Michael Schmiechen, Berlin
News on general subjects
Last update: 2022.04.22
Contents
A recent paper on 'What is reality? in Spektrum
has triggered the following letter to the author,
- Brief an (einen) Philosophen.
Closely related is a short correspondence
on the concepts 'holistic and holarchic',
- holistisch, holarchisch.
Last update: 2014.07.15
On various occasions I have written on the subjects,
most prominently in my opus magnum.
The recent discussion on the theorem of Bayes
and it applications has triggered three letters
of general interest, the first two to Prof. Som D. Sharma
- on 'the theory that would not die'
by Sharon B. McGrayne and
- additional remarks,
and the third one to the editor of DIE ZEIT
on a contribution by Christoph Dr?sser
- concerning significant nonsense.
Last update: 2013.12.30
The material originally documented at this location
is now to be found under 'News on various subjects',
a location felt to be more appropriate.
Last update: 2011.09.25
Note: Though the title of this sub-section sounds quite
prohibitive, it is addressed to practitioners, its content
being of 'considerable' interest to physicists and
engineers in particular.
The following letter to Prof. Peter Janich concerning
his expositions of
- Klassische Proto-Physik,
the measurements of time, space and mass, is basically
referring to sentence 4.116 in Wittgenstein's Tractatus:
"Alles was überhaupt gedacht werden kann,
kann klar gedacht werden.
Alles was sich sagen läßt,
läßt sich klar aussprechen."
Instead of continuously updating that letter
the following letter to Prof. Som D. Sharma
is being published as
- Eine Ergänzung.
A very detailed account of the problems encountered
in applying the principles outlined to ship speed trials
is to be found in my
- Brief an eine Studentin,
in the pertinent section 'News on ship speed trials'.
Last update and additions: 2013.02.04
The author has further pondered the concept of enthalpy
in example 10.4 'Thermodynamik' and updated the related notes
10.4.3 and 10.4.4 in his raw draft.
The whole example is felt to be still in statu nascendi,
still rather speculative and unfinished by any standard.
Last update and additions: 2012.04.10
Without any open discussion of his arguments, explaining the need
for a revision of DIN 1313:198-12, the author has been informed
in a letter of 11.04.2011 that his
- Proposal has been rejected
by DIN NA 152-01 FBR at its meeting on 07.04.2011.
Consequently, the
- Rejection has not been accepted,
but the
- Rejection has been confirmed
without any substantial arguments. Thus again, this
- Confirmation has not been accepted.
- The last letter of the author,
addressed to a member of the board of DIN,
remained without any response so far.
Accordingly, in the near future the
- Detailed raw draft
will not be available on the Norm-Entwurfs-Portal of DIN,
but is readily accessed by internet search for DIN 1313.
The following is the related correspondence with Prof. Arnold Oberschelp,
who has been leading in the conception of the current version
of the standard DIN 1313.
- Erster Brief an Prof. Oberschelp,
- Ein kurzer Nachtrag,
- Erster Brief von Prof. Oberschelp,
- Zweiter Brief an Prof. Oberschelp,
- Dritter Brief an Prof. Oberschelp,
- Vierter Brief an Prof. Oberschelp.
Last update and additions: 2011.07.18
In due course the raw draft of a revised version
of the standard DIN 1313, prepared for discussion
by FBR of DIN NA 152-01 and all other groups
and individuals interested in the subject, will hopefully
be available as Committee Draft at the Norm-Entwurfs-Portal
- DIN Entwürfe
established to arrive as early as possible at a widely
acceptable Draft Standard.
As a sort of abstract, as executive summary
- A short presentation
of the raw draft has been prepared for the meeting
of the DIN NA 152-01 at PTB Braunschweig on March 06, 2011.
In the meantime small mistakes in the Raw-Draft have been corrected
and the section '7.3 Normierte Modelle' has been augmented by notes
on Birkhoff's exposition of the subject in a chapter on
'Modeling and Dimensional Analysis' in his 'Hydrodynamics'.
Last update and additions: 2011.04.18
In the meantime
- The informal proposal
concerning the revision of the standard DIN 1313: 1998-12 'Grössen'
has been submitted to DIN together with a very
- Detailed raw draft
under the title DIN xxxxx-01:2011-xx 'Begriffe, Grössen'.
Among the sufficiently realistic examples demonstrating the efficiency
and transparency of the axiomatic approach are the balances of matter,
of momentum, of energy and of enthalpy, alias heat in particular.
As a result of work on the latter example the author has suggested
a revision of the standard DIN 1345: 1993-12: 'Thermodynamik' as well.
During work on the thermodynamics example the author has written two
- E-mails to Prof. Schlichting,
at the University Münster. According to the rules of DIN the author
is not (yet?) permitted to disclose his Draft Proposal providing
the details of his solution of the problems he noticed and addressed.
Last update and additions: 2011.03.06
In view of deficiencies observed in the current version
of the standard DIN 1313: 1998-12, replacing the earlier version
DIN 1313: 1974-04, the author has suggested a revision of the standard.
The correspondence with the DIN group in charge has been collected
in reverse order in a file, which is (still?) considered as confidential.
The following is the related correspondence with Prof. Otto Rang,
who has been involved in the conception of the current version.
- Erster Brief von Prof. Rang,
- Erster Brief an Prof. Rang,
- Zweiter Brief von Prof. Rang,
- Zweiter Brief an Prof. Rang.
After finishing his Raw Draft the author has continued
this correspondence with a third letter,
- Dritter Brief an Prof. Rang.
Last update and additions: 2011.03.24
The following discussions concern
a paper by Eckehard Schnieder and his son
- On systems of concepts and on languages
and the doctoral dissertation of Frank Hänsel
- On formalisation of standards.
Last update and additions: 2008.11.27
The subject of state space models has also been presented
to philosophers (to be) in a seminar of Prof. T. Gil
at the Technical University Berlin.
Following thanks for the invitation and an
- Introduction
of the author and his work the
- Basic ideas
and their implications have been presented.
Last update and additions: 2010.12.14
The following handouts on
- Platons Höhlen-Gleichnis und die Theorie der Zustands-Modelle
have been distributed after a presentation at the University Rostock
October 23, 2008, and in preparation of a presentation at the Institut
für Schiffs unf Meerestechnik of the Technical University in Berlin
on November 24, 2008, held in the context of the lectures on
'Principles, methods and problems in treating hydromechanical
systems' during WS 2008/9.
The discussion following the presentation at the ISM/TUB has triggered
detailed answers to be found among the lecture notes under 'Papers
on general subjects'.
Subsequently the paper has also been presented at the Technical
University Harburg as part of the Seminar Mechanik on June 08, 2009,
and has again be presented at TUB in the context of the lectures
during WS 2009/10 on December 16, 2009.
On that same day 150 ago Wilhelm Grimm died and so the lecture was
opened with a digression on tales (Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm), parables
(Bible, etc), allegories (philosphical), stories (J. A. Paulos).
Following repeated requests the fundamental report on the theory has
been copied and is available on request:
Schmiechen, M.: On State Space Models and their Application to
Hydromechanic Systems. NAUT Report 5002, Department of Naval
Architecture, University of Tokyo, 1973.
The English version of the handouts of the 'Platon lecture' announced
and prepared earlier is finally being published as
- Platon's prisoners and their models,
triggered by my work on a critical review of Alfred North Whitehead's
'Symbolism' to be published in due course.
Last update and additions: 2016.11.03