BRIDGMAN
(Bridgman) Percy Williams (1882-1961) - amer. physicist and philosopher, winner of the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physics. In the philosophy and methodology of science B. is known for the concept of "operationalism", formulated in the work "The Logic of Modern Physics" (1927). This doctrine is based on the idea that the meanings of scientific concepts are synonymous with the set of operations by which their content is determined. The main such operations are experimental measurement procedures. The formation of operationalism was mainly influenced by pragmatism and the way A. Einstein defined the basic concepts of the theory of relativity. The operational introduction of concepts makes it possible to give them a strict meaning, to separate them from the corresponding concepts of everyday experience and metaphysics. At the same time, the identification of the meaning of the concepts of science with the totality of operations leads to the rejection of their understanding as the correlates of reality, to the convergence of operationalism with the instrumentalist interpretation of scientific knowledge. In the spirit of these ideas, B. interpreted various episodes in the development of science, and also spoke out on more general philosophies. problems. His position reflected real methodological changes in modern natural science, however, the spread of operationalism to the entire content of scientific knowledge caused criticism by many philosophers. As a result, B. himself began to recognize that the significance of scientific concepts is not limited to operational-measuring procedures, even if the understanding of operations is expanded to include, along with real ones, mental operations.

Philosophy: Encyclopedic Dictionary. - M.: Gardariki. Edited by A.A. Ivina. 2004 .

BRIDGMAN
(Bridgeman) Percy Williams (21.4. 1882 , Cambridge, Massachusetts - 20. 8. 1961 , Randolph, New Hampshire), Amer. physicist and philosopher. Nobel Prize in Physics (1946). In the interpretation of knowledge, B. is close to instrumentalism (in the interpretation of the problem of the meaning of concepts) and solipsism (in the interpretation of experience). Absolutizing empirical. aspect of science, B. underestimated the actual. the role of abstract thinking and abstractions. He considered senseless theoretical. concepts that are not verifiable in experience. The idea of ​​connecting the meaning of a concept with a set of actions (operations), leading to their application, B. transferred to the methodology of science and the theory of knowledge as a general principle: to determine scientific concepts, according to B., should not be in terms others abstractions, but in terms of the operations of experience (operational definition of concepts). This thesis served as the basis for the whole pdealistic. programs for the operational construction of the language of science.
see Operationalism.
Logic of modern physics, N.?., 1927; The nature of some of our physical concepts, N.Y., 1952; Reflections of a physicist, ?. ?., 19551; Way things are, Camb., 1959.

Philosophical encyclopedic dictionary. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ch. editors: L. F. Ilyichev, P. N. Fedoseev, S. M. Kovalev, V. G. Panov. 1983 .

BRIDGMAN
BRIDGMAN(Bridgman) Percy Williams (born April 21, 1882, Cambridge, Massachusetts - died Aug. 20, 1961, Randolph, New Hampshire) - Amer. physicist and theorist, since 1904 - professor at Harvard University. Known for his work in the development of the epistemological foundations of Einstein's theory of relativity. He also holds the opinion that in physics, on the basis of knowledge of a given cause, the future state of a system can only be determined approximately. Main Prod.: "The logic of modern phisics", 1927; "Reflections of a physicist", 1950.

Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary. 2010 .

BRIDGMAN
(Bridgman), Percy Williams (b. April 21, 1882) - Amer. physicist and idealist philosopher. He graduated from Harvard University (1904), where he was then prof. mathematics and nature. philosophy until 1954. Winner of the Nobel Prize (1946) for research in the field of high pressure physics.
In philosophy, B. is known as the founder of operationalism, DOS. ideas to which he was first expressed in the work "Dimensional analysis" ("Dimensional analysis", 1922, 2nd ed., 1931, Russian translation 1934), then developed in detail in the "Logic of modern physics" ("Logic of modern physics ", 1927, reprinted 1954) and subsequent works. According to B., the meaning of any concept can be clarified only by analyzing a number of operations that are performed either when using this concept, or when verifying, that is, when determining the truth of a sentence that includes this concept, or when answering questions about it . Thus, the meaning of a concept is reduced to a corresponding series of operations; this is expressed in formula B. "meaning is operations". Operations are defined by B. as "directed actions" of an individual and can be both purely physical and mental ("with a pencil and paper"), as well as mixed. Concepts that do not allow operations. definitions, B. declares unsuitable for scientific. use. These views are a synthesis of logical positivism, from where B. takes the idea of ​​empiricism. definition of the meaning of the concept, with pragmatism. The operationalism of B. inevitably leads to subjective idealism, because, in the final analysis, knowledge is reduced to the subjective experience of the individual. In the field of sociology, B. takes the position of an anarchist intellectual, praising the intellectual freedom of a lone scientist; he calls for the rejection of "sentimental democracy", where all members of the state enjoy the same privileges, and insists on the participation in governance of only the most "authoritative" politicians and scientists.
Op.: The nature of physical theory, 2 ed., N. Y., 1949; The intelligent individual and society, N. Y., 1938; Reflections of a physicist, 2nd ed., N.Y., 1955; The nature of some of our physical concepts, N. Y., 1952. Lit.: Schaff?., Some problems of the Marxist-Leninist theory of truth, M., 1953; Bykhovsky B. E., Bridgman's Operationalism, "Questions of Philosophy" 1958, No 2; Gorshtein, so-called, Modern positivism and philosophical questions of physics, in the book: Modern subjective idealism, M., 1957.
V. Abramov. Moscow.

Philosophical Encyclopedia. In 5 volumes - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia. Edited by F. V. Konstantinov. 1960-1970 .

BRIDGMAN
BRIDGEMAN (Bridgman) Percy Williams (April 21, 1882 Cambridge, USA - August 20, 1961, Randolph, New Hampshire) - American physicist and philosopher of science, theorist of operationalism; winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1946). He graduated from Harvard University (1904), from 1908 a teacher there, from 1919 a professor. In 1926-35 he was professor of mathematics and philosophy of nature at Hittins University, in 1950-54 again at Harvard University. Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and other scientific societies.
Bridgman was an experimenter in the field of physics and high pressure technology. His book “Dimensional Analysis” (Dimensional Analysis. New Haven, 1922; Russian translation: M., 1934) has become widely known. He was engaged in understanding the logical structure, language and nature of physical science, as well as philosophical questions. Like the neopositivists, Bridgman focused on analyzing the conceptual structure of physics and looking for empirical foundations for theoretical constructs. In the spirit of instrumentalism, Bridgman identified the meaning of a concept with a set of operations, while defining the operationalist method as a set of step-by-step actions - practical and thought experiments - to determine values. He assumed that the language of science should contain statements, all concepts of which have referents. In The Way Things Are. N.Y., 1959, a book devoted to general epistemological issues, Bridgman defines philosophical theories as verbal experiments that testify to the possibilities of human thinking and fantasy, as well as to the social need for such experiments, and not about the nature of the world.
J. Dewey relied on Bridgman's operationalism in substantiating his version of instrumentalism. His theory was highly appreciated by representatives of the Vienna Circle (G. Feigl), and also influenced research in the field of sociology and psychology (primarily the behaviorism of B. F. Skinner). Developed in The Intelligent Individual and Society (N.Y., 1938), the ideas of intellectual freedom and responsibility caused a wide resonance among the American intelligentsia.
Cit.: The Logic of Modem Physics. N.Y., 1927; The Physics of High Pressure. N.Y., 1937; The Nature of Thermodynamics. Cambr. Mass., 1941; The Nature of Some of our Physical Concepts. N.Y., 1952; Reflections of a Physicis. N.Y., 1950; A Sophisticate's Primer of Relativity. L., 1962.
Lit .: Liver” AA Operationalist interpretation of the logic of science by Percy Bridgman.-In the book: Concepts of science in bourgeois philosophy and sociology. Second half of the 19th-20th centuries M., 1974.
?. S. Yulina

New Philosophical Encyclopedia: In 4 vols. M.: Thought. Edited by V. S. Stepin. 2001 .

Having started experimental work on creating high pressures in 1908, by 1933 Percy Bridgeman with the help of his instruments reached the pressure 12 000 atmospheres (for comparison: the pressure in the barrel of a conventional gun is hundreds of atmospheres).

Having obtained record pressure values, he was able to investigate and describe:

The behavior of liquids and solids at gigantic pressures (taking into account the discoveries of other scientists, there are 11 types of ice, some of which were discovered by Percy Bridgman);

Changes in electrical resistance at gigantic pressures, etc.

Later, he created an apparatus in which he brought the pressure to 130 000 atmospheres at 1000 degrees.

In 1940, Percy Bridgman managed to obtain synthetic pyrite crystals.

In 1946, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the complex of research carried out, we quote: "for the invention of a device that allows creating ultrahigh pressures, and for the discoveries made in connection with this in high pressure physics."

Percy Bridgman once remarked that it was not difficult to get new results in physics if all the known experiments were carried out again under superhigh pressure. It should be noted that for the study of substances under anomalous conditions, several more Nobel Prizes were received by other scientists ...

Percy Williams Bridgeman

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1946. The wording of the Nobel Committee: "for the invention of a device that allows the creation of ultrahigh pressures, and for the discoveries made in connection with this in high-pressure physics."

Our today's hero is a typical American. He was born in Cambridge, but not in the one that gave us a whole galaxy of physicists from, but in the one that the Charles River separates from Boston. The city is still small - only 100 thousand people, but what! It is in this city that both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are located.

One of the buildings of Harvard University in Cambridge (Massachusetts, USA)

Filippo Diotalevi/Flickr

Peter's parents (so Percy was called from childhood) were by no means professors. His father, Raymond Lendon Bridgeman, was a reporter who specialized in social and political issues. Mother, Mary Ann Mary, née Williams, was described as a "simple, lively and slightly defiant" woman.

If you believe in signs, then from birth, life “indicated” to Peter-Percy that you need to do physics. Born in Cambridge, then the family moved to the city with the speaking name Newton. It is not surprising that the teacher of the parish school in Newton advised the boy to go further along the scientific path. Naturally, Percy decided to study at Harvard. Most of his life was connected with him.

Bridgeman became a bachelor in 1904. Even then, he began to deal with high blood pressure. The future laureate was interested in science and his thoughts about it… And nothing more. He never taught, rudely sent out Harvard President Abbott Lowell (his phrase "I'm not interested in your ... college, let me do science" became catchy), and as a result, Bridgman wrote more than a quarter of a thousand articles and a damn dozen monographs.

He made his first invention related to pressure back in 1905. The scientist invented a sealed method for isolating pressure vessels with gas. The solution was original: an insulating gasket, made of rubber or soft metal, was compressed under pressure greater than the pressure inside the vessel (it was called the Bridgman gasket). As a result, the sealing plug automatically sealed as the pressure increased and never leaked, regardless of the pressure, as long as the walls of the vessel held. It is curious that this invention was made when Bridgeman needed to fix a broken high-pressure apparatus.

Bridgeman gasket

Wikimedia Commons

As a result, Bridgman ended up with an instrument that could study hundreds of substances under high pressure conditions. It reached the indicator of 100 thousand atmospheres, and in some cases up to 400 thousand. In fact, for the first time, it was possible to experimentally study substances under the same conditions in which they are found in the bowels of the Earth.

And since a new tool appeared that brought science into a completely unknown area, discoveries rained down as if from a cornucopia. Want to discover a new allotropic modification of phosphorus? Please! Let's try to get "hot ice"? Only 20 thousand atmospheres, and the ice does not melt at 80 ° C!

He discovered the compressibility of atoms (starting with the compression of metallic cesium), how the molecules of liquids, including water, behave when compressed, studied graphs of the dependence of the melting point at the highest pressures. It is even strange that the Nobel Prize came so late. By that time, Bridgman had already managed to compress even uranium and plutonium within the framework of the Manhattan Project ... By the way, it is curious that in 1946 our hero "passed" in the Nobel race another great experimenter who became famous in another Cambridge - Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa. (We will not talk about him soon, because Kapitsa had been waiting for his prize for the discovery of the superfluidity of helium, which took place in 1938, for exactly forty years ...)

Pyotr Kapitsa in the 1930s

Wikimedia Commons

“With the help of your original apparatus, coupled with brilliant experimental technique, you have greatly enriched our knowledge of the properties of matter at high pressures,” was how Percy Bridgman was greeted during the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm on December 4, 1946.

Having already become a famous physicist, Bridgman declared himself as a philosopher. And very successfully. Of all the Nobel laureates that we have written about so far, perhaps only he was almost a real philosopher (many remember his collection “Physics and Philosophy” published in the USSR). Bridgman's main book was The Logic of Modern Physics, published in 1927. In this book, he laid the foundations for a whole new philosophical trend called Operationism (the word itself appeared in 1920 in a book by another physicist, Norman Campbell).

At the very end of his life, Bridgeman declared himself again - tragically and loudly. When he turned 79, the Nobel laureate learned that he was terminally ill. Cancer with metastases, rapid loss of strength, incipient pain. The scientist firmly decided to have time to die painlessly and not wait for the last stage, but not a single doctor wanted to help him with euthanasia. On August 20, 1961, Bridgman shot himself in the head with a hunting rifle, leaving a bitter and angry note: “It is not very decent on the part of society to force a person to do This with your own hands. Today is probably the last day I'm still able to do it myself." The Bridgeman Note still figures in the ethical debate about euthanasia.

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Topic 1. Fundamentals of molecular - kinetic theory

Basic provisions of the ICB

1. All substances consist of particles, between which there are gaps.

2. Particles in any substance move continuously and randomly.

3. Particles interact with each other.

Some experimental substantiations of these provisions

circumstantial evidence:

1. compressibility of bodies during deformation (gases are especially well compressed, while the distances between their particles decrease);

2. fragmentation of matter (the limit of fragmentation in molecular physics is a molecule or an atom);

3. expansion and contraction of bodies with a change in temperature (change in the distance between molecules);

4. evaporation of liquids (transition of individual liquid molecules into a gaseous state);

5. diffusion- mutual penetration of contiguous substances due to the chaotic movement of molecules: spontaneous mixing of substances occurs fastest in gases (minutes), slower in liquids (weeks), very slowly in solids (years), diffusion accelerates with increasing temperature;

6. Brownian motion - random movement of very small particles of a solid body suspended in a liquid or gas, continuous, indestructible, depending on temperature: it becomes more intense with its increase. It is explained by the fact that each Brownian particle is surrounded by randomly moving molecules, the pushes of which lead to its random movement;

7. sticking of lead cylinders, sticking of glass to water (occur due to the attraction of molecules);

8. resistance to tension and compression, low compressibility of solids and liquids prove that molecules interact.

Direct evidence:

1. observation of the structure of matter in an electron microscope, photographs of individual large molecules;

2. Bridgman's experiment (oil seepage through the steel walls of a vessel under pressure atm.);

3. measured parameters of atoms and molecules - diameter, mass, speed.

Dimensions of an atom of the order or cm

The forces of interaction of molecules - These are the forces of attraction and repulsion. The reason for the emergence of forces is the electromagnetic interactions of electrons and nuclei of neighboring molecules: repulsion

+ - repulsion - +

attraction

The forces of intermolecular interaction are short-range: they act at distances comparable to the sizes of molecules or atoms. These forces depend on the distance between these particles:

1. at a distance equal to the diameter of the molecule, the forces of attraction and repulsion of molecules are equal, the resulting force of molecular interaction is zero

= ,

2. at a distance slightly greater than the diameter of the molecule, the attractive forces prevail over the repulsive forces, as a result, an attractive force acts between the molecules

Force of gravity;

3. at a distance less than the diameter of the molecule, repulsive forces prevail over attractive forces, as a result, a repulsive force acts between the molecules

Repulsive force;

4. at a distance much larger than the size of the molecules, the forces of attraction and repulsion cease to act

5. when the molecules approach, when the repulsive force grows faster, the resulting force of interaction of molecules, manifesting itself in the form of a repulsive force, becomes infinitely large.

Basic concepts of MKT

1. Absolute mass of the molecule ( )

The absolute mass of a molecule or simply the mass of a molecule of a substance is very small, e.g. (O) .

2. Relative molecular weight ( ) – the ratio of the mass of a molecule of a given substance to masses of a carbon atom : = ;

= ( - atomic mass unit).

Knowing the chemical formula of a substance, one can find the relative molecular mass as the sum of the relative masses of the atoms that make up the molecule. The relative atomic masses of substances are taken from the periodic table. For example, () = 16 2 =32; () =1 2 + 16 =18.

3. Amount of substance ( – the ratio of the number of molecules of a given substance to the constant Avogadro number : ; – Avogadro's constant shows how many molecules are contained in one mole of any substance, = .

mole– the amount of substance contained in 12 g of carbon.

4. Molar mass of a substance ( ) – mass of one mole of a substance : The molar mass can be found by knowing that = kg/mol. For example, = kg/mol; O) = 18 kg/mol.

5.Mass of matter ( : N;

6. Number of molecules or atoms ( : ;

Aggregate states of matter (phases of matter)

solid liquid gaseous plasma

phase transition- the transition of a substance from one state of aggregation to another.

For example, when heated, a solid can be converted into a liquid state, a liquid into a gaseous state, and a gas into a plasma state. Plasma- it is a partially or fully ionized gas, i.e. an electrically neutral system consisting of neutral atoms and charged particles (ions, electrons, etc.)

In molecular physics, three phases of the state of matter are studied: gas, liquid and solid. Basic properties of gases: 1. do not have a constant volume, they occupy the entire provided, expanding indefinitely; 2. do not have a permanent shape, they take the form of a vessel; 3. easy to compress; 4. exert pressure on all walls of the vessel.

The main properties of liquids: 1. keep a constant volume; 2. do not have a permanent shape, they take the form of a vessel; 3. practically incompressible; 4. fluid.

Basic properties of solids: 1. have a constant volume; 2. retain a permanent shape; 3. have the correct geometric shape of the crystals.

The properties of substances in various states of aggregation can be explained by knowing the features of their internal structure.

State of aggregation	Distance between particles	Particle interaction	The nature of the movement of particles	Order in the arrangement of particles
gases	Many more particle sizes	Weak attraction, repulsion only during collisions	Free, progressive, chaotic movement at high speeds - "tramps"	no order
Liquids	Comparable to particle sizes	Strong attraction and repulsion	Oscillating-translational movement, i.e. oscillate around the equilibrium position and can jump - "nomads"	The order is not strict - "near" order
Solids	Smaller particle sizes, "dense packing"	Strong attraction and repulsion (stronger than in liquid)	Limited, oscillate around the equilibrium position - "sedentary"	Strict order - "long-range" order (crystal lattice)