Abstract The problem of explaining the Sun’s enormous output of heat and light was first attacked in the 1840s and soon resulted in a consensus view that solar energy was mechanical in origin. From about 1860 to 1905 the standard model was the so-called Helmholtz-Thomson contraction theory which however faced a number of serious problems. Physicists and astronomers slowly realised that the source was not mechanical but due to intra-atomic processes, either proton-electron annihilation or fusion of hydrogen into helium atoms. Both possibilities were discussed by Arthur Eddington in the 1920s, but it was only with quantum mechanics and a new picture of the atomic nucleus that quantitative models were developed. The old riddle of solar energy was essentially solved with Hans Bethe’s celebrated theory published in 1938-1939. This paper briefly reviews the developments from about 1850 to 1940.
...More
Article
Hufbauer, Karl;
(2006)
Stellar Structure and Evolution, 1924--1939
(/isis/citation/CBB000670083/)
Chapter
Cesare Silvi;
(2009)
La storia dell'uso dell'energia solare sulla Terra
(/isis/citation/CBB464838538/)
Article
Smadja, Ivahn;
(2010)
Tuning up Mind's Pattern to Nature's Own Idea: Eddington's Early Twenties Case for Variational Derivatives
(/isis/citation/CBB000933694/)
Article
Bernard Bigot;
(2024)
Big Science “for the benefit of all mankind”
(/isis/citation/CBB170598238/)
Article
Mota, Elsa;
Crawford, Paulo;
Simões, Ana;
(2009)
Einstein in Portugal: Eddington's Expedition to Principe and the Reactions of Portuguese Astronomers (1917--25)
(/isis/citation/CBB000932112/)
Article
Sponsel, Alistair;
(2002)
Constructing a “Revolution in Science”: The Campaign to Promote a Favourable Reception for the 1919 Solar Eclipse Experiments
(/isis/citation/CBB000300440/)
Article
Batten, Alan H.;
(2003)
What Eddington Did Not Say
(/isis/citation/CBB000410782/)
Article
Jackiw, Roman;
(2009)
Hans Bethe, My Teacher
(/isis/citation/CBB000932048/)
Article
French, Steven;
(2003)
Scribbling on the Blank Sheet: Eddington's Structuralist Conception of Objects
(/isis/citation/CBB000340845/)
Book
Schweber, Silvan S.;
(2012)
Nuclear Forces: The Making of the Physicist Hans Bethe
(/isis/citation/CBB001201092/)
Article
Durham, Ian T.;
(2003)
Eddington and Uncertainty
(/isis/citation/CBB000641719/)
Article
Fontes, Christopher J.;
Bostock, Christopher J.;
Bartschat, Klaus;
(2014)
Annotation of Hans Bethe's paper, Zeitschrift för Physik 76, 293 (1932), “Braking Formula for Electrons of Relativistic Speed”
(/isis/citation/CBB001451857/)
Article
Adam Tamas Tuboly;
(2020)
Knowledge Missemination: L. Susan Stebbing, C.E.M. Joad, and Philipp Frank on the Philosophy of the Physicists
(/isis/citation/CBB985127853/)
Article
Almassi, Ben;
(2009)
Trust in Expert Testimony: Eddington's 1919 Eclipse Expedition and the British Response to General Relativity
(/isis/citation/CBB000933690/)
Book
Matthew Stanley;
(2019)
Einstein's War: How Relativity Conquered Nationalism and Shook the World
(/isis/citation/CBB538235042/)
Article
Lambert, Dominique;
(2005)
Les origines de l'hypothèse de l'Atome primitif: une perspective nouvelle
(/isis/citation/CBB000670009/)
Article
Stanley, Matthew;
(2007)
So Simple a Thing as a Star: The Eddington--Jeans Debate over Astrophysical Phenomenology
(/isis/citation/CBB000771301/)
Article
Durham, Ian T.;
(2006)
Rethinking the History of Solar Wind Studies: Eddington's Analysis of Comet Morehouse
(/isis/citation/CBB000770148/)
Chapter
Batten, Alan H;
(2004)
Creed and Experience: Eddington on Science and Religion
(/isis/citation/CBB000471154/)
Thesis
Stanley, Matthew George;
(2004)
Practical Mystic: Religion and Science in the Life and Work of A. S. Eddington
(/isis/citation/CBB001562117/)
Be the first to comment!