Taming theory with thought experiments: Understanding and scientific progress

I claim that one way thought experiments contribute to scientific progress is by increasing scientific understanding. Understanding does not have a currently accepted characterization in the philosophical literature, but I argue that we already have ways to test for it. For instance, current pedagogical practice often requires that students demonstrate being in either or both of the following two states: 1) Having grasped the meaning of some relevant theory, concept, law or model, 2) Being able to apply that theory, concept, law or model fruitfully to new instances. Three thought experiments are presented which have been important historically in helping us pass these tests, and two others that cause us to fail. Then I use this operationalization of understanding to clarify the relationships between scientific thought experiments, the understanding they produce, and the progress they enable. I conclude that while no specific instance of understanding (thus conceived) is necessary for scientific progress, understanding in general is.     

鼠标定位即时显隐导航栏的创建

网站传统导航模式的主要不足在于导航栏位置固定且占用版面,需要浏览者花费时间和精力寻找和调整导航栏,导航效果较差.在网页中嵌入JavaScript脚本,创建新式导航栏,使浏览者能够迅速、方便地控制导航栏的显示位置和显隐时机,可极大地改善导航效果,提高导航的实用性和便捷性.     

预应力混凝土梁桥温度效应分析

温度效应是引起混凝土桥梁裂缝产生的重要因素之一.为研究不同工况下混凝土梁桥的温度效应,通过有限元软件ADINA对梁体在浇筑水化热、日照温差两种工况下的温度场进行模拟,结合某预应力混凝土梁桥实桥跟踪试验温度实测值进行对比分析,并计算出温度应力对结构的影响.结果表明:有限元计算结果与现场实测结果较为一致.混凝土T梁浇筑时,...     

大跨预应力混凝土箱梁桥收缩徐变效应

随着大跨预应力混凝土粱桥的迅速发展。桥梁收缩和徐变影响的分析和计算成为结构设计人员越来越关心的问题,因此徐变计算理论和方法得到了不断发展．综述了徐变的各种分析方法,采用积分退化核方法对大跨预应力混凝土连续刚构蟹进行了计算,得出了一些有意义的结论,可供桥梁设计参考．     

预应力混凝土曲线梁的静力计算

按等代荷载法将空间预应力等效为竖向荷载和径向荷载,利用能量变分原理,推导出曲线梁竖向和径向的基本微分方程、边界条件,并求得相应的闭合解。通过算例比较,结果吻合较好。分析了中心角、曲率变化对曲线梁的内力影响,得到有益的结论。     

Orb‐web spiders (Araneae: Araneomorphae; Orbiculariae) captured by hunting‐wasps (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae) in an area of Atlantic Forest in south‐eastern Brazil

Members of two hunting‐wasp families, Pompilidae and Sphecidae, are among the major predators of orb‐web spiders. In this study, we collected paralysed spiders from natural nests and trap‐nests provisioned by sphecids in an area of Brazilian Atlantic Forest, and compared these data with the composition of species collected by visual searching during one year. Prey preferences were analysed based on the relative abundance of spider species, their size and web characteristics. We also compiled a list of orb‐weavers captured by four sphecid genera reported in 40 other studies. A large number of prey was obtained from natural nests of Trypoxylon (Trypargilum) albonigrum in Parque Estadual Intervales, especially species of Eustala, Parawixia, and Araneus (Araneidae). Other prey, stored in trap‐nests by T. lactitarse and unidentified hunting‐wasp species, included Nephila (Tetragnathidae), Parawixia, Ocrepeira, Mecynogea, Acacesia (Araneidae), and other spider species that were less abundant. All the species that were heavily preyed upon had a relatively lower abundance in our samples of prey availability. The range of body sizes of spiders captured by Trypoxylon in our study area include the size of some abundant orb‐weavers always absent in their nests. These results indicate that factors other than abundance in the field and the spider's size influence prey selection or susceptibility to attack.     

黄大铁路黄河特大桥顶推施工分析与监控技术

针对黄大铁路黄河特大桥连续钢桁梁多点同步顶推施工,利用倒拆法建模计算顶推施工全过程,找出主桁杆件在支点处的最大应力值以及导梁悬臂端变形规律和最大变形值,确定出全过程施工中的最不利工况为M2工况;设置变形监测点,监控导梁前段竖向位移变形,实测值基本与理论值吻合,施工线形可控;在M2工况中,将主桁和导梁自重荷载乘以1.35的放大系数,计算主梁在导梁悬臂140m,悬臂160m和导梁上墩20m后的主桁杆件的应力值,并在主桁上设置24个监测点监测杆件应力值,对比发现实测值均略小于理论值,施工过程中材料强度储备是安全可靠的。作为国内最大跨度的平行弦桁架桥顶推成功,对其他同类大跨度桥梁顶推施工具有较高的参考价值。     

Packaging Radium,Selling Science: Boxes,Bottles and Other Mundane Things in the World of Science

This article discusses the intersection of science and culture in the marketplace and explores the ways in which radium quack and medicinal products were packaged and labelled in the early twentieth century US. Although there is an interesting growing body of literature by art historians on package design, historians of science and medicine have paid little to no attention to the ways scientific and medical objects that were turned into commodities were packaged and commercialized. Thinking about packages not as mere containers but as multifunctional tools adds to historical accounts of science as a sociocultural enterprise and reminds us that science has always been part of consumer culture. This paper suggests that far from being receptacles that preserve their content and facilitate their transportation, bottles and boxes that contained radium products functioned as commercial and epistemic devices. It was the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act that enforced such functions. Packages worked as commercial devices in the sense that they were used to boost sales. In addition, ‘epistemic’ points to the fact that the package is an artefact that ascribes meaning to and shapes its content while at the same time working as a device for distinguishing between patent and orthodox medicines.     

SAR图像目标方位角估计与分析

SAR成像对目标方位角特别敏感,方位角估计的准确性会直接影响目标的分类和识别.目标方位角估计方法主要有包络盒准则法、轮廓线变换法和主轴原则法.每种方法都有其局限性,且估计范围是[0, 180],可是目标方位角实际范围是[0, 360].为了能获得任意角度且相对精确目标方位角,提出了一种综合SAR图像目标方位角估计方法.该方法融合了的单一估计法的优点,并利用目标的相关信息,突破了以往仅从图像的角度估计方位角的缺点.实验表明这种方法是有效的、可行的.     

我国电影生命周期模型及实证分析

对我国电影市场的影片生命周期进行了分析,建立了考虑季节性因素和其他影响因素的Gamma需求模型,并结合计量模型中的变截距面板数据模型与普通多元回归模型应用于研究电影观众人数及其衰减情况.估计结果显示:建立的模型能够较准确地反映我国电影市场观众人数.的变化规律.此外,针对我国电影市场,量化研究了影星的票房号召力、续集、投资规模等因素对观众人数的影响情况,为电影决策者制定策略以及预测新上映影片的观众需求做指导与借鉴.实证结果显示:考虑档期因素的必要性,并且发现较多的观众会导致影片观众人数的下降显得更快些,大制作和小制作电影的观众衰减速度相差很小,模拟支持研究结论的合理性.