THE LOGIC OF MODERN PHYSICS BY P. W. BRIDGMAN HOLLIS PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS AND NATURAL HISTORY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY Mew Bork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1958Coryarcur, 1927, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, All rights reserved—no of this book may be reproduced in any form without per- mission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief pas- sages in connection with a review written for inclusion in magazine or newspaper. Eighth Printing, 1958 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAPREFACE This excursion into the field of fundamental criti- cism by one whose activities have hitherto been con- fined almost entirely to experiment is not evidence of senile decay, as might be cynically assumed. I have always, throughout all my experimental work, felt an imperative need of a better understanding of the foundations of our physical thought and have for a long time made more or less unsystematic attempts to reach such an understanding. Only now, however, has a half sabbatical year given me leisure to attempt a more or less orderly exposition. In spite of previous writings on the broad funda- mentals by Clifford, Stallo, Mach, and Poincaré, to mention only a few, I believe a new essay of this crit- ical character needs no apology. For entirely apart from the question of whether many of the points of view of these essays can be maintained, the discovery of new facts in the domain of relativity and quantum theory has shifted the center of interest and emphasis. All the quite recent activity with the new quantum mechanics seems to call for a new examination of fundamental matters which shall recognize, at least by implication, the existence of the special phenom- ena of the quantum domain. However, the necessity for re-examination does not mean at all that many of v