A Comparison of the Meaning and Uses of Models in Mathematics and the Empirical Sciences

Abstract

In the fields of spectroscopy and atomic structure, similar departures from classical physics took place. There had been accumulated an overwhelming mass of evidence showing the atom to consist of a heavy, positively charged nucleus surrounded by negative, particle-like electrons. According to Coulomb’s law of attraction between electric charges, such a system will collapse at once unless the electrons revolve about the nucleus. But a revolving charge will, by virtue of its acceleration, emit radiation. A mechanism for the emission of light is thereby at once provided.

Reprinted from Synthese 12 (1960), 287–301.