Effective Theories in Physics

Download or read book Effective Theories in Physics written by James D. Wells and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-14 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book... There is significant interest in the Philosophy of Science community to understand the role that "effective theories" have in the work of forefront science. The ideas of effective theories have been implicit in science for a long time, but have only been articulated well in the last few decades. Since Wilson's renormalization group revolution in the early 1970's, the science community has come to more fully understand its power, and by the mid-1990's it had gained its apotheosis. It is still one of the most powerful concepts in science, which has direct impact in how one thinks about and formulates theories of nature. It is this power that this Brief sets out to emphasize through historical analysis and current examples. This is an open access book.