Examples of the Zeroth Theorem of the History of Physics

TL;DR

This paper discusses the Zeroth Theorem of the history of science, illustrating how many scientific discoveries are misattributed, with five physics examples showing the true origins versus common attributions.

Contribution

It provides five detailed physics examples demonstrating the misattribution of scientific discoveries, highlighting the importance of historical accuracy.

Findings

Five physics examples illustrating misattribution of discoveries

Historical analysis of discovery origins and attributions

Illustrated sketches of true and reputed discoverers

Abstract

The zeroth theorem of the history of science (enunciated by E. P. Fischer) and widely known in the mathematics community as Arnol'd's Principle (decreed by M. V. Berry), states that a discovery (rule, regularity, insight) named after someone (often) did not originate with that person. I present five examples from physics: the Lorentz condition defining the Lorentz gauge of the electromagnetic potentials; the Dirac delta function (x); the Schumann resonances of the earth-ionosphere cavity; the Weizsacker-Williams method of virtual quanta; the BMT equation of spin dynamics. I give illustrated thumbnail sketches of both the true and reputed discoverers and quote from their "discovery" publications.