Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. Discrete or Continuous?
  • Cited by 25
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2014
Print publication year:
2014
Online ISBN:
9781107477346
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107477346
Subjects:
Physics and Astronomy, Philosophy of Science, History, Philosophy and Foundations of Physics, Philosophy
Information

Book description

The idea of infinity plays a crucial role in our understanding of the universe, with the infinite spacetime continuum perhaps the best-known example - but is spacetime really continuous? Throughout the history of science, many have felt that the continuum model is an unphysical idealization, and that spacetime should be thought of as 'quantized' at the smallest of scales. Combining novel conceptual analysis, a fresh historical perspective, and concrete physical examples, this unique book tells the story of the search for the fundamental unit of length in modern physics, from early classical electrodynamics to current approaches to quantum gravity. Novel philosophical theses, with direct implications for theoretical physics research, are presented and defended in an accessible format that avoids complex mathematics. Blending history, philosophy, and theoretical physics, this refreshing outlook on the nature of spacetime sheds light on one of the most thought-provoking topics in modern physics.

Reviews

'Amit Hagar's Discrete or Continuous?: The Quest for Fundamental Length in Modern Physics takes the reader on an enjoyable journey - by turns historical, philosophical, and physical - in a quest to unravel many of the subtleties that underlie the concept of a minimum length in physics.'

Luis J. Garay Source: Physics Today

'The author's discourse is not centered in philosophy or physics, but rather in the attempts to resolve quantum mechanics and general relativity. Throughout the work, Hagar does a good job of showing how complicated this issue is without burying the reader in technical points.'

E. Kincanon Source: Choice

'… this book is a comprehensive and even-handed exposition of the mathematical and philosophical formulations of theoretical physics in terms of discrete or continuous space-time structures. It spans the analyses of the subject from the ancient Greeks thought to the present day: from Zeno (450BC) to several discussions published as late as 2013. The monograph is extremely well referenced and cites some 550 articles and books.'

Richard Keesing Source: Contemporary Physics

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

Contents

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.