|
Instructor:
Last modified: |
University of Maryland - Spring 2004 Instructions -- see Study Questions for Topic III. |
|
1. What was Nature Philosophy? How did it affect the progress of physics? 2. What was Young's double-slit experiment? What was the significance of its result? 3. What was the nature of the interaction between electricity and magnetism as discovered by Oersted? How did it violate a presupposition about forces embedded in Newtonian physics? 4. Why do we call the unit of electrical current the "amp"? What was the original experiment, now used to define its value? 5. Discuss the validity of "Planck's Principle" and "Popper's Principle" in the history of theories of the nature of light before 1900. 6. How did Newton retard progress in optics around 1801? 7. What was the experiment on the speed of light that might have caused physicists to choose the wave theory of light over the particle theory? Why didn't it? 8. Identify: Benjamin Franklin. 9. How did the Second Law of Thermodynamics undermine the Clockwork Universe philosophy? 10. Explain irreversibility and discuss the history and various meanings of Entropy, and their significance in the history of science. 11. Who first showed that the speed of light is finite, not infinite? How did he do it? When? 12. What, when, and where was the "Prayer Test" controversy? How was it related to energy? 13. Explain the difference between the meaning of "materialism" in science or philosophy, and in popular usage. Give an example of each. 14. Identify: John Tyndall. 15. Discuss the conflict between science and religion in the 19th century, including evolution and the prayer test. 16. Identify: Thomas Henry Huxley. 17. What was "Neoromanticism"? What were a few ideas in science and culture that may be associated with it? 18. Explain the difference between the meaning of "positivism" in philosophy of science and in popular usage. Who introduced the word? 19. Identify: Henry Adams. 20. Discuss and compare the concepts of "relativity" or "relativism" as used in modern anthropology and physics. To what extent is the common saying "everything is relative" justified by science? 21. What was Newton's theory of color? How does its history violate an assertion of Karl Popper? 22. What is electromagnetic induction? Who discovered it, and what was the technological consequence of the discovery? 23. What is light, according to Maxwell? What is the best evidence for his conclusion? 24. Identify: Michelson-Morley experiment. 25. Discuss the history of the ether concept from Aristotle to Einstein 26. Identify Lavoisier and explain how he established the Law of Conservation of Mass. 27. What was the phlogiston theory? How did Lavoisier refute it? 28. What was the result of the most accurate chemical attempt to test the Law of Conservation of Mass at the beginning of the 20th century? Why was that result later rejected? 29. What were the topics of the 4 papers Einstein published in 1905? 30. Why did Einstein become the most famous scientist in the world? Does he deserve the title "Person of the Century" awarded by Time magazine or should someone else have that honor? 31. What is the twin paradox? Why isn't the effect symmetrical? 32. Explain why, according to Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, it is very difficult for us to travel to the planetary systems that surround other stars, and why even if we could we might not want to. 33. What was the 16-year-old Einstein's thought experiment? How did it suggest one of the basic principles of relativity theory? 34. What is a black hole? How is it related to Einstein's work? 35. Discuss the establishment of the Law of Conservation of Energy, including the contributions of Rumford, Mayer, and Joule. How is it affected by relativity theory? 36. Identify: Julius Robert Mayer. 37. Identify: Emmy Noether. 38. How did Buffon estimate the age of the Earth? What was his result? Why was that result considered shocking? 39. What was the geological philosophy of Hutton, Playfair, and Lyell? How did it conflict with the theories of Laplace, Fourier, Hopkins, and Lord Kelvin? 40. Discuss the controversies about the age of the Earth from the 18th to early 20th centuries and their relation to theories about biological evolution and radioactivity. 41. How did Sadi Carnot's analysis of steam engines lead to the discovery of the Second Law of Thermodynamics? 42. What is the Heat Death of the Universe? How was it related to cultural movements in the late 19th century and to Henry Adams's ideas about history? 43. What were 5 successful predictions of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity that led to its acceptance by physicists? 44. Identify Heinrich Hertz. What was his major discovery in physics? What theory did he support that was later found to be incorrect? |