The divergent histories of Bose-Einstein statistics and the forgotten achievements of Władysław Natanson (1864–1937) (2019)
This article investigates the forgotten achievements of Władysław Natanson (1864–1937) related to the creation of Bose-Einstein statistics. The introductory part of the article presents considerations regarding the methodology of history and the history of exact sciences, and then the divergent research perspectives that can be taken in the description of the history of Bose-Einstein statistics, as well as the author’s integrated approach to this issue, which eliminates the disadvantages of these divergent views. This integrated approach is then used to describe the achievements of Władysław Natanson related to the creation of Bose-Einstein statistics. These achievements are presented against the background and in the context of discussions which – relatively sporadically – took place among various groups of researchers: historians and philosophers of science, physicists, sociologists of scientific knowledge in the 20th and 21st centuries. These discussions have now been reordered here. They are followed by a presentation of the complete list of Natanson’s publications regarding the subject. Also shown is his strategy to quote reliably the bibliography with regard to the explanation of the distribution of blackbody radiation and related issues. Additionally, a list of scientists who knew Natanson’s publications has been supplemented in the article and the precursorship of Natanson’s achievements is explained. This is followed by a rebuttal of many erroneous or simplified statements about him and his achievements. The already well-known terminological conventions have been recalled: “Bose statistics” and “Bose-Einstein statistics”, as well as recently introduced: “Planck-Bose statistics” (1984), “Natanson’s statistics” (1997)”, “Natanson-Bose-Einstein statistics” (2005), “Planck-Natanson-Bose-Einstein statistics” (2011), and “Natanson statistics” (2013). New terminological conventions have been introduced: “Boltzmann-Planck-Natanson statistics” and “Boltzmann-Planck-Natanson-Bose-Einstein statistics”. A side effect of this research is a discovery that Robert K. Merton – the author of the label ‘Matthew effect’ – chose the name of the effect using erroneous premises and the effect should therefore be named after its actual discoverer. The article is accompanied by four appendixes: the first presents reflections on the methodology of historiography and historiography of exact sciences, the second – a commentary on the use of the terms: “Bose statistics”, “Bose-Einstein statistics”, “Einstein-Bose statistics” and “Planck-Bose statistics”, the third – a very important letter by Max Planck to Władysław Natanson (of 25 January 1913), and the fourth – the excerpts of two letters from Sommerfeld to Rubinowicz (of 1 October 1919 and 1 November 1919).
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Nobukata Nagasawa;
(2018)
On social and psychological aspects of a negligible reception of Natanson’s article of 1911 in the early history of quantum statistics
(/isis/citation/CBB679249284/)
Article
Józef Spałek;
(2020)
The Bose-Einstein statistics: Remarks on Debye, Natanson, and Ehrenfest contributions and the emergence of indistinguishability principle for quantum particles
(/isis/citation/CBB981997087/)
Article
Rowlinson, J. S.;
(2005)
Einstein: The Classical Physicist
(/isis/citation/CBB000651781/)
Article
Boughn, Stephen;
Reginatto, Marcel;
(2013)
A Pedestrian Approach to the Measurement Problem in Quantum Mechanics
(/isis/citation/CBB001320783/)
Article
Daniela Monaldi;
(2019)
The Statistical Style of Reasoning and the Invention of Bose-Einstein Statistics
(/isis/citation/CBB327349848/)
Article
Pechenkin, Alexander;
(2012)
The Early Statistical Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics in the USA and USSR
(/isis/citation/CBB001210779/)
Chapter
João Príncipe;
(2014)
Henri Poincaré: The Status of Mechanical Explanations and the Foundations of Statistical Mechanics
(/isis/citation/CBB035763250/)
Article
Hazel Morrison;
(2017)
Henderson and Meyer in correspondence: a transatlantic history of dynamic psychiatry, 1908–29
(/isis/citation/CBB141998062/)
Article
Brennan, Toni;
Hegarty, Peter;
(2009)
Magnus Hirschfeld, His Biographies and the Possibilities and Boundaries of “Biography” as “Doing History”
(/isis/citation/CBB000953778/)
Book
Schweber, Silvan S.;
(2012)
Nuclear Forces: The Making of the Physicist Hans Bethe
(/isis/citation/CBB001201092/)
Article
Reichenbach, Maria Cecilia von;
(2009)
Richard Gans: The First Quantum Physicist in Latin America
(/isis/citation/CBB000932738/)
Article
Abiko, Seiya;
(2000)
Einstein's Theories of the Fluctuation and the Thermal Radiation--The First Quantum Theory through Statistical Thermodynamics
(/isis/citation/CBB000102483/)
Article
David M. Rogers;
(2019)
Range separation: the divide between local structures and field theories
(/isis/citation/CBB974572915/)
Book
Anne J. Kox;
(2019)
Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, natuurkundige 1853-1928. 'Een levend kunstwerk' [Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, physicist 1853-1928: 'A living work of art']
(/isis/citation/CBB232288852/)
Book
Stone, A. Douglas;
(2013)
Einstein and the Quantum: The Quest of the Valiant Swabian
(/isis/citation/CBB001213182/)
Book
Hoffmann, Dieter;
(2008)
Max Planck: Die Entstehung der modernen Physik
(/isis/citation/CBB000831692/)
Book
Mehra, Jagdish;
(2001)
Golden Age of Theoretical Physics
(/isis/citation/CBB000102021/)
Article
Peter Lukan;
(2015)
Roger Boscovich and the Quantum Mechanical Combination of Dynamic and Statistical Laws
(/isis/citation/CBB866089057/)
Book
Tavel, Morton;
(2002)
Contemporary Physics and the Limits of Knowledge
(/isis/citation/CBB000201565/)
Book
Rickles, Dean;
(2008)
The Ashgate Companion to Philosophy of Physics
(/isis/citation/CBB001024230/)
Substantia: An International Journal of the History of Chemistry
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
Physics in Perspective
Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science
History of the Human Sciences
Be the first to comment!