Talk:Percy Williams Bridgman

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Ice and the Bridgman nomenclature

The "Bridgman nomenclature" in mentioned in the articles about the crystalline forms of ice, eg. Ice_Ic, and they link to this biography but there is no mention of either ice or the nomenclature in the article. ?:-/ Ferdinangus (talk) 08:53, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Pressure

Shouldn't pressure be measured Newtons per square metre, rather than kilograms per square metre? Cjb 13:00, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

I was just about to say the same thing! --Peter Lund <firefly@vax64.dk> 82.143.195.103 16:20, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Death of Bridgman

The text says Bridgman took his own life "after being diagnosed," which is technically correct but it implies the timing was right after he was diagnosed. Bridgman had been suffering for some time and in a note left explained that this was the last day he would physically be able to take his own life owing to the progress of his disease. (See Robert M. Hazen, The Diamond Makers) To many, the circumstances under which Bridgman took his own life, together with Bridgman's Nobel status, has been of singular relevance to how society views end-stage terminal illness and the choice made by the individual sufferer. I wonder if the article might not explain this. --PotomacFever 15:00, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Does not do justice to Bridgman the philosopher

Usually, first rate practitioners of science and reflecters upon science are disjoint sets. Bridgman was a rare exception, but this entry does not do justice to that fact. Bridgman was a rare scientist whose writings are of major importance to the philosophy of science and to the study of how scientific ideas should be structured. I grant that much of Bridgman's thinking may not be in fashion at present.202.36.179.65 19:59, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree about Percy Bridgman as a cosmological theorist and on the epistemology of physics and the sciences. MaynardClark (talk) 03:30, 11 December 2017 (UTC)

Date discrepancy

Under 'Major Works' there is a work published in 1980 listed. Given Bridgman died some 2 decades previously, exactly what this work is should be specified.

“Bridgman's words have been quoted by many on both sides of the assisted suicide debate.[3][4]”

The statement is unsupported by its citations. While the two citations come from sources that typically back opposing views on this issue, when you read the citations themselves, both sources use this quote to (editorially) show the (presumed) injustice of outlawing assisted suicide. I would be interested to see if someone can find a source that uses this quote to advance the anti-assisted-suicide position of the argument.
— cyberbisson (talk) 17:02, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

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Force

Force is the ratio of the square of viscosity to density. This understanding could have been Bridgman's as he wrote about both relativity and dimensional analysis. But he did not take to heart the fusion of L and T in Minkowski's spacetime: "Henceforth, space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality", spoke Minkowski in 1908.

Rather than use the L, M, T of Bridgman’s book, here force F = kg m / s², kilogram meters per second squared. And density is ρ = kg/ m³, kilograms per meter cubed. Then

$F\times \rho ={\frac {kg\ m}{s^{2}}}\times {\frac {kg}{m^{3}}}=({\frac {kg}{m\cdot s}})^{2}=\mu ^{2},$

where μ = kg / (m • s) , kilograms per meter-second, is dynamic viscosity measured in Poise. One can say that the viscosity is the geometric mean of force and density. Thus

$F={\frac {\mu ^{2}}{\rho }},$ a sophisticated consequence of relativistic thought with dimensional analysis.

As a geometric transformation, the Lorentz motion of a spacetime plane is a hyperbolic rotation which preserves hyperbolic angle, the geometric configuration used to have rapidity in kinematic description. The meter-second in the denominator of dynamic viscosity is area in a spacetime plane. The Lorentz motions, as any squeeze mapping, preserve this area. Rgdboer (talk) 01:10, 17 November 2023 (UTC)

Since area is preserved, dynamic viscosity is constant under Lorentz motion, whereas force and density are subject to relativistic effect. — Rgdboer (talk) 00:49, 18 November 2023 (UTC) When μ is constant, then (F, ρ) is confined to a hyperbola. — Rgdboer (talk) 00:23, 19 November 2023 (UTC) c/e — Rgdboer (talk) 01:48, 26 November 2023 (UTC) c/e — Rgdboer (talk) 01:54, 26 November 2023 (UTC)

Osborne Reynolds used kinematic viscosity to define the Reynolds number, the threshold of turbulence in fluid flow. The notion is developed in the study of aerodynamics and hydrology, referring to fluid flow rather than relativity. — Rgdboer (talk) 01:17, 21 March 2024 (UTC)