Albert Michelson and the American Century
Galileo Unbound Blog
by David D. Nolte
3w ago
Albert Michelson was the first American to win a Nobel Prize in science. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1907 for the invention of his eponymous interferometer and for its development as a precision tool for metrology.  On board ship traveling to Sweden from London to receive his medal, he was insulted ..read more
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100 Years of Quantum Physics: de Broglie’s Wave (1924)
Galileo Unbound Blog
by David D. Nolte
1M ago
One hundred years ago this month, in Feb. 1924, a hereditary member of the French nobility, Louis Victor Pierre Raymond, the 7th Duc de Broglie, published a landmark paper in the Philosophical Magazine of London [1] that revolutionized the nascent quantum theory of the day. Prior to de Broglie’s theory of quantum matter waves, quantum ..read more
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A Brief History of Nothing: The Physics of the Vacuum from Atomism to Higgs
Galileo Unbound Blog
by David D. Nolte
3M ago
There is more ado about nothing than one can imagine. The physics of the vacuum has a long and fascinating history ..read more
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Fat Fractals, Arnold Tongues, and the Rings of Saturn
Galileo Unbound Blog
by David D. Nolte
4M ago
Fractals, those telescoping self-similar filigree meshes that marry mathematics and art, have become so mainstream, that they are even mentioned in the theme song of Disney’s 2013 mega-hit, Frozen.  My power flurries through the air into the groundMy soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all aroundAnd one thought crystallizes like an icy blastI’m never going ..read more
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Timelines in the History of Light and Interference
Galileo Unbound Blog
by David D. Nolte
4M ago
Light is one of the most powerful manifestations of the forces of physics because it tells us about our reality. The interference of light, in particular, has led to the detection of exoplanets orbiting distant stars, discovery of the first gravitational waves, capture of images of black holes and much more. The stories behind the ..read more
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Relativistic Velocity Addition: Einstein’s Crucial Insight
Galileo Unbound Blog
by David D. Nolte
5M ago
The first step on the road to Einstein’s relativity was taken a hundred years earlier by an ironic rebel of physics—Augustin Fresnel.  His radical (at the time) wave theory of light was so successful, especially the proof that it must be composed of transverse waves, that he was single-handedly responsible for creating the irksome luminiferous ..read more
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The Aberration of Starlight: Relativity’s Crucible
Galileo Unbound Blog
by David D. Nolte
6M ago
The Earth races around the sun with remarkable speed—at over one hundred thousand kilometers per hour on its yearly track.  This is about 0.01% of the speed of light—a small but non-negligible amount for which careful measurement might show the very first evidence of relativistic effects.  How big is this effect and how do you ..read more
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Orion’s Dog: The Serious Science of Sirius
Galileo Unbound Blog
by David D. Nolte
7M ago
The brightest star in the sky, Sirius, has been a testbed for new ideas in astronomy and astrophysics for millennia ..read more
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Book Published: Interference. The History of Optical Interferometry and the Scientists who Tamed Light
Galileo Unbound Blog
by David D. Nolte
7M ago
Interference: The History of Optical Interferometry and the Scientists who Tamed Light, is published, available now from Oxford, Amazon and Barnes&Noble ..read more
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Book Preview: Interference. The History of Optical Interferometry and the Scientists who Tamed Light
Galileo Unbound Blog
by David D. Nolte
8M ago
Preview of my upcoming book Interference: The History of Optical Interferometry and the Scientists who Tamed Light ..read more
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