and Bruno when the geocentric hypothesis of the cosmos received its death-blow.”

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Gerald James Whitrow

"Theories of the Universe" (10 Apr 1958)

“As the degree of observational accuracy at which general relativity becomes significantly different from Newtonian theory is far from being achieved in this field, and as stellar velocities are small compared with light, there is no sign yet that any non-Newtonian theory is required.”

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Gerald James Whitrow

"Newton and the Stars" (10 Oct 1957)

“Newton's laws of motion and gravitation achieved their original success when applied to the solar system. The first definite evidence that they were applicable on a larger scale came from the study of binary stars towards the eighteenth century. In recent times the limitations of Newton's theory have become apparent. Even on the scale of the solar system, it has been challenged by Einstein's.”

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Gerald James Whitrow

"Newton and the Stars" (10 Oct 1957)

“Although the Special Theory of Relativity does not account for electromagnetic phenomena, it explains many of their properties. General Relativity, however, tells us nothing about electromagnetism. In Einstein's space-time continuum gravitational forces are absorbed in the geometry, but the electromagnetic forces are quite unaffected. Various attempts have been made to generate the geometry of space-time so as to produce a unified field theory incorporating both gravitational and electromagnetic forces.”

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Gerald James Whitrow

p, 125
The Structure of the Universe: An Introduction to Cosmology (1949)

“According to the Special Theory of Relativity, the velocity of a moving body is always less than the velocity of light. Since the energy of motion of a body depends on its inertial mass and its velocity, it follows that if the energy of a body is increased indefinitely by the continual application of a force, the inertial mass of the body must be increased too; for, if not, the velocity would ultimately increase indefinitely and exceed the velocity of light. Einstein found that, corresponding to any increase in the energy content of a body, there is an equivalent increase in its inertial mass. Mass and energy thus appeared to be different names for the same thing, the energy associated with a mass M being Mc2, where c is the velocity of light; and the mass M of a body moving with velocity v he found to be given by the following formulaM = \frac {m}{\sqrt{(1 - \frac {v^2}{c^2}}}</center”

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Gerald James Whitrow

The Structure of the Universe: An Introduction to Cosmology (1949)

“Whether the stars were all at the same distance, or whether they were scattered throughout infinite space, or whether they formed a finite system of vast but limited depth, were questions that could not be answered until towards the end of the eighteenth century. Until then, stellar astronomy was a field left to the unaided imagination.”

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Gerald James Whitrow

p, 125
The Structure of the Universe: An Introduction to Cosmology (1949)

“Another interesting feature of the Einstein universe is that in principle it could be circumnavigated by a ray of light… it is unlikely that the rays would converge with sufficient accuracy. Nevertheless it is interesting to consider the possibility that some of the stars and nebulae which we see may after all be only optical ghosts.”

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Gerald James Whitrow

The Structure of the Universe: An Introduction to Cosmology (1949)

“Consider an event, for example the outburst if a nova… Suppose this event is observed from two stars in line with the nova, and suppose further that the two stars are moving uniformly with respect to each other in this line. Let the epoch at which these stars passed by each other be taken as the zero of time measurement, and let an observer A on one of the stars estimate the distance and epoch of the nova outburst to be x units of length and t units of time, respectively. Suppose the other star is moving toward the nova with velocity v relative to A.”

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Gerald James Whitrow

Let an observer B on the star estimate the distance and epoch of the nova outburst to be x<nowiki>'</nowiki> units of length and t<nowiki>'</nowiki> units of time, respectively. Then the Lorentz formulae, relating x<nowiki>'</nowiki> to t<nowiki>'</nowiki>, are<center><math>x' = \frac {x-vt}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}} ; \qquad t' = \frac {t-\frac{vx}{c^2}}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}</math></center>
These formulae are... quite general, applying to any event in line with two uniformly moving observers. If we let c become infinite then the ratio of v to c tends to zero and the formulae become<center><math>x' = x - vt ; \qquad t' = t</math></center>.
The Structure of the Universe: An Introduction to Cosmology (1949)

“Whether the stars were all at the same distance, or whether they were scattered throughout infinite space, or whether they formed a finite system of vast but limited depth, were questions that could not be answered until towards the end of the eighteenth century.”

Help us translate this quote
Gerald James Whitrow

Until then, stellar astronomy was a field left to the unaided imagination.
The Structure of the Universe: An Introduction to Cosmology (1949)

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