WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.870 align:middle line:84% [SQUEAKING] [RUSTLING] [CLICKING] 00:00:04.870 --> 00:00:10.785 align:middle line:90% 00:00:10.785 --> 00:00:12.660 align:middle line:84% DAVID KAISER: We'll go ahead and get started. 00:00:12.660 --> 00:00:14.190 align:middle line:90% Hello, everyone. 00:00:14.190 --> 00:00:19.940 align:middle line:84% Welcome to 8225, which is also STS.042-- 00:00:19.940 --> 00:00:22.770 align:middle line:90% Physics in the 20th century. 00:00:22.770 --> 00:00:24.620 align:middle line:90% My name is David Kaiser. 00:00:24.620 --> 00:00:29.090 align:middle line:84% Today's class is going to be a little shorter than average. 00:00:29.090 --> 00:00:32.479 align:middle line:84% I just wanted to go over a kind of quick introduction 00:00:32.479 --> 00:00:35.390 align:middle line:84% for the course, an overview, some logistics, course 00:00:35.390 --> 00:00:37.200 align:middle line:90% structure and so on. 00:00:37.200 --> 00:00:42.380 align:middle line:84% And then we'll jump in with the first full class session 00:00:42.380 --> 00:00:43.340 align:middle line:90% next week. 00:00:43.340 --> 00:00:46.610 align:middle line:84% So I'm going to go ahead and share my screen. 00:00:46.610 --> 00:00:48.770 align:middle line:84% I have some slides just to help kind of orient 00:00:48.770 --> 00:00:51.780 align:middle line:90% us for today's session. 00:00:51.780 --> 00:00:57.610 align:middle line:90% So let's do that and that. 00:00:57.610 --> 00:01:01.060 align:middle line:84% And now, hopefully you can see my screen there. 00:01:01.060 --> 00:01:02.440 align:middle line:90% Some nods or thumbs up? 00:01:02.440 --> 00:01:04.150 align:middle line:90% So far, so good? 00:01:04.150 --> 00:01:04.660 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:01:04.660 --> 00:01:05.830 align:middle line:90% OK, great. 00:01:05.830 --> 00:01:10.340 align:middle line:90% So welcome to the new semester. 00:01:10.340 --> 00:01:13.330 align:middle line:84% This is a class I've taught many, many times. 00:01:13.330 --> 00:01:15.490 align:middle line:84% I've been teaching at MIT since 2000, 00:01:15.490 --> 00:01:17.140 align:middle line:90% which itself is now historical. 00:01:17.140 --> 00:01:18.520 align:middle line:90% It feels like a long time. 00:01:18.520 --> 00:01:21.520 align:middle line:84% And I've taught this course probably every other year, 00:01:21.520 --> 00:01:23.150 align:middle line:84% more or less, over that time period. 00:01:23.150 --> 00:01:25.540 align:middle line:84% So I've taught it at least 10 or 11 times or so. 00:01:25.540 --> 00:01:28.360 align:middle line:84% And I have to say, if I may say so myself, 00:01:28.360 --> 00:01:30.100 align:middle line:84% it's my favorite course that I teach. 00:01:30.100 --> 00:01:33.800 align:middle line:84% Hopefully, it'll be a positive experience for you as well. 00:01:33.800 --> 00:01:36.370 align:middle line:84% I think it's a really fun opportunity 00:01:36.370 --> 00:01:39.910 align:middle line:84% to sit with some material that might 00:01:39.910 --> 00:01:41.050 align:middle line:90% be familiar to many of you. 00:01:41.050 --> 00:01:43.342 align:middle line:84% We have many folks who are physics majors, many of whom 00:01:43.342 --> 00:01:44.500 align:middle line:90% are juniors and seniors. 00:01:44.500 --> 00:01:48.190 align:middle line:84% It's also hopefully an interesting kind of preview 00:01:48.190 --> 00:01:51.820 align:middle line:84% for students who either are not in the physics department, 00:01:51.820 --> 00:01:54.140 align:middle line:90% or are newer to MIT and so on. 00:01:54.140 --> 00:01:58.910 align:middle line:84% And I think it's just-- it's a kind of remarkable set of ideas 00:01:58.910 --> 00:02:01.610 align:middle line:84% and institutions and events and people that we 00:02:01.610 --> 00:02:05.090 align:middle line:84% get to sit with over the course of the semester. 00:02:05.090 --> 00:02:08.389 align:middle line:84% So it's a new adventure doing this remotely by Zoom, 00:02:08.389 --> 00:02:11.090 align:middle line:84% but I hope we get to really enjoy 00:02:11.090 --> 00:02:14.600 align:middle line:84% the kind of pretty wacky ideas and some unusual times 00:02:14.600 --> 00:02:17.303 align:middle line:84% and places that we get to immerse ourselves in as well. 00:02:17.303 --> 00:02:19.970 align:middle line:84% And I try to just gesture toward that with some of these opening 00:02:19.970 --> 00:02:22.968 align:middle line:90% images here on the first slide. 00:02:22.968 --> 00:02:25.260 align:middle line:84% So today, as I mentioned, it's not going to be a full-- 00:02:25.260 --> 00:02:28.300 align:middle line:84% I don't expect it to be a full class session. 00:02:28.300 --> 00:02:31.140 align:middle line:84% But I do want to give an overview of where we're going, 00:02:31.140 --> 00:02:34.240 align:middle line:84% and also, some of the kind of nuts and bolts and logistics. 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:36.060 align:middle line:90% So anyway, the plan for today-- 00:02:36.060 --> 00:02:37.650 align:middle line:84% we'll talk about the course aims. 00:02:37.650 --> 00:02:39.275 align:middle line:84% We'll talk a bit about the instructors. 00:02:39.275 --> 00:02:42.090 align:middle line:84% Give the teaching assistants a chance to introduce themselves 00:02:42.090 --> 00:02:43.650 align:middle line:90% and say a quick hello as well. 00:02:43.650 --> 00:02:47.207 align:middle line:84% We'll talk about the course structure and the requirements 00:02:47.207 --> 00:02:47.790 align:middle line:90% of the course. 00:02:47.790 --> 00:02:50.250 align:middle line:84% And then I'll give a brief overview 00:02:50.250 --> 00:02:51.870 align:middle line:84% of the kinds of material that we'll 00:02:51.870 --> 00:02:54.250 align:middle line:84% be engaging with in more detail starting next week. 00:02:54.250 --> 00:02:56.850 align:middle line:90% So that's where we're heading. 00:02:56.850 --> 00:02:59.450 align:middle line:84% So here, I'm just taking the subject description right 00:02:59.450 --> 00:03:01.400 align:middle line:84% from the front page of the syllabus just 00:03:01.400 --> 00:03:06.350 align:middle line:84% to give you a sense of where we're heading over the term. 00:03:06.350 --> 00:03:09.440 align:middle line:84% The class is meant to explore the changing roles of physics 00:03:09.440 --> 00:03:12.320 align:middle line:84% and physicists over really not just the 20th century anymore. 00:03:12.320 --> 00:03:14.990 align:middle line:84% By now, we're going to be up to just about two centuries 00:03:14.990 --> 00:03:16.400 align:middle line:90% worth of material. 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:18.230 align:middle line:84% For the first main class next week, 00:03:18.230 --> 00:03:20.960 align:middle line:84% I'll be starting with the 1820s, which it turns out 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:22.350 align:middle line:90% is now 200 years ago. 00:03:22.350 --> 00:03:25.710 align:middle line:84% So really, it's an expansive view, not only 00:03:25.710 --> 00:03:27.140 align:middle line:90% the 20th century. 00:03:27.140 --> 00:03:28.910 align:middle line:84% We're going to quickly bring ourselves 00:03:28.910 --> 00:03:31.280 align:middle line:84% up into what we often call modern physics 00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:34.520 align:middle line:84% relativity, quantum theory, again, which 00:03:34.520 --> 00:03:38.160 align:middle line:84% might be familiar to many of you, might be new to others. 00:03:38.160 --> 00:03:40.190 align:middle line:84% And then we're going to zoom forward even 00:03:40.190 --> 00:03:44.810 align:middle line:84% beyond that early ferment in the early 20th century 00:03:44.810 --> 00:03:47.030 align:middle line:84% and look at much more recent developments 00:03:47.030 --> 00:03:50.210 align:middle line:84% in high-energy physics, in cosmology and astrophysics-- 00:03:50.210 --> 00:03:52.250 align:middle line:90% my own personal favorite topics. 00:03:52.250 --> 00:03:55.460 align:middle line:84% And we're going to be examining these intellectual 00:03:55.460 --> 00:03:59.042 align:middle line:84% developments, these conceptual and intellectual developments, 00:03:59.042 --> 00:04:00.500 align:middle line:84% at each moment trying to understand 00:04:00.500 --> 00:04:04.580 align:middle line:84% their kind of embedding in a very messy human world, 00:04:04.580 --> 00:04:06.570 align:middle line:90% in a changing human world. 00:04:06.570 --> 00:04:08.960 align:middle line:84% So part of our goal for this semester 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:13.730 align:middle line:84% is both to learn or reiterate some pretty amazing ideas 00:04:13.730 --> 00:04:15.050 align:middle line:90% for modern physics-- 00:04:15.050 --> 00:04:17.149 align:middle line:84% might be new to some, might be familiar to others. 00:04:17.149 --> 00:04:18.649 align:middle line:84% We're going to sit with those ideas, 00:04:18.649 --> 00:04:21.470 align:middle line:84% but also do a lot more work in practice 00:04:21.470 --> 00:04:28.520 align:middle line:84% of embedding those ideas in an historical kind of development. 00:04:28.520 --> 00:04:30.920 align:middle line:84% And that means looking at institutions, 00:04:30.920 --> 00:04:35.030 align:middle line:84% at cultural features of how people have thought 00:04:35.030 --> 00:04:37.670 align:middle line:84% about physics and physicists, and how physicists themselves 00:04:37.670 --> 00:04:41.780 align:middle line:84% have been part of larger social worlds, political contexts, war 00:04:41.780 --> 00:04:42.890 align:middle line:90% time and so on. 00:04:42.890 --> 00:04:44.588 align:middle line:84% And so over the course of this semester, 00:04:44.588 --> 00:04:46.880 align:middle line:84% we're going to be looking at not just a range of ideas, 00:04:46.880 --> 00:04:49.880 align:middle line:84% but a range of places in which those ideas have 00:04:49.880 --> 00:04:53.060 align:middle line:84% been pursued or cultivated or argued over or debated 00:04:53.060 --> 00:04:54.050 align:middle line:90% or rejected. 00:04:54.050 --> 00:04:58.970 align:middle line:84% So we'll start looking at Britain from-- 00:04:58.970 --> 00:05:00.620 align:middle line:90% in the 19th century. 00:05:00.620 --> 00:05:03.380 align:middle line:84% That's where we'll begin much of our investigation 00:05:03.380 --> 00:05:04.350 align:middle line:90% for this semester. 00:05:04.350 --> 00:05:09.440 align:middle line:84% We'll look at newly unified Germany in the 1870s, moving 00:05:09.440 --> 00:05:12.440 align:middle line:84% forward in time ultimately to the First World War 00:05:12.440 --> 00:05:15.440 align:middle line:84% to the rise of Nazism, to the Second World War. 00:05:15.440 --> 00:05:19.970 align:middle line:84% Lots of big consequential worldly events 00:05:19.970 --> 00:05:23.000 align:middle line:84% which, as I hope we'll get to appreciate over 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:26.210 align:middle line:84% the course of the term, had a really quite remarkable impact 00:05:26.210 --> 00:05:29.355 align:middle line:84% on the intellectual world of physics and physicists. 00:05:29.355 --> 00:05:31.730 align:middle line:84% And we'll bring the story up through the Second World War 00:05:31.730 --> 00:05:33.690 align:middle line:84% and into the Cold War and even beyond. 00:05:33.690 --> 00:05:37.110 align:middle line:84% So we have a long timeline really, 00:05:37.110 --> 00:05:39.230 align:middle line:84% as I say, the better part of two centuries by now 00:05:39.230 --> 00:05:41.390 align:middle line:90% to sample over. 00:05:41.390 --> 00:05:44.780 align:middle line:84% And I think a pretty nice broad range of ideas in physics 00:05:44.780 --> 00:05:45.290 align:middle line:90% as well. 00:05:45.290 --> 00:05:49.290 align:middle line:90% 00:05:49.290 --> 00:05:52.610 align:middle line:84% And so just pictorially, some of the early moments 00:05:52.610 --> 00:05:56.970 align:middle line:84% we'll be kind of thinking about are the turn 00:05:56.970 --> 00:06:01.080 align:middle line:84% of the 19th into the 20th century, when a lot of research 00:06:01.080 --> 00:06:03.750 align:middle line:90% was still tabletop scale. 00:06:03.750 --> 00:06:06.390 align:middle line:84% Here's a photograph of Pierre and Marie Curie 00:06:06.390 --> 00:06:09.780 align:middle line:84% in their laboratory in Paris from right around the year 00:06:09.780 --> 00:06:13.590 align:middle line:84% 1900, where the scale of apparatus, if not phenomenal, 00:06:13.590 --> 00:06:15.600 align:middle line:90% still felt kind of human-scaled. 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:18.450 align:middle line:84% Also, a bit kind of removed from other elements 00:06:18.450 --> 00:06:19.480 align:middle line:90% of human experience. 00:06:19.480 --> 00:06:22.980 align:middle line:84% This was a laboratory pursuing esoteric questions 00:06:22.980 --> 00:06:25.020 align:middle line:90% in a specialized community. 00:06:25.020 --> 00:06:28.530 align:middle line:84% Before too long, as I'm sure many of you already know, 00:06:28.530 --> 00:06:32.370 align:middle line:84% many of those investigations began having much more dramatic 00:06:32.370 --> 00:06:33.510 align:middle line:90% worldly impact. 00:06:33.510 --> 00:06:35.790 align:middle line:84% And we'll look quite a bit in this course 00:06:35.790 --> 00:06:39.300 align:middle line:84% at the work on nuclear weapons, the use 00:06:39.300 --> 00:06:41.790 align:middle line:84% of nuclear weapons in the Second World War, 00:06:41.790 --> 00:06:45.330 align:middle line:84% a whole different arrangement between scientists, engineers, 00:06:45.330 --> 00:06:47.670 align:middle line:84% nation-states, and world affairs. 00:06:47.670 --> 00:06:50.670 align:middle line:84% So within not a long stretch of time, 00:06:50.670 --> 00:06:52.710 align:middle line:84% we go from photographs like the Curies 00:06:52.710 --> 00:06:54.900 align:middle line:84% over here to something like this where 00:06:54.900 --> 00:06:57.720 align:middle line:84% we have Robert Oppenheimer, with his famous pork pie 00:06:57.720 --> 00:07:02.370 align:middle line:84% hat, working side by side with the Army General Leslie Groves 00:07:02.370 --> 00:07:06.630 align:middle line:84% of the US Army inspecting, in this case, the site of the very 00:07:06.630 --> 00:07:11.830 align:middle line:84% first test detonation of a nuclear weapon in July 1945-- 00:07:11.830 --> 00:07:15.040 align:middle line:90% just 75 years ago. 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:18.960 align:middle line:84% Soon after that, as, again, many of you probably know, 00:07:18.960 --> 00:07:22.710 align:middle line:84% physics and physicists moved into a new kind of vantage 00:07:22.710 --> 00:07:24.540 align:middle line:90% culturally and politically. 00:07:24.540 --> 00:07:26.610 align:middle line:84% Here's a famous Time magazine cover 00:07:26.610 --> 00:07:29.820 align:middle line:84% of Einstein with his most famous equation, 00:07:29.820 --> 00:07:33.030 align:middle line:84% E equals EMC squared, appearing eerily in the mushroom 00:07:33.030 --> 00:07:34.500 align:middle line:90% cloud of a nuclear explosion. 00:07:34.500 --> 00:07:37.440 align:middle line:84% So the associations between physics and physicists 00:07:37.440 --> 00:07:39.375 align:middle line:84% were changing very quickly, especially 00:07:39.375 --> 00:07:40.500 align:middle line:90% after the Second World War. 00:07:40.500 --> 00:07:43.500 align:middle line:84% We're going to explore a lot of that 00:07:43.500 --> 00:07:45.840 align:middle line:90% over the course of the semester. 00:07:45.840 --> 00:07:49.560 align:middle line:84% And then zooming forward, we get to where the scale of apparatus 00:07:49.560 --> 00:07:51.780 align:middle line:84% no longer fits on a Parisian tabletop. 00:07:51.780 --> 00:07:54.540 align:middle line:84% But in fact, this is a photograph 00:07:54.540 --> 00:07:58.120 align:middle line:84% from what would have been the world's largest particle 00:07:58.120 --> 00:07:58.627 align:middle line:90% accelerator. 00:07:58.627 --> 00:08:01.210 align:middle line:84% Some of you might have heard of it-- the Superconducting Super 00:08:01.210 --> 00:08:03.142 align:middle line:90% Collider, or SSC. 00:08:03.142 --> 00:08:04.600 align:middle line:84% If you haven't heard about it, it's 00:08:04.600 --> 00:08:06.130 align:middle line:90% because it was never finished. 00:08:06.130 --> 00:08:08.770 align:middle line:84% This would have dwarfed even the Large Hadron 00:08:08.770 --> 00:08:12.760 align:middle line:84% Collider that is in operation in at CERN in Geneva. 00:08:12.760 --> 00:08:14.060 align:middle line:90% This was a machine-- 00:08:14.060 --> 00:08:15.910 align:middle line:84% the Superconducting Super Collider-- that 00:08:15.910 --> 00:08:20.000 align:middle line:84% was under construction in Texas not too far from Dallas. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:22.960 align:middle line:84% And it was actually halted in 1993 00:08:22.960 --> 00:08:27.850 align:middle line:84% after the engineers had already dug a 54-mile circumference 00:08:27.850 --> 00:08:30.880 align:middle line:84% tunnel underground-- roughly three times longer 00:08:30.880 --> 00:08:33.340 align:middle line:90% than the Large Hadron Collider. 00:08:33.340 --> 00:08:35.860 align:middle line:84% So the scale of our apparatus is no longer 00:08:35.860 --> 00:08:37.690 align:middle line:90% fitting on a tabletop. 00:08:37.690 --> 00:08:40.912 align:middle line:84% And also, once you need $8 to $15 billion 00:08:40.912 --> 00:08:43.120 align:middle line:84% to do your experiment, now you have a different place 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:47.510 align:middle line:84% in the world of politics and world affairs as well. 00:08:47.510 --> 00:08:49.930 align:middle line:84% And likewise, the story didn't end, thankfully, 00:08:49.930 --> 00:08:52.600 align:middle line:84% with the cancellation of the Super Collider. 00:08:52.600 --> 00:08:56.810 align:middle line:84% We have a shift to other kinds of still large-scale research. 00:08:56.810 --> 00:08:59.480 align:middle line:84% For example, to push to billion dollar satellites 00:08:59.480 --> 00:09:02.150 align:middle line:84% like the Planck satellite shown here 00:09:02.150 --> 00:09:04.640 align:middle line:84% in its study of the very earliest moments 00:09:04.640 --> 00:09:05.370 align:middle line:90% of the universe. 00:09:05.370 --> 00:09:09.890 align:middle line:84% So that's in kind of a snapshot, kind of picture form, 00:09:09.890 --> 00:09:12.380 align:middle line:84% the kinds of terrain that we're going to cover over 00:09:12.380 --> 00:09:12.860 align:middle line:90% the course of the term. 00:09:12.860 --> 00:09:14.277 align:middle line:84% And I'll say more about that soon, 00:09:14.277 --> 00:09:16.970 align:middle line:84% but I just wanted to give you a preview. 00:09:16.970 --> 00:09:17.750 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:09:17.750 --> 00:09:20.600 align:middle line:84% Let's talk some nuts and bolts for a little bit. 00:09:20.600 --> 00:09:22.880 align:middle line:84% This course has no prerequisites. 00:09:22.880 --> 00:09:25.820 align:middle line:84% As I'm sure you know, it's a Communications Intensive 00:09:25.820 --> 00:09:28.340 align:middle line:84% subject for physics majors in course eight. 00:09:28.340 --> 00:09:30.510 align:middle line:84% But there's no prior coursework required. 00:09:30.510 --> 00:09:32.720 align:middle line:84% It's not limited to students in the physics major. 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:35.100 align:middle line:84% It's open to first-year undeclared students and so on. 00:09:35.100 --> 00:09:37.340 align:middle line:90% There's no prereqs. 00:09:37.340 --> 00:09:39.980 align:middle line:84% Our aim in the course is really to improve written 00:09:39.980 --> 00:09:44.270 align:middle line:84% communication skills rather than to worry too much about things 00:09:44.270 --> 00:09:46.200 align:middle line:84% like problem sets or problem solving, 00:09:46.200 --> 00:09:48.380 align:middle line:84% which are dearly important to me. 00:09:48.380 --> 00:09:51.240 align:middle line:84% But this course has a different kind of center of gravity, 00:09:51.240 --> 00:09:52.730 align:middle line:90% so to speak. 00:09:52.730 --> 00:09:54.845 align:middle line:84% I should say I've had-- in the years past, 00:09:54.845 --> 00:09:56.720 align:middle line:84% I've had high school students take the course 00:09:56.720 --> 00:09:57.680 align:middle line:90% and do very, very well. 00:09:57.680 --> 00:09:59.990 align:middle line:90% Really, really no prerequisites. 00:09:59.990 --> 00:10:01.163 align:middle line:90% I want to emphasize that. 00:10:01.163 --> 00:10:03.080 align:middle line:84% I want to emphasize it especially because some 00:10:03.080 --> 00:10:04.880 align:middle line:84% of the very first readings for the term 00:10:04.880 --> 00:10:06.680 align:middle line:84% that you'll have, even in advance 00:10:06.680 --> 00:10:10.010 align:middle line:84% of this coming next lecture, might 00:10:10.010 --> 00:10:13.200 align:middle line:84% look pretty technical or pretty off-putting. 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:15.200 align:middle line:84% Some-- not all of them, but some of the readings 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:16.400 align:middle line:90% will have lots of equations. 00:10:16.400 --> 00:10:18.020 align:middle line:84% They'll look like and often be taken 00:10:18.020 --> 00:10:20.343 align:middle line:84% from old textbooks-- might be on topics 00:10:20.343 --> 00:10:22.760 align:middle line:84% you haven't had a chance to have a different formal course 00:10:22.760 --> 00:10:23.940 align:middle line:90% in and so on. 00:10:23.940 --> 00:10:25.640 align:middle line:84% And I want to emphasize that that's OK. 00:10:25.640 --> 00:10:27.290 align:middle line:84% If this looks strange, partly it's 00:10:27.290 --> 00:10:29.180 align:middle line:84% designed to look strange, actually. 00:10:29.180 --> 00:10:32.150 align:middle line:84% So the strangeness is meant to trigger some questions 00:10:32.150 --> 00:10:35.570 align:middle line:84% about what did people think they were doing when they read texts 00:10:35.570 --> 00:10:36.600 align:middle line:90% like those? 00:10:36.600 --> 00:10:41.240 align:middle line:84% So if they look either very hard or unfamiliar or technical, 00:10:41.240 --> 00:10:44.030 align:middle line:84% that really is kind of part of the point. 00:10:44.030 --> 00:10:46.460 align:middle line:84% And part of the point for this particular class 00:10:46.460 --> 00:10:49.430 align:middle line:84% is not to worry about reproducing those calculations 00:10:49.430 --> 00:10:52.760 align:middle line:84% or understanding every single step of the mathematics. 00:10:52.760 --> 00:10:55.610 align:middle line:84% I like to joke that my very many friends in the physics 00:10:55.610 --> 00:10:57.483 align:middle line:84% department, it's their job to help you all 00:10:57.483 --> 00:10:59.150 align:middle line:84% learn how to calculate, and many of you, 00:10:59.150 --> 00:11:01.250 align:middle line:84% I'm sure, calculate very, very well already. 00:11:01.250 --> 00:11:02.880 align:middle line:90% And that's incredibly important. 00:11:02.880 --> 00:11:05.700 align:middle line:84% This class has a different set of goals and aims. 00:11:05.700 --> 00:11:07.820 align:middle line:84% And so I want to really emphasize 00:11:07.820 --> 00:11:11.310 align:middle line:84% not to be kind of frankly scared off if some of the readings 00:11:11.310 --> 00:11:15.720 align:middle line:84% look, at first blush at least, a little overwhelming. 00:11:15.720 --> 00:11:17.670 align:middle line:90% They should look strange. 00:11:17.670 --> 00:11:20.780 align:middle line:84% And if every step in the derivation is not so clear, 00:11:20.780 --> 00:11:22.730 align:middle line:84% that's OK in this class, especially. 00:11:22.730 --> 00:11:24.800 align:middle line:84% So we're going to be focusing on a range of ideas 00:11:24.800 --> 00:11:27.650 align:middle line:84% in modern physics and also their changing contexts-- 00:11:27.650 --> 00:11:30.290 align:middle line:84% as I mentioned, many kinds of contexts. 00:11:30.290 --> 00:11:32.240 align:middle line:84% And it's, of course, always, always 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:34.560 align:middle line:90% OK to ask for clarifications. 00:11:34.560 --> 00:11:36.560 align:middle line:84% The formalism is dear to my heart. 00:11:36.560 --> 00:11:38.120 align:middle line:84% Hopefully, dear to many of yours. 00:11:38.120 --> 00:11:40.850 align:middle line:84% I'm not saying ignore the equations of mathematics. 00:11:40.850 --> 00:11:44.090 align:middle line:84% I'm just trying to emphasize not to worry about getting hung up 00:11:44.090 --> 00:11:45.950 align:middle line:84% if at first, especially in a first reading, 00:11:45.950 --> 00:11:47.570 align:middle line:90% things look very strange. 00:11:47.570 --> 00:11:51.170 align:middle line:84% For a bunch of the lectures-- not for everyone, 00:11:51.170 --> 00:11:52.790 align:middle line:84% but for a bunch of them I'm actually 00:11:52.790 --> 00:11:55.670 align:middle line:84% writing up separate little short lecture notes in addition 00:11:55.670 --> 00:11:58.520 align:middle line:84% to these lecture slides to go through some more intermediate 00:11:58.520 --> 00:11:59.900 align:middle line:90% steps of derivations and so on. 00:11:59.900 --> 00:12:01.520 align:middle line:84% Those are always going to be optional. 00:12:01.520 --> 00:12:04.700 align:middle line:84% It really is just to help as a kind of additional resource. 00:12:04.700 --> 00:12:06.260 align:middle line:84% And also, we'll have office hours. 00:12:06.260 --> 00:12:07.843 align:middle line:84% And you can always make an appointment 00:12:07.843 --> 00:12:10.170 align:middle line:84% to meet with me or your teaching assistants directly. 00:12:10.170 --> 00:12:12.660 align:middle line:84% So I just want to emphasize the aims of this course, 00:12:12.660 --> 00:12:14.960 align:middle line:84% we're going to work on written communication. 00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:16.640 align:middle line:84% And we'll get to do it with some, 00:12:16.640 --> 00:12:19.190 align:middle line:84% I think, really juicy amazing fun material. 00:12:19.190 --> 00:12:23.090 align:middle line:84% That's our overarching aim for this semester. 00:12:23.090 --> 00:12:26.030 align:middle line:84% I like to think of this class as a kind of roadmap. 00:12:26.030 --> 00:12:29.130 align:middle line:84% And it turns out, roadmaps work in at least two directions. 00:12:29.130 --> 00:12:30.710 align:middle line:84% It could be a map of where you're 00:12:30.710 --> 00:12:33.350 align:middle line:84% heading if you're new to MIT, or new to the physics department, 00:12:33.350 --> 00:12:36.170 align:middle line:84% or just curious and coming in from a different field. 00:12:36.170 --> 00:12:40.460 align:middle line:84% It can be a kind preview of some pretty awesome cool stuff that 00:12:40.460 --> 00:12:41.570 align:middle line:90% could be ahead of you. 00:12:41.570 --> 00:12:43.670 align:middle line:84% It could also be a kind of look in the rear view 00:12:43.670 --> 00:12:46.790 align:middle line:84% mirror for juniors or seniors in the physics department. 00:12:46.790 --> 00:12:49.760 align:middle line:84% You will have seen some of this material in other courses 00:12:49.760 --> 00:12:50.390 align:middle line:90% already. 00:12:50.390 --> 00:12:53.000 align:middle line:84% But this is a chance to begin kind of seeing perhaps 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:54.440 align:middle line:84% how different pieces fit together 00:12:54.440 --> 00:12:56.750 align:middle line:84% to synthesize a map of it might have 00:12:56.750 --> 00:12:59.450 align:middle line:84% been kind of separated or disparate parts until now. 00:12:59.450 --> 00:13:02.180 align:middle line:84% So I like this idea of a roadmap either whether you're 00:13:02.180 --> 00:13:04.820 align:middle line:84% starting a journey or looking back how 00:13:04.820 --> 00:13:06.170 align:middle line:90% you got to where you are now. 00:13:06.170 --> 00:13:09.570 align:middle line:84% Hopefully, this course will help with some of that as well. 00:13:09.570 --> 00:13:10.070 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:13:10.070 --> 00:13:12.020 align:middle line:84% So let me pause and ask for any questions. 00:13:12.020 --> 00:13:15.707 align:middle line:84% If you do have questions, please try to raise your blue hand. 00:13:15.707 --> 00:13:17.540 align:middle line:84% I'm going to ask the teaching assistants who 00:13:17.540 --> 00:13:22.430 align:middle line:84% are co-hosts of this Zoom session to recognize you, 00:13:22.430 --> 00:13:25.190 align:middle line:84% and then they can ask you to unmute yourself. 00:13:25.190 --> 00:13:26.690 align:middle line:90% Any questions so far? 00:13:26.690 --> 00:13:32.460 align:middle line:90% 00:13:32.460 --> 00:13:36.250 align:middle line:84% I hear a resounding silence, so I'm going to charge ahead. 00:13:36.250 --> 00:13:37.750 align:middle line:84% But if you do have questions, again, 00:13:37.750 --> 00:13:40.470 align:middle line:84% please feel free to use the chat or the blue hand-- 00:13:40.470 --> 00:13:41.460 align:middle line:90% raise hand icon. 00:13:41.460 --> 00:13:44.640 align:middle line:90% 00:13:44.640 --> 00:13:45.140 align:middle line:90% Oop. 00:13:45.140 --> 00:13:45.640 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:13:45.640 --> 00:13:46.910 align:middle line:90% So for this part-- sorry-- 00:13:46.910 --> 00:13:48.680 align:middle line:84% I want to just take a few moments 00:13:48.680 --> 00:13:51.510 align:middle line:90% and introduce the whole team. 00:13:51.510 --> 00:13:55.430 align:middle line:84% I'm very excited to work with I think a really terrific team 00:13:55.430 --> 00:13:56.690 align:middle line:90% of instructors for this class. 00:13:56.690 --> 00:13:57.710 align:middle line:90% It's a big group. 00:13:57.710 --> 00:14:00.830 align:middle line:84% We have four teaching assistants in addition to myself. 00:14:00.830 --> 00:14:04.700 align:middle line:84% So I'll just say a little bit about my own research. 00:14:04.700 --> 00:14:06.320 align:middle line:90% I am a professor at MIT. 00:14:06.320 --> 00:14:09.170 align:middle line:84% I teach both in our Program in Science, Technology, 00:14:09.170 --> 00:14:09.860 align:middle line:90% and Society-- 00:14:09.860 --> 00:14:10.880 align:middle line:90% STS. 00:14:10.880 --> 00:14:13.940 align:middle line:84% In that department, I conduct research and work 00:14:13.940 --> 00:14:16.460 align:middle line:84% with students in the history of science, 00:14:16.460 --> 00:14:19.258 align:middle line:84% and particularly, the history of modern physics. 00:14:19.258 --> 00:14:20.300 align:middle line:90% I've written a few books. 00:14:20.300 --> 00:14:21.470 align:middle line:90% I've edited other books. 00:14:21.470 --> 00:14:24.380 align:middle line:84% A lot of the material that we'll cover in this semester-- 00:14:24.380 --> 00:14:26.538 align:middle line:84% this term comes, not surprisingly, 00:14:26.538 --> 00:14:28.580 align:middle line:84% from things that I have a particular interest in, 00:14:28.580 --> 00:14:30.878 align:middle line:84% I've written about, or very dear friends of mine 00:14:30.878 --> 00:14:31.670 align:middle line:90% have written about. 00:14:31.670 --> 00:14:32.930 align:middle line:90% So I'm sort of-- 00:14:32.930 --> 00:14:34.670 align:middle line:84% I like-- I'm very lucky to get to be 00:14:34.670 --> 00:14:37.790 align:middle line:84% immersed in the history of modern science 00:14:37.790 --> 00:14:39.980 align:middle line:90% when I wear my STS cap. 00:14:39.980 --> 00:14:42.030 align:middle line:84% I'm also a member of the Physics Department, 00:14:42.030 --> 00:14:44.390 align:middle line:90% a Professor of Physics. 00:14:44.390 --> 00:14:46.820 align:middle line:84% Up here, I have a picture of my research group. 00:14:46.820 --> 00:14:48.440 align:middle line:84% This is actually a somewhat old photo. 00:14:48.440 --> 00:14:49.880 align:middle line:84% You probably won't recognize the faces 00:14:49.880 --> 00:14:51.740 align:middle line:84% because even the UROP students in this photo 00:14:51.740 --> 00:14:53.360 align:middle line:90% have all graduated by now. 00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:56.570 align:middle line:84% I work very closely with Alan Guth in our Center 00:14:56.570 --> 00:14:59.000 align:middle line:84% for Theoretical Physics within the department. 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:03.200 align:middle line:84% We work on many aspects of early universe cosmology. 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:05.570 align:middle line:84% We'll actually come to some of those topics 00:15:05.570 --> 00:15:07.920 align:middle line:84% near the end of this semester because I couldn't resist. 00:15:07.920 --> 00:15:09.120 align:middle line:90% I love it so much. 00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:12.860 align:middle line:84% I've also been working for a number of years on foundations 00:15:12.860 --> 00:15:16.607 align:middle line:84% of quantum theory, including new experimental tests of topics 00:15:16.607 --> 00:15:17.690 align:middle line:90% like quantum entanglement. 00:15:17.690 --> 00:15:20.220 align:middle line:84% We'll talk about some of that this semester as well. 00:15:20.220 --> 00:15:23.930 align:middle line:84% So on the physics side, I am especially 00:15:23.930 --> 00:15:26.300 align:middle line:84% interested in theoretical early universe 00:15:26.300 --> 00:15:28.970 align:middle line:84% cosmology and astrophysics, and also, 00:15:28.970 --> 00:15:31.220 align:middle line:84% various aspects of quantum theory, and even 00:15:31.220 --> 00:15:34.850 align:middle line:84% some interesting recent work on quantum information science. 00:15:34.850 --> 00:15:38.330 align:middle line:90% So that's where I'm coming from. 00:15:38.330 --> 00:15:41.540 align:middle line:84% Now let's get to what are you going to do in this class? 00:15:41.540 --> 00:15:43.610 align:middle line:84% The one thing you're going to do is read-- 00:15:43.610 --> 00:15:44.720 align:middle line:90% not a ton. 00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:47.190 align:middle line:84% We've worked very carefully to make the reading list, 00:15:47.190 --> 00:15:51.570 align:middle line:84% we think, really kind of curated and not overwhelm students 00:15:51.570 --> 00:15:53.460 align:middle line:90% with a large page count. 00:15:53.460 --> 00:15:58.860 align:middle line:84% And so the best thing you can do is read the generally rather 00:15:58.860 --> 00:16:01.020 align:middle line:84% brief reading assignments in advance 00:16:01.020 --> 00:16:03.588 align:middle line:84% of the class with which they're associated. 00:16:03.588 --> 00:16:05.880 align:middle line:84% It'll help if you've been able to do the readings ahead 00:16:05.880 --> 00:16:08.353 align:middle line:90% of the class session. 00:16:08.353 --> 00:16:10.520 align:middle line:84% What are the actual subject requirements in addition 00:16:10.520 --> 00:16:12.020 align:middle line:90% to keeping up with the reading? 00:16:12.020 --> 00:16:16.040 align:middle line:84% As I mentioned, this is a CI course for physics majors. 00:16:16.040 --> 00:16:18.830 align:middle line:84% So our main emphasis is on written communication. 00:16:18.830 --> 00:16:20.510 align:middle line:84% It will not be on oral communication 00:16:20.510 --> 00:16:22.850 align:middle line:84% partly because there's 100 of us by Zoom. 00:16:22.850 --> 00:16:25.880 align:middle line:84% So it really will be on written communication, which had always 00:16:25.880 --> 00:16:28.530 align:middle line:84% been the overwhelming majority of the course structure 00:16:28.530 --> 00:16:30.540 align:middle line:90% even in previous years. 00:16:30.540 --> 00:16:33.800 align:middle line:84% So like nearly all CI courses, we 00:16:33.800 --> 00:16:36.500 align:middle line:84% have a number of pages of writing over 00:16:36.500 --> 00:16:38.030 align:middle line:90% the course of the semester. 00:16:38.030 --> 00:16:40.430 align:middle line:84% The way we do it in this term is to break it up 00:16:40.430 --> 00:16:43.130 align:middle line:84% into a number of assignments that kind of build up. 00:16:43.130 --> 00:16:45.050 align:middle line:84% They build both in length, but also 00:16:45.050 --> 00:16:46.970 align:middle line:84% in the nature of the assignment, in the type 00:16:46.970 --> 00:16:48.690 align:middle line:84% of writing that we'll be working on, 00:16:48.690 --> 00:16:50.648 align:middle line:84% and the nature of, say, the kinds of sources 00:16:50.648 --> 00:16:52.940 align:middle line:84% we'll be working with, or the nature of the argument we 00:16:52.940 --> 00:16:54.770 align:middle line:90% want to be able to articulate. 00:16:54.770 --> 00:16:57.740 align:middle line:84% And these really quite amazing teaching assistants 00:16:57.740 --> 00:16:59.990 align:middle line:84% are here to work very closely with you 00:16:59.990 --> 00:17:01.080 align:middle line:90% on each of these papers. 00:17:01.080 --> 00:17:02.663 align:middle line:84% So we're not going to expect you to do 00:17:02.663 --> 00:17:04.319 align:middle line:90% it every step on your own. 00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:07.020 align:middle line:84% So you can see now the due dates, the structure. 00:17:07.020 --> 00:17:09.839 align:middle line:84% The first-- of course, we'll hand out the assignments well 00:17:09.839 --> 00:17:11.730 align:middle line:84% in advance of each of the due dates-- 00:17:11.730 --> 00:17:13.770 align:middle line:90% the actual kind of prompt. 00:17:13.770 --> 00:17:17.040 align:middle line:84% So pretty soon, we'll finalize the prompt for paper one. 00:17:17.040 --> 00:17:20.130 align:middle line:84% We'll make sure it's easy for you to find on the Canvas site. 00:17:20.130 --> 00:17:22.890 align:middle line:84% That one will be four or five double-spaced pages-- really, 00:17:22.890 --> 00:17:25.800 align:middle line:84% a handful of paragraphs-- not a very long essay. 00:17:25.800 --> 00:17:30.430 align:middle line:84% That will be due electronically near the end of September. 00:17:30.430 --> 00:17:32.880 align:middle line:84% The second paper we do a couple of weeks after that-- 00:17:32.880 --> 00:17:34.440 align:middle line:90% a little bit longer-- 00:17:34.440 --> 00:17:36.120 align:middle line:84% six or seven double-spaced pages, 00:17:36.120 --> 00:17:39.270 align:middle line:84% and a little more complicated range of types of sources 00:17:39.270 --> 00:17:43.410 align:middle line:84% to make use of as you build your argument. 00:17:43.410 --> 00:17:46.080 align:middle line:84% Because it's a CI course, like usual, 00:17:46.080 --> 00:17:50.310 align:middle line:84% we'll have a mandatory rewrite of that paper two assignment. 00:17:50.310 --> 00:17:53.130 align:middle line:84% That'll be due-- handed in separately several weeks 00:17:53.130 --> 00:17:54.850 align:middle line:90% after the first iteration. 00:17:54.850 --> 00:17:56.640 align:middle line:84% And then finally, the final paper 00:17:56.640 --> 00:17:59.880 align:middle line:84% is due on the last day of classes, December 9. 00:17:59.880 --> 00:18:01.767 align:middle line:84% So please note, there is no midterm. 00:18:01.767 --> 00:18:02.850 align:middle line:90% There are no problem sets. 00:18:02.850 --> 00:18:04.230 align:middle line:90% There's no final exam. 00:18:04.230 --> 00:18:06.000 align:middle line:84% The student work you'll be handed in 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:08.310 align:middle line:84% will be exclusively these essays-- 00:18:08.310 --> 00:18:09.570 align:middle line:90% this series of essays. 00:18:09.570 --> 00:18:12.400 align:middle line:84% And again, we'll be working with you along the way. 00:18:12.400 --> 00:18:14.640 align:middle line:84% You can see the kind of distribution 00:18:14.640 --> 00:18:17.040 align:middle line:84% here about how the different papers contribute 00:18:17.040 --> 00:18:18.758 align:middle line:84% to your overall final course grade. 00:18:18.758 --> 00:18:21.300 align:middle line:84% Obviously, if any questions come up along the way, of course, 00:18:21.300 --> 00:18:24.210 align:middle line:84% of course, please don't hesitate to ask me about it 00:18:24.210 --> 00:18:25.530 align:middle line:90% or your teaching assistant. 00:18:25.530 --> 00:18:28.890 align:middle line:84% That's the stuff you'll be working on concretely 00:18:28.890 --> 00:18:31.650 align:middle line:90% over the course of the term. 00:18:31.650 --> 00:18:32.790 align:middle line:90% So again, I'll pause. 00:18:32.790 --> 00:18:34.775 align:middle line:84% Any questions on any of those items? 00:18:34.775 --> 00:18:42.810 align:middle line:90% 00:18:42.810 --> 00:18:45.450 align:middle line:90% So far, so good? 00:18:45.450 --> 00:18:46.260 align:middle line:90% And so good. 00:18:46.260 --> 00:18:48.270 align:middle line:90% So Sava asks a question. 00:18:48.270 --> 00:18:51.690 align:middle line:84% There's zero difference for the mechanics 00:18:51.690 --> 00:18:55.860 align:middle line:84% of the course between grading or homework or content between STS 00:18:55.860 --> 00:18:57.420 align:middle line:90% and the course 8. 00:18:57.420 --> 00:18:59.100 align:middle line:90% It is literally one class. 00:18:59.100 --> 00:19:00.450 align:middle line:90% It's just jointly listed. 00:19:00.450 --> 00:19:02.517 align:middle line:90% And in fact, I don't even know-- 00:19:02.517 --> 00:19:04.350 align:middle line:84% I mean, I'd have-- it would take work for me 00:19:04.350 --> 00:19:06.900 align:middle line:84% to figure out which version a given student's actually 00:19:06.900 --> 00:19:07.530 align:middle line:90% registered in. 00:19:07.530 --> 00:19:10.360 align:middle line:84% We just-- we treat it as one class, as one set of materials, 00:19:10.360 --> 00:19:11.610 align:middle line:90% one set of course aims. 00:19:11.610 --> 00:19:15.270 align:middle line:84% So as far as we're concerned on this shared screen, 00:19:15.270 --> 00:19:15.910 align:middle line:90% it's one class. 00:19:15.910 --> 00:19:17.910 align:middle line:84% We're going to work on this cool stuff together. 00:19:17.910 --> 00:19:19.950 align:middle line:84% The tricky part gets how do how do 00:19:19.950 --> 00:19:23.310 align:middle line:84% the different kind of requirements 00:19:23.310 --> 00:19:26.820 align:middle line:84% get counted for different kinds of students. 00:19:26.820 --> 00:19:31.860 align:middle line:84% But it's one class, one set of aims, one set of materials. 00:19:31.860 --> 00:19:33.280 align:middle line:90% Any other questions on this? 00:19:33.280 --> 00:19:35.200 align:middle line:90% All excellent questions. 00:19:35.200 --> 00:19:35.700 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:19:35.700 --> 00:19:37.890 align:middle line:90% Definitely, flood Sean's inbox. 00:19:37.890 --> 00:19:44.470 align:middle line:84% I see someone helpfully put Sean's email address in there. 00:19:44.470 --> 00:19:45.190 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:19:45.190 --> 00:19:46.700 align:middle line:84% I'm going to I'm going to move on. 00:19:46.700 --> 00:19:49.117 align:middle line:84% If you have more questions, again, please keep chiming in. 00:19:49.117 --> 00:19:51.190 align:middle line:84% But I think I'll go back to screen sharing. 00:19:51.190 --> 00:19:55.140 align:middle line:84% Those are excellent good questions to get us going. 00:19:55.140 --> 00:19:56.400 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:19:56.400 --> 00:20:00.850 align:middle line:84% So hopefully, you can see my screen again. 00:20:00.850 --> 00:20:01.665 align:middle line:90% So last part. 00:20:01.665 --> 00:20:03.040 align:middle line:84% Again, I won't take too too long. 00:20:03.040 --> 00:20:04.840 align:middle line:90% We'll finish up early today. 00:20:04.840 --> 00:20:06.340 align:middle line:84% I just want to say a little bit more 00:20:06.340 --> 00:20:08.560 align:middle line:84% about the kinds of material that we'll 00:20:08.560 --> 00:20:13.510 align:middle line:84% get to really kind of chew on, get to really explore over 00:20:13.510 --> 00:20:14.510 align:middle line:90% the coming weeks. 00:20:14.510 --> 00:20:17.120 align:middle line:84% So we'll be starting with a 19th-century legacy. 00:20:17.120 --> 00:20:19.630 align:middle line:84% And, in fact, starting fairly early in the 19th century, 00:20:19.630 --> 00:20:22.270 align:middle line:84% going back to the 1820s and '30s-- 00:20:22.270 --> 00:20:23.500 align:middle line:90% not for too long. 00:20:23.500 --> 00:20:26.900 align:middle line:84% We'll kind of gallop forward in time pretty quickly. 00:20:26.900 --> 00:20:29.140 align:middle line:84% But the main question we'll be asking in that unit 00:20:29.140 --> 00:20:31.210 align:middle line:84% is what did people think the world was made of? 00:20:31.210 --> 00:20:34.090 align:middle line:84% What did they think it was their job to study? 00:20:34.090 --> 00:20:36.700 align:middle line:84% And what counted as a compelling explanation? 00:20:36.700 --> 00:20:39.240 align:middle line:84% And equally interesting, I think, or equally important, 00:20:39.240 --> 00:20:40.990 align:middle line:84% who were the kinds of people who did that, 00:20:40.990 --> 00:20:42.032 align:middle line:90% and where did they do it? 00:20:42.032 --> 00:20:44.170 align:middle line:84% And what kinds of settings or institutions? 00:20:44.170 --> 00:20:45.400 align:middle line:90% How did they work together? 00:20:45.400 --> 00:20:46.817 align:middle line:84% What did they think their job was? 00:20:46.817 --> 00:20:50.220 align:middle line:90% 00:20:50.220 --> 00:20:52.830 align:middle line:84% So of all the many topics we could focus on 00:20:52.830 --> 00:20:56.490 align:middle line:84% within the study of the natural sciences 00:20:56.490 --> 00:20:58.620 align:middle line:84% or the physical sciences in the 19th century, 00:20:58.620 --> 00:21:01.020 align:middle line:84% we're going to look fairly narrowly at examples 00:21:01.020 --> 00:21:03.780 align:middle line:84% from electricity and magnetism and optics, 00:21:03.780 --> 00:21:06.180 align:middle line:84% partly because that becomes super important for things 00:21:06.180 --> 00:21:09.245 align:middle line:84% like relativity where we do want to get to fairly quickly. 00:21:09.245 --> 00:21:10.620 align:middle line:84% And also, because I think they're 00:21:10.620 --> 00:21:12.520 align:middle line:84% just fascinating in their own right. 00:21:12.520 --> 00:21:14.460 align:middle line:84% So we'll be talking about some names 00:21:14.460 --> 00:21:17.705 align:middle line:84% and some ideas that, again, are likely familiar to many of you. 00:21:17.705 --> 00:21:19.080 align:middle line:84% We'll start with some discussions 00:21:19.080 --> 00:21:22.710 align:middle line:84% of Michael Faraday and his ideas about lines of force 00:21:22.710 --> 00:21:24.600 align:middle line:90% and the luminiferous ether. 00:21:24.600 --> 00:21:26.880 align:middle line:84% We'll spend a long time talking about the ether. 00:21:26.880 --> 00:21:28.560 align:middle line:84% We'll talk about James Clerk Maxwell. 00:21:28.560 --> 00:21:30.060 align:middle line:84% You're going to read a short excerpt 00:21:30.060 --> 00:21:32.790 align:middle line:84% from his famous treatise on electricity and magnetism. 00:21:32.790 --> 00:21:34.290 align:middle line:84% We'll about William Thompson, later 00:21:34.290 --> 00:21:35.940 align:middle line:84% known as Lord Kelvin, and others. 00:21:35.940 --> 00:21:38.940 align:middle line:84% We'll also talk about how did those folks 00:21:38.940 --> 00:21:42.330 align:middle line:84% get into their line of work, especially the generation 00:21:42.330 --> 00:21:46.120 align:middle line:84% of Maxwell Thompson and some of their own colleagues. 00:21:46.120 --> 00:21:48.990 align:middle line:84% So what was it like to become a young, say, 00:21:48.990 --> 00:21:51.190 align:middle line:84% mathematical physicist, or eventually 00:21:51.190 --> 00:21:53.680 align:middle line:84% theoretical physicist, during the second half 00:21:53.680 --> 00:21:54.575 align:middle line:90% of the 19th century? 00:21:54.575 --> 00:21:55.450 align:middle line:90% How did they do that? 00:21:55.450 --> 00:21:55.950 align:middle line:90% Where? 00:21:55.950 --> 00:21:56.650 align:middle line:90% Why? 00:21:56.650 --> 00:21:58.632 align:middle line:90% According to who's criteria? 00:21:58.632 --> 00:22:00.340 align:middle line:84% Another thing I want to really emphasize, 00:22:00.340 --> 00:22:02.740 align:middle line:84% and this one I find incredibly fun, 00:22:02.740 --> 00:22:05.800 align:middle line:84% is that many of you probably own Maxwell's equations 00:22:05.800 --> 00:22:06.520 align:middle line:90% on a T-shirt-- 00:22:06.520 --> 00:22:08.110 align:middle line:90% always in fashion. 00:22:08.110 --> 00:22:10.180 align:middle line:84% We still use Maxwell's equations. 00:22:10.180 --> 00:22:11.980 align:middle line:90% They're so-called his equations. 00:22:11.980 --> 00:22:15.580 align:middle line:84% But what I want to sit with for the first few classes 00:22:15.580 --> 00:22:19.930 align:middle line:84% is how remarkably different Maxwell and his contemporaries 00:22:19.930 --> 00:22:22.700 align:middle line:84% interpreted those very same mathematical symbols. 00:22:22.700 --> 00:22:26.800 align:middle line:84% So we still put his equations on our T-shirts so to speak. 00:22:26.800 --> 00:22:29.020 align:middle line:84% Yet, what we think they mean, or what 00:22:29.020 --> 00:22:31.840 align:middle line:84% we think they're good for, what we think they're talking about, 00:22:31.840 --> 00:22:33.610 align:middle line:84% what they tell us about the world 00:22:33.610 --> 00:22:36.130 align:middle line:84% is almost exactly opposite to how Maxwell 00:22:36.130 --> 00:22:39.488 align:middle line:84% himself imagined them, or how generations of Maxwellians 00:22:39.488 --> 00:22:40.030 align:middle line:90% treated them. 00:22:40.030 --> 00:22:42.100 align:middle line:84% So we have this kind of continuity 00:22:42.100 --> 00:22:45.010 align:middle line:84% in some instances in the equations we use, 00:22:45.010 --> 00:22:46.900 align:middle line:84% sometimes even the T-shirts we wear. 00:22:46.900 --> 00:22:49.840 align:middle line:84% And yet, what we think those equations or those ideas 00:22:49.840 --> 00:22:51.520 align:middle line:84% tell us about the world, those actually 00:22:51.520 --> 00:22:54.790 align:middle line:84% have been anything but static or constant over time. 00:22:54.790 --> 00:22:56.930 align:middle line:84% I find that just mind-boggling, to be honest. 00:22:56.930 --> 00:22:57.572 align:middle line:90% I love that. 00:22:57.572 --> 00:22:59.530 align:middle line:84% We're going to have a bunch of examples of that 00:22:59.530 --> 00:23:01.190 align:middle line:90% throughout this whole semester. 00:23:01.190 --> 00:23:03.370 align:middle line:84% And one of the first kind of juicy ones we get 00:23:03.370 --> 00:23:04.580 align:middle line:90% is with Maxwell's equations. 00:23:04.580 --> 00:23:07.300 align:middle line:84% So we'll sit with Maxwell and electromagnetism 00:23:07.300 --> 00:23:08.920 align:middle line:84% for the first couple of lectures-- 00:23:08.920 --> 00:23:11.410 align:middle line:90% the first few sessions. 00:23:11.410 --> 00:23:12.100 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:23:12.100 --> 00:23:14.710 align:middle line:84% Before too long, we'll get into what is often 00:23:14.710 --> 00:23:17.170 align:middle line:84% called modern physics-- the quite 00:23:17.170 --> 00:23:21.520 align:middle line:84% dramatic intellectual changes taking place, roughly speaking, 00:23:21.520 --> 00:23:24.930 align:middle line:84% in the first 25 years of the 20th century-- roughly, 00:23:24.930 --> 00:23:27.110 align:middle line:84% with some error bars on that estimate. 00:23:27.110 --> 00:23:30.820 align:middle line:84% So we'll talk quickly about work by Albert Einstein, 00:23:30.820 --> 00:23:33.340 align:middle line:84% and indeed, a circle of colleagues, what became 00:23:33.340 --> 00:23:35.800 align:middle line:84% known as the special theory of relativity, 00:23:35.800 --> 00:23:37.420 align:middle line:84% and even some general relativity-- 00:23:37.420 --> 00:23:40.090 align:middle line:84% very near to my heart and Tiffany's heart, 00:23:40.090 --> 00:23:42.310 align:middle line:90% maybe to many of your hearts. 00:23:42.310 --> 00:23:44.770 align:middle line:84% How did Einstein come to these ideas? 00:23:44.770 --> 00:23:45.550 align:middle line:90% With whom? 00:23:45.550 --> 00:23:46.450 align:middle line:90% To what end? 00:23:46.450 --> 00:23:47.200 align:middle line:90% What was he doing? 00:23:47.200 --> 00:23:49.750 align:middle line:84% Literally, what path was he walking each day 00:23:49.750 --> 00:23:52.960 align:middle line:84% as he began contemplating space, time, and matter? 00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:55.900 align:middle line:84% We'll then shift to early quantum theory, 00:23:55.900 --> 00:23:58.840 align:middle line:84% as the next main kind of set within this unit. 00:23:58.840 --> 00:24:02.200 align:middle line:84% And again, some remarkable familiarity, some 00:24:02.200 --> 00:24:06.938 align:middle line:84% equations we still use 100 to 120 years later. 00:24:06.938 --> 00:24:08.980 align:middle line:84% But what we think those equations are telling us, 00:24:08.980 --> 00:24:10.930 align:middle line:84% that actually has not been so constant. 00:24:10.930 --> 00:24:13.720 align:middle line:84% Where people were working or coming up with the ideas 00:24:13.720 --> 00:24:15.550 align:middle line:84% or with whom they were interacting 00:24:15.550 --> 00:24:16.970 align:middle line:90% is also not so constant. 00:24:16.970 --> 00:24:19.210 align:middle line:84% So we'll talk about some shifting institutions, 00:24:19.210 --> 00:24:21.760 align:middle line:84% like the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt. 00:24:21.760 --> 00:24:24.430 align:middle line:84% That reminds me to apologize to any people 00:24:24.430 --> 00:24:26.380 align:middle line:84% on the call who actually speak German. 00:24:26.380 --> 00:24:29.015 align:middle line:84% I speak incredibly bad German, but I love trying. 00:24:29.015 --> 00:24:31.390 align:middle line:84% We'll have-- especially this first unit-- a lot of German 00:24:31.390 --> 00:24:33.370 align:middle line:90% that I will likely mangle. 00:24:33.370 --> 00:24:36.100 align:middle line:84% If you know zero German, then you're actually closer to me 00:24:36.100 --> 00:24:37.183 align:middle line:90% than you might think. 00:24:37.183 --> 00:24:39.100 align:middle line:84% But nonetheless, we'll have some German stuff. 00:24:39.100 --> 00:24:42.850 align:middle line:84% Don't worry if it literally sounds foreign or unfamiliar. 00:24:42.850 --> 00:24:45.650 align:middle line:84% The point is there were some new institutions, new priorities, 00:24:45.650 --> 00:24:48.970 align:middle line:84% new national scale investment in things like physics 00:24:48.970 --> 00:24:50.530 align:middle line:84% and related fields of engineering. 00:24:50.530 --> 00:24:52.750 align:middle line:84% What role did that play in the kind 00:24:52.750 --> 00:24:55.690 align:middle line:84% of heady years of the early onset of quantum 00:24:55.690 --> 00:24:57.130 align:middle line:90% theory and modern physics? 00:24:57.130 --> 00:24:58.592 align:middle line:84% And then where do those ideas lead 00:24:58.592 --> 00:24:59.800 align:middle line:90% some of the leading thinkers? 00:24:59.800 --> 00:25:03.100 align:middle line:84% We'll talk, of course, about things like Schrodinger's cat, 00:25:03.100 --> 00:25:08.110 align:middle line:84% or quantum entanglement, or Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen, 00:25:08.110 --> 00:25:10.323 align:middle line:84% and many, many really quite delicious 00:25:10.323 --> 00:25:11.740 align:middle line:84% and delightful elements of quantum 00:25:11.740 --> 00:25:14.920 align:middle line:84% theory that I still wrestle with and get 00:25:14.920 --> 00:25:17.050 align:middle line:84% to play with with my own students and colleagues 00:25:17.050 --> 00:25:17.680 align:middle line:90% to this day. 00:25:17.680 --> 00:25:19.810 align:middle line:84% So that's the first kind of main unit. 00:25:19.810 --> 00:25:25.660 align:middle line:84% We'll have a quick introduction with this 19th-century legacy, 00:25:25.660 --> 00:25:27.790 align:middle line:84% really to set the stage for what we might 00:25:27.790 --> 00:25:30.220 align:middle line:84% call the emergence of modern physics 00:25:30.220 --> 00:25:32.620 align:middle line:84% as was recognized even in its day. 00:25:32.620 --> 00:25:35.390 align:middle line:84% That's the first main unit and the second unit of class. 00:25:35.390 --> 00:25:39.700 align:middle line:84% Then we're going to shift again in remarkably rapid order. 00:25:39.700 --> 00:25:41.620 align:middle line:84% I mean, to an historian, the time delay 00:25:41.620 --> 00:25:43.750 align:middle line:90% was vanishingly short-- 00:25:43.750 --> 00:25:47.530 align:middle line:84% a matter of 10 to 20 years, depending on how one counts. 00:25:47.530 --> 00:25:51.840 align:middle line:84% Some of those previously very heady, very esoteric 00:25:51.840 --> 00:25:54.720 align:middle line:84% or abstract ideas about atoms, about parts 00:25:54.720 --> 00:25:57.210 align:middle line:84% of atoms, about nuclei and nuclear forces, 00:25:57.210 --> 00:26:00.540 align:middle line:84% they began having an import and a priority 00:26:00.540 --> 00:26:04.050 align:middle line:84% well beyond professional physicists 00:26:04.050 --> 00:26:06.450 align:middle line:84% and chemists or other engineers and so on, 00:26:06.450 --> 00:26:08.640 align:middle line:84% in ways that, again, I'm sure are, at least in part, 00:26:08.640 --> 00:26:09.480 align:middle line:90% familiar to you. 00:26:09.480 --> 00:26:12.390 align:middle line:84% We're going to sit quite a while with the development 00:26:12.390 --> 00:26:15.310 align:middle line:84% of nuclear weapons, nuclear physics more broadly, 00:26:15.310 --> 00:26:16.770 align:middle line:84% but especially the weapons projects 00:26:16.770 --> 00:26:18.600 align:middle line:90% during the Second World War. 00:26:18.600 --> 00:26:21.660 align:middle line:84% The unbelievable transformation of the kind 00:26:21.660 --> 00:26:24.480 align:middle line:84% of research and development infrastructure, 00:26:24.480 --> 00:26:27.930 align:middle line:84% which really starts setting a kind of blueprint 00:26:27.930 --> 00:26:30.640 align:middle line:84% for many features that we would recognize today, 00:26:30.640 --> 00:26:33.300 align:middle line:84% even though they were forged during a war 00:26:33.300 --> 00:26:35.620 align:middle line:90% that itself ended 75 years ago. 00:26:35.620 --> 00:26:39.000 align:middle line:84% So we see a change in what it means to try to do physics, 00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:42.510 align:middle line:84% for whom, to what ends, with what kind of support, 00:26:42.510 --> 00:26:46.140 align:middle line:84% and with what kind of institutional settings, 00:26:46.140 --> 00:26:48.960 align:middle line:84% leading to, among other things, the use of these very 00:26:48.960 --> 00:26:52.030 align:middle line:84% new types of weapons, again, just 75 00:26:52.030 --> 00:26:55.180 align:middle line:84% years ago, against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima 00:26:55.180 --> 00:26:57.940 align:middle line:84% and Nagasaki in the summer of 1945. 00:26:57.940 --> 00:26:59.950 align:middle line:84% So that second main unit-- third unit 00:26:59.950 --> 00:27:02.680 align:middle line:84% of course-- the second kind of big juicy thick unit 00:27:02.680 --> 00:27:05.320 align:middle line:84% that we'll sit with for quite a while 00:27:05.320 --> 00:27:09.010 align:middle line:84% is the kind of new enrollment, the new engagement 00:27:09.010 --> 00:27:11.500 align:middle line:84% of physicists, chemists, various kinds 00:27:11.500 --> 00:27:14.990 align:middle line:84% of engineers with the nation-state in times of war. 00:27:14.990 --> 00:27:17.350 align:middle line:84% And what did that mean for the ideas of physics, 00:27:17.350 --> 00:27:19.060 align:middle line:84% for the population of physicists, 00:27:19.060 --> 00:27:21.025 align:middle line:84% for the institutions of physics and so on. 00:27:21.025 --> 00:27:23.660 align:middle line:84% That's a big-- there's a lot to try to really understand, 00:27:23.660 --> 00:27:26.980 align:middle line:84% including a lot of, again frankly, very fascinating 00:27:26.980 --> 00:27:28.870 align:middle line:84% cutting-edge science and engineering, 00:27:28.870 --> 00:27:32.320 align:middle line:84% but it was being done in very specific contexts 00:27:32.320 --> 00:27:34.100 align:middle line:90% toward very particular ends. 00:27:34.100 --> 00:27:37.960 align:middle line:84% So we'll spend some time around middle of the semester 00:27:37.960 --> 00:27:38.755 align:middle line:90% on that material. 00:27:38.755 --> 00:27:43.710 align:middle line:90% 00:27:43.710 --> 00:27:46.970 align:middle line:84% The last main unit is then expanding outward 00:27:46.970 --> 00:27:49.610 align:middle line:90% from the end of World War II. 00:27:49.610 --> 00:27:51.590 align:middle line:84% Here, I was a little more selective. 00:27:51.590 --> 00:27:55.730 align:middle line:84% I wanted to cover topics that frankly I like most. 00:27:55.730 --> 00:27:57.650 align:middle line:84% And that means the topics are very much 00:27:57.650 --> 00:28:01.970 align:middle line:84% biased towards particle physics, high-energy physics, 00:28:01.970 --> 00:28:03.470 align:middle line:90% and astrophysics and cosmology. 00:28:03.470 --> 00:28:05.090 align:middle line:84% Because, first of all, they're just objectively 00:28:05.090 --> 00:28:06.080 align:middle line:90% the most interesting. 00:28:06.080 --> 00:28:06.747 align:middle line:90% That was a joke. 00:28:06.747 --> 00:28:08.330 align:middle line:84% I just think they're actually awesome. 00:28:08.330 --> 00:28:10.460 align:middle line:84% Those are the areas that I am most familiar with, 00:28:10.460 --> 00:28:12.110 align:middle line:84% both historically and also in terms 00:28:12.110 --> 00:28:13.993 align:middle line:90% of more contemporary research. 00:28:13.993 --> 00:28:15.410 align:middle line:84% And so, again, it's an opportunity 00:28:15.410 --> 00:28:19.550 align:middle line:84% to take a sample, to explore some material that might 00:28:19.550 --> 00:28:21.008 align:middle line:90% be quite new to many of you. 00:28:21.008 --> 00:28:23.300 align:middle line:84% You might not have had a chance to have a full semester 00:28:23.300 --> 00:28:26.360 align:middle line:84% course on quantum field theory or particle theory 00:28:26.360 --> 00:28:28.342 align:middle line:90% or contemporary cosmology. 00:28:28.342 --> 00:28:29.300 align:middle line:90% Some of you might have. 00:28:29.300 --> 00:28:31.550 align:middle line:84% But there's, again, no need to have already seen 00:28:31.550 --> 00:28:32.450 align:middle line:90% this material. 00:28:32.450 --> 00:28:37.880 align:middle line:84% And we'll be able to sample some of these still changing ideas 00:28:37.880 --> 00:28:41.360 align:middle line:84% within, again, some still changing institutions. 00:28:41.360 --> 00:28:43.200 align:middle line:84% Who wanted to pursue those questions? 00:28:43.200 --> 00:28:43.860 align:middle line:90% Why? 00:28:43.860 --> 00:28:44.612 align:middle line:90% To what ends? 00:28:44.612 --> 00:28:45.570 align:middle line:90% And in what facilities? 00:28:45.570 --> 00:28:49.500 align:middle line:84% So now, we get to a place in time like the Large Hadron 00:28:49.500 --> 00:28:51.300 align:middle line:90% Collider at CERN. 00:28:51.300 --> 00:28:54.240 align:middle line:84% The device was completed in the first decade 00:28:54.240 --> 00:28:55.530 align:middle line:90% of the 21st century. 00:28:55.530 --> 00:28:57.000 align:middle line:90% You see an aerial shot here. 00:28:57.000 --> 00:29:00.570 align:middle line:84% What brought us from an era when particle accelerators still 00:29:00.570 --> 00:29:04.170 align:middle line:84% were on the size of a kind of person, more or less, 00:29:04.170 --> 00:29:07.140 align:middle line:84% to when they actually crossed national borders, where 00:29:07.140 --> 00:29:09.900 align:middle line:84% the accelerated protons crossed between the Swiss and French 00:29:09.900 --> 00:29:11.980 align:middle line:84% borders billions of times per second. 00:29:11.980 --> 00:29:13.800 align:middle line:84% So we'll end the course looking outward 00:29:13.800 --> 00:29:16.720 align:middle line:90% toward the cosmos that way. 00:29:16.720 --> 00:29:18.180 align:middle line:90% So here's the very last slide. 00:29:18.180 --> 00:29:19.680 align:middle line:84% I always like to say this course has 00:29:19.680 --> 00:29:23.160 align:middle line:84% one actual goal, which is to make sense of this quotation. 00:29:23.160 --> 00:29:25.080 align:middle line:84% I never tire of repeating this quotation. 00:29:25.080 --> 00:29:27.780 align:middle line:84% It was published in Harper's Magazine just months 00:29:27.780 --> 00:29:30.420 align:middle line:84% after the end of the Second World War observing 00:29:30.420 --> 00:29:33.420 align:middle line:84% what had become a real sea change in the place of physics, 00:29:33.420 --> 00:29:36.160 align:middle line:84% and especially physicists in broader society. 00:29:36.160 --> 00:29:39.480 align:middle line:84% So this kind of witty, kind of pundit columnist 00:29:39.480 --> 00:29:43.890 align:middle line:84% wrote in the spring of '46, that "physical scientists 00:29:43.890 --> 00:29:45.540 align:middle line:90% are in vogue these days. 00:29:45.540 --> 00:29:47.790 align:middle line:84% No dinner party is a success without at least when 00:29:47.790 --> 00:29:48.390 align:middle line:90% physicist." 00:29:48.390 --> 00:29:50.520 align:middle line:84% And really, I want to know what happened? 00:29:50.520 --> 00:29:53.190 align:middle line:84% How can so many people have dinner now without inviting us? 00:29:53.190 --> 00:29:55.710 align:middle line:84% That's really why I put this whole course together. 00:29:55.710 --> 00:29:57.820 align:middle line:84% Together, we'll try to answer that question. 00:29:57.820 --> 00:29:59.820 align:middle line:84% That's only modestly tongue in cheek. 00:29:59.820 --> 00:30:03.000 align:middle line:84% Any questions about any of that material, 00:30:03.000 --> 00:30:04.630 align:middle line:84% course logistics, course overview, 00:30:04.630 --> 00:30:07.760 align:middle line:90% any of that kind of stuff? 00:30:07.760 --> 00:30:08.260 align:middle line:90% All righty. 00:30:08.260 --> 00:30:09.680 align:middle line:90% Well, thank you everyone. 00:30:09.680 --> 00:30:12.760 align:middle line:84% Good to see you, at least in small little squares. 00:30:12.760 --> 00:30:13.390 align:middle line:90% Stay well. 00:30:13.390 --> 00:30:15.432 align:middle line:84% Good luck with the rest of the start of the term. 00:30:15.432 --> 00:30:18.947 align:middle line:84% And I look forward to seeing you next week. 00:30:18.947 --> 00:30:19.780 align:middle line:90% Stay well, everyone. 00:30:19.780 --> 00:30:21.480 align:middle line:90% Take care. 00:30:21.480 --> 00:30:36.000 align:middle line:90%