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Boston studies in the philosophy of science

On the Question of the Measurability of Electromagnetic Field Quantities [with Niels Bohr] [1933b]

Robert S. Cohen, John J. Stachel

Published Jan 1, 1979• 6 citations
Publisher
DOI
10.1007/978-94-009-9349-5_26

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In 1933, Bohr and Rosenfeld published a famous article, “On the question of the measurability of electromagnetic field quantities”, which by many accounts became a milestone. Historiography, though, does not seem to have really grasped its impact. In this brief paper I will highlight how the work by Bohr and Rosenfeld had an important reception story also outside of QED, more specifically in quantum gravity attempts: in the USSR, at the hands of Bronstein (mid-1930s), and in the US, at the hands of Wheeler (mid-1950s).