کد مقاله | کد نشریه | سال انتشار | مقاله انگلیسی | نسخه تمام متن |
---|---|---|---|---|
1161496 | 1490434 | 2014 | 19 صفحه PDF | دانلود رایگان |

• The β spectrum occasioned around 1930 the suggestion of very diverse hypotheses.
• The reasoning of Rutherford, G. P. Thomson, Bohr, Heisenberg and Pauli is analyzed.
• It is reconstructed why and how each of them formed their hypothesis.
• The type of hypothesis formation pattern relies heavily on personal perspectives.
• Pauli's 1930 neutrino could have been an adaptation of Rutherford's (1920) neutron idea.
This paper addresses the question of how scientists determine which type of hypothesis is most suitable for tackling a particular problem by examining the historical case of the anomalous β spectrum in early nuclear physics (1927–1934), a puzzle that occasioned the most diverse hypotheses amongst physicists at the time. It is shown that such determinations are most often implicitly informed by scientists' individual perspectives on the structural relations between the various elements of the theory and the problem at hand. In addition to this main result, it is suggested that Wolfgang Pauli's neutrino idea may well have been an adaptation of Ernst Rutherford's original and older neutron idea, which would provide evidence that the adaptation of older ideas is a more common practice than is often thought.
Journal: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics - Volume 45, February 2014, Pages 27–45