Twistors in curved space
- Authors: Ward, R S (Richard Samuel), 1951-
- Date: 1975
- Subjects: Twistor theory , Space and time
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:5429 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013472
- Description: From the Introduction, p. 1. During the past decade, the theory of twistors has been introduced and developed, primarily by Professor Roger Penrose, as part of a long-term program aimed at resolving certain difficulties in present-day physical theory. These difficulties include, firstly, the problem of combining quantum mechanics and general relativity, and, secondly, the question of whether the concept of a continuum is at all relevant to physics. Most models of space-time used in general relativity employ the idea of a manifold consisting of a continuum of points. This feature of the models has often been criticised, on the grounds that physical observations are essentially discrete in nature; for reasons that are mathematical, rather than physical, the gaps between these observations are filled in a continuous fashion (see, for example, Schrodinger (I), pp.26-31). Although analysis (in its generally accepted form) demands that quantities should take on a continuous range of values, physics, as such,does not make such a demand. The situation in quantum mechanics is not all that much better since, although some quantities such as angular momentum can only take on certain discrete values, one still has to deal with the complex continuum of probability amplitudes. From this point of view it would be desirable to have all physical laws expressed in terms of combinatorial mathematics, rather than in terms of (standard) analysis.
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- Date Issued: 1975
Who goes to parliament?
- Authors: Stultz, Newell Maynard
- Date: 1975
- Subjects: Legislators -- South Africa South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1948-1994 South Africa -- Politics and government
- Language: English
- Type: Book , Text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/2747 , vital:20322 , ISBN 0949980560
- Description: The focus here is upon the 1 169 white men and the twelve white women who were elected or nominated to the South African Parliament in Cape Town between 1910 and the conclusion of the 1970 general and Senate elections.1 Because of the integrated nature of government at the national level in South Africa, an examination of all parliamentarians concurrently produces information on all cabinet ministers during the same period, and for most if not all of the top leaders of the major political parties as well. Hence, recognizing the unitary structure of the South African regime - sometimes expressed in the principle of the 'sovereignty of Parliament' - it seems possible to designate these 1 181 persons as the formally ascendant South African political elite during the country's first six decades. Moreover, there is no reason to doubt that this number includes nearly all of the persons who exercised disproportionately great real power during these years, excepting, of course, those few non-whites who may be thought to have been politically influential at the national level. Every indication is that political life in South Africa centred on these individuals, or at least on some of them, for clearly not all were of equal political importance. Yet even the leaders within this select group, whom we shall also consider separately in detail, frequently (although not in every case) rose to prominence within the institution of Parliament, in part on the basis of their ability to influence and control its deliberations. An understanding of the backgrounds of all parliamentarians thus not only helps to describe the body itself, but may also contribute a new appreciation of the political power of the country's top leadership. , Digitised by Rhodes University Library on behalf of the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER)
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- Date Issued: 1975