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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S: 153-154
| Dates | Topics | Readings | Milestones |
| #1 Tues. 1/15 |
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 |
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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. 1/22 |
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. 1/24 |
From Kepler to Newton The meaning (and ambiguities) of Newton's laws |
R: ch 5 | |
| #5 Tues. 1/29 |
Newtonian space and time |
S: pp. 19-25 R: ch 5 |
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| #6 Thurs. 1/31 |
Causality, Determinism, and all that | B: pp. 1-10 S: pp. 79-85, 202-204 F: ch 4 |
Homework 2 due |
| #7 Tues. 2/5 |
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. 2/7 |
Waves, Maxwell and Invariance | E: ch 1-8 R: 49-55 |
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| #9 Tues. 2/12 |
From the Aether to Einstein's Postulates | R: 55-62 |
Homework 3 due |
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| #10 Thurs. 2/14 |
Special Relativity | E: ch 9-17 R: pp. 62-72 S: pp. 25-40 K2: Ch X | |
| #11 Tues. 2/19 |
Unification of electricity & magnetism; E = mc2 and Minkowski Space | R: pp. 73-86 | |
| #12 Thurs. 2/21 |
General Relativity | ||
| #13 Tues. 2/26 |
Curved Space-time: The Geometry of the Universe? |
R: ch 7 S: pp. 40-69 |
Homework 4 due |
| #14 Thurs. 2/28 |
Big bang Cosmology Will the expansion stop? |
S: pp. 69-90 Ha: ch 3 |
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| #15 Tues. 3/5 |
Summary; philosophical implications Paradigms, positivism and Falsification |
K2: pp. 1-110 | |
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| #16 Thurs. 3/7 |
Key Experiments leading to Quantum Mechanics | R: chs 9-10 S: pp. 157-172 |
Homework 5 due |
| #17 Tues. 3/12 |
Two-slits done doubly well |
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| #18 Thurs. 3/14 |
The fuzzy reality of quantum mechanics | R: ch. 11 S: ch. 4 |
419 students: You should at this point be picking possible term paper topics and consulting with Prof Phillips about them. |
| 3/18-22 | SPRING BREAK | ||
| #19 Tues. 3/26 |
Einstein loses Quantum Reality Battle | S: 202-226 R: 169-180 |
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| #20 Thurs. 3/28 |
Consciousness: Functionalism | See Handouts S: 153-154 | Homework 6 due |
| #21 Tues. 4/2 |
Consciousness: Physicalism |
See Handouts | |
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| #22 Thurs. 4/4 |
Primer on Probability | R: ch 9 S: pp. 92-108 |
Homework
7 due |
| #23 Tues. 4/9 |
Arrow of Time | S: pp. 121-1154 | Term paper outline due |
| #24 Thurs. 4/11 |
Cosmology | ||
| #25 Tues. 4/16 |
Cosmology/Inflation; The beginning and end of time What is there? How much is there? What about entropy? |
Ha: ch 3,9 | |
| #26 Thurs. 4/18 |
Anthropic Principle | |
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| #27 Tues. 4/23 |
Emergence/Theories of Unification | ||
| #28 Thurs. 4/25 |
Post-Modernism | Ha: ch 8 | First complete draft of term paper due |
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