Books offered by JF Ptak Science Books LLC

Hermann Weyl.  "Zur Gravitationstheorie."  In:  Annalen der Physik, 4th series, volume 54, no. 18, 1917.  Pp 117-145 in the issue of pp 81-164.  Removed from the bound volume of the half-year's volume.  Decent copy.  Good condition.  $75

Robertson,  H.P..  Lectures on Relativity.  Princeton:  Princeton University,  1937 (?).  1st edition.  137  4to.  Printed wrappers.  Very good condition.  137 mimeographed leaves from typewritten notes. H.P. Robertson of the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmological model was part of the glorious Princeton IAS decade of the 1930's, including von Neumann, Einstein, Godel, Wigner, etc. These are notes of Robertson's lectures on relativity taken by his doctoral student A.H. Taub. RARE  $350

_____.  Relativistic Cosmology.  American Physical Society,  1933.  1st edition.  Reviews of Modern Physics, 5/1, January 1933  4to.  Original printed wrappers.  Fine condition.  Robertson's effort occupies pp 62-90 ofg this issue (pp 1-90).   $125.

_____. The Uncertainty Principle.  Minneapolis:  American Physical Society,  1929.  1st edition.  Physical Review 34/1 July 1, 1929  Pp 162-3  8vo.  Original printed wrappers.  Very good condition.  Excellent, classic, early American effort on the uncertainty principle. This is the first of the bi-weekly issues for the PhysRev, in the original green wraps. Other contributors in this issue: Allison, Morse, Langer, Pauling, Uhlenbeck, Langmuir, and others. See Wheeler, p. 127. $225

Whittaker, E.T. The Beginning and End of the World. Oxford University Press, 1943.  64pp.  Very nice copy in stiff wrappers. Unopened.  $35 Interesting work by the mathematician Whittaker who is best remembered by me for lumping Einstein into the "other" category in the discussion of Poincare/Lorentz relativity theory in his second edition of this history of the aether book. 

Important Einstein Papers, 1907

Einstein, Albert.  3 appearances in the Annalen, including:

1907 ANNALEN DER PHYSIK 23(6):197-198   Ueber die Moeglichkeit einer neuen Pruefung des Relativitatsprinzips.  (Possibility of a new examination of the relativity principle.)

1907 ANNALEN DER PHYSIK 23(6):206-208   Bemerkungen zu der Notiz von Hrn. Paul Ehrenfest: "Die translation deformierbarer Elektronen und der Flaechensatz".  (Comments on the note by Mr Paul Ehrenfest's "Translation of deformed electrons and the surface theorem.)

1907 ANNALEN DER PHYSIK 23(7):371-384  Ueber die vom Relativitsprinzip geforderte Traegheit Energie. (On the inertia of energy required by the relativity principle.)  This is the first appearance of e=mc² in a general form. 

All in Annalen der Physik 23(6) VIII,1000 pp. and 4 plates. Einstein's papers pp. 197-98, 206-209 and 371-384.

Weil Nos 17,18 a. 19

Half-cloth and marbled boards. A few internal ex-library marks appear.  Nice copy.  [On hold]

Niels Bohr Commemorative, with 26 Leading Contributors

Bohr,  Niels.  Commemoration of Niels Bohr on his 60th Birthday.  Lancaster:  American Physical Society,  1945.  1st printing.  Entire issue of Review of Modern Physics, vol 17, combined numbers  2 and 3,   containing pages  97-350  .  Original orange wrappers.  Very nice copy.  Contributions by Einstein, Pauli, Meitner, Chandra, Hevesy, Gamow, Dirac, Heitler, Born, Franck, Feynman, Chandrasekhar, Wheeler, and others.  Sold.

This entire issue is devoted to the Bohr commemorative with tremendous content by a near-alphabet of the early- and mid-century physicists.  (Alphabetically) included in the publication are:

Beck, Guido;  Field Concepts in Quantum Theory. Pp. 187-194; Bhabha, H. J. , Relativistic Wave Equations for the Elementary Particles. Pp. 200-216; Bloch, F. and I. I. Rabi,  Atoms in Variable Magnetic Fields. Pp. 237-244; Born, Max, On the Quantum Theory of Pyroelectricity. Pp. 245-251; Chandrasekhar, S. , The Formation of Absorption Lines in a Moving Atmosphere. Pp. 138-156.;  Casimir, H. B. G. On Onsager's Principle of Microscopic Reversibility. Pp. 343-350;  Dirac, P. A. M.,  On the Analogy Between Classical and Quantum Mechanics. Pp. 195-199; Einstein, Albert and Ernst G. Straus, The Influence of the Expansion of Space on the Gravitation Fields Surrounding the Individual Stars, pp. 120-124; .Franck, James, Photosynthetic Activity of Isolated Chloroplasts. Pp. 112-11; Gamow, G. and G. Keller. A Shell Source Model for Red Giant Stars. Pp. 125-137;  Goudsmit, S. Random Distribution of Lines in a Plane. Pp. 321-322;  Graham, Gordon A. R. and Hans Halban, Jr. On the Angular Distribution of Neutrons in the Photo-Disintegration of the Deuteron. Pp. 297-304.  Heitler, W. and P. Walsh, Theory of Cosmic-Ray Mesons. Pp. 252-262; Hevesy, George,  On the Effect of Roentgen Rays on Cellular Division. Pp. 102-111; Hulthén, Lamek, Comments on the Difficulties of the Meson Theory. Pp. 263-266;   Klein, O. and J. Lindhard. Some Remarks on the Quantum Theory of the Superconductive State. Pp. 305-309; London, F.,  Planck's Constant and Low Temperature Transfer. Pp. 310-322; Meitner, Lise, An Attempt to Single Out Some Fission Processes of Uranium by Using the Differences in Their Energy Release. Pp. 287-291; Pauli. Wolfgang,  Niels Bohr on His 60th Birthday. Pp. 97-101; Pauli, W. and N. Hu, On the Strong Coupling Case for Spin-Dependent Interactions in Scalar- and Vector-Pair Theories. Pp. 267-286; Thomas, L. H.,  Relativistic Invariance. Pp. 182-186;  Turner, Louis, . The Missing Heavy Nuclei. Pp. 292-296; Vleck, J. H. Van and V. F. Weisskopf,  On the Shape of Collision-Broadened Lines. Pp. 227-236; Wheeler, John Archibald and Richard Phillips Feynman, Interaction with the Absorber as the Mechanism of Radiation. Pp. 157-181;  Wang, Ming Chen and G. E. Uhlenbeck,  On the Theory of the Brownian Motion II. Pp. 323-342; Williams, E. J., Application of Ordinary Space-Time Concepts in Collision Problems and Relation of Classical Theory to Born's Approximation. Pp. 217-226.

A Foundation Paper in the History of Physics: the Speed of Light/Water Experiment 1851

Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau ( 1819 - 1896 ).  "Sur les hypotheses relatives a l'ether lumineux, et sur une experience qui parait demontrer que le mouvement des corps change la vitesse avec lawuelle la lumiere se propage dans elur interieur.   Par M.H. Fizeau, (Extrait par l'auteur.)  In:  Comptes Rendus..,volume 33, 1851, pp 349-355 (of the volume of 760pp).   This is the first publication of the later, full report that appeared in 1859 in Annales de Chimie et de Physique, 3me Series - Tome LVII.

This copy of volume 33 (1851) is rebound in black cloth, and is ex-library from the Wright-Patterson Technical Library; there are no marks on the spine, though there are rubberstamps (1x1.5 inches)  "Wright-Patterson/Technical Library/Dayton Ohio" on the page edge top and bottom (not side). There is also the Wright-Pat bookplate on the front pastedown, and a "Surplus/Duplicate Library of Congress" rubberstamp on the frot free endpaper.  (The pastedowns and free endapapers are all contemporary to the binding, which I think was done in the 1950's/60's.) The binding is very tight and the text is clean and crisp.  This is a nice, fresh copy. 

"During most of pre - Galileo and Newton and for subsequent eras as well, it was supposed that in the interstitial spaces between objects of matter that there existed a "carrying medium" or aether for the transmission of light from source to reflecting object and thence to the human eye for perception. Two French physicists, Jean Bernard Léon Foucault ( 1819 -1868 ) and Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau ( 1819 - 1896 ), attempted the determination for the finite speed of light; Fizeau did so singly in 1849 and again in 1850 together with Foucault but thereafter independently sought the speed of light in his famous 1851 Fizeau Water Experiment whenever light was transmitted thru a high velocity flowing medium such as water. In essence, therefore, Fizeau attempted to confirm Augustin - Jean Fresnel ( 1788 - 1827 )'s "velocity drag coefficient" for light transmitted thru high - velocity ( at least / approx. 30 m/sec ) flowing water. It should be thus noted that Augustin - Jean Fresnel, French mathematical theorist and experimenter in optical wave physics, is the original mathematical discoverer in 1818 of the velocity drag coefficient."

The entire work can be found here.

Rosen on Relativity

Rosen,  N.  General Relativity and Flat Space I and  Flat Space II and Note on Ether Drift Experiments.  Lancster:  American Physical Society,  1940.  1st edition. 

Three articles in Physical Review 57/2, January 15, 1940  Original printed wrappers.  Very good condition.  This seems to be the second-most cited article by Rosen following his fabulous 1935 paper with Einstein and Podolsky.

The following is taken from the APS PROLA site: "ABSTRACT Within the framework of the general theory of relativity , it is proposed to introduce at each point of space-time a Euclidean metric tensor γμν in addition to the usual Riemannian metric tensor gμν. In this way one imparts tensor character to quantities which in the usual form of the theory do not have it. For example, one can obtain a gravitational energy-momentum density tensor in place of the usual pseudo-tensor. Furthermore one can impose four additional covariant conditions on the gravitational field and thus restrict the form of the solution for the field corresponding to a given physical situation."  $300.00