When1: 1872
When2: 1916
Who: Ernst Mach [Mach, Ernst]
What: physicist/philosopher
Where: Vienna, Austria
works\ History and Root of the Law of the Conservation of Energy [1872]; Science of Mechanics: a Critical and Historical Account of its Development [1883]; Contributions to the Analysis of Sensations and the Relation of the Physical to the Psychical [1885]; Popular Scientific Lectures [1894]; Knowledge and Error [1905]; Space and Geometry in the Light of Physiological, Psychological and Physical Inquiry [1906]; Principles of Physical Optics: an Historical and Philosophical Treatment [1916]
Detail: He lived 1838 to 1916. He studied gas flow, sound speed, optic Doppler effect, shock waves, and perception {Mach band, Mach}. He studied how observers relate to sensations and objects and studied reference frames.
Epistemology
Accelerations and rotations are relative to universe mean mass {Mach's principle, Mach}, and so relative to fixed stars.
Object and physical knowledge cannot depend on sensations, because methods by which people perceive determine sensations. Science terms describe and predict {instrumentalism} but do not refer to physical objects, which people cannot know.
Only sensory experience can verify science ideas {empirio-criticism}.
Physical Sciences>Physics>History>Cosmology
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Date Modified: 2022.0224