Additional readings may be suggested as the course progresses.
| In readings: | |||
| B |
means |
Bohm | Causality and Chance in Modern Physics |
| E | Einstein | Relativity: The Special and General Theory | |
| F | Feynman | The Character of Physical Law | |
| Ha | Hawking | A Brief History of Time | |
| He | Herbert | Quantum Reality | |
| K | Kuhn | The Copernican Revolution | |
| Kst | A. Koestler | The Sleepwalkers | |
| K2 | Kuhn | The Structure of Scientific Revolutions | |
| R | Rohrlich | From Paradox to Reality | |
S
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Sklar
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Philosophy of Physics
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| Dates | Topics | Readings | Milestones |
| #1 Tues. 1/18 |
Overview; What do we know to be obviously true about the physical world? Can we be sure? |
R: ch 1-3 S: pp. 1-18 |
Lecture 1 |
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#2 |
Spheres, Ferris Wheels, and Heresy: Sleepwalking to Helio-centricity |
K: ch 3, pp. 123-144,181-184 Kst: pp. 20-222 F: ch 2 R: ch 4 |
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| #3 Tues. 1/25 |
de Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo: The birth of modern cosmology |
K: pp. 200-237 Kst: pp. 227-503 |
Homework 1 due (We know this is short notice, but it's needed to get you started thinking AHEAD of our lectures. |
| #4 Thurs. 1/27 |
From Kepler to Newton The meaning (and ambiguities) of Newton's laws |
R: ch 5 | |
| #5 Tues. 2/1 |
Newtonian space and time |
S: pp. 19-25 R: ch 5 |
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| #6 Thurs. 2/3 |
Causality, Determinism, and all that | B: pp. 1-10 S: pp. 79-85, 202-204 F: ch 4 |
Homework 2 due |
| #7 Tues. 2/8 |
Conservation Laws; The limits of the classical world |
S: pp. 94-117, 121-132, 142-155 B: pp. 10-33 F: ch 5 |
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| #8 Thurs. 2/10 |
Waves, Maxwell and Invariance | E: ch 1-8 R: 49-55 |
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| #9 Tues. 2/15 |
From the Aether to Einstein's Postulates | R: 55-62 |
Homework 3 due |
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| #10 Thurs. 2/17 |
Special Relativity | E: ch 9-17 R: pp. 62-72 S: pp. 25-40 K2: Ch X | |
| #11 Tues. 2/22 |
Unification of electricity & magnetism; E = mc2 and Minkowski Space | R: pp. 73-86 | |
| #12 Thurs. 2/24 |
General Relativity | ||
| #13 Tues. 3/1 |
Curved Space-time: The Geometry of the Universe? |
R: ch 7 S: pp. 40-69 |
Homework 4 due |
| #14 Thurs. 3/3 |
Big bang Cosmology Will the expansion stop? |
S: pp. 69-90 Ha: ch 3 |
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| #15 Tues. 3/8 |
Summary; philosophical implications Paradigms, positivism and Falsification |
K2: pp. 1-110 | |
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| #16 Thurs. 3/10 |
Key Experiments leading to Quantum Mechanics | R: chs 9-10 S: pp. 157-172 |
Homework 5 due |
| #17 Tues. 3/15 |
Two-slits done doubly well |
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| #18 Thurs. 3/17 |
The fuzzy reality of quantum mechanics | R: ch. 11 S: ch. 4 |
Homework 6 due
Term paper consultations |
| 3/19-27 | SPRING BREAK | ||
| #19 Tues. 3/29 |
Einstein loses Quantum Reality Battle | S: 202-226 R: 169-180 |
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| #20 Thurs. 3/31 |
Consciousness: Functionalism | See Handouts S: 153-154 | |
| #21 Tues. 4/5 |
Consciousness: Physicalism |
See Handouts | Homework 7 due |
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| #22 Thurs. 4/7 |
Primer on Probability | R: ch 9 S: pp. 92-108 |
Term paper outline/partial draft now due |
| #23 Tues. 4/12 |
Arrow of Time | S: pp. 121-1154 | |
| #24 Thurs. 4/14 |
Cosmology | ||
| #25 Tues. 4/19 |
Cosmology/Inflation; The beginning and end of time What is there? How much is there? What about entropy? |
Ha: ch 3,9 | |
| #26 Thurs. 4/21 |
Anthropic Principle | First complete draft of Term paper due today |
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| #27 Tues. 4/26 |
Theories of Unification | ||
| #28 Thurs. 4/228 |
Post-Modernism | Ha: ch 8 | |
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