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A priori prejudice in Weyl's unintended unification of gravitation and electricity

Afriat, Alexander (2007) A priori prejudice in Weyl's unintended unification of gravitation and electricity. [Preprint]

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    Abstract

    It is argued that Weyl's theory of gravitation and electricity came out of `mathematical justice': out of the equal rights direction and length. Such mathematical justice was clearly at work in the context of discovery, and is enough, together with a couple of simple and natural operations, to derive all of source-free electromagnetism. Weyl's repeated references to coordinates and gauge are taken to express equal treatment of direction and length.


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    Item Type: Preprint
    Keywords: Weyl; relativity; gravitation; electromagnetism; gauge
    Subjects: Specific Sciences > Mathematics
    Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
    Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
    General Issues > History of Science Case Studies
    Depositing User: Alexander Afriat
    Date Deposited: 09 Aug 2007
    Last Modified: 07 Oct 2010 11:15
    Item ID: 3463
    URI: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/3463

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