Adjustments to the schedule may be made as the course progresses.
NB: You are not responsible for reading every text listed; you should choose at least one principal text.
Aim to complete your chosen readings by the date listed. See syllabus for list of three general texts and the recommended texts; 'Bohm' here is Bohm, Causality & Chance in Modern Physics (all of these texts are on reserve).
| lecture | date | topics | reading | milestones |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tuesday, 16 January | Overview; a taste of upcoming surprises. | Sklar, pp. 1-18; Cushing, chs. 1-3; Rohrlich, chs. 1-3 |
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| Classical Foundations | ||||
| 2 | Thursday, 18 January | Ptolemy vs Copernicus; how do we decide basic scientific questions? Simplicity, common sense, hard evidence... |
Kuhn, Cop Rev, pp. 123-44 & 181-4; Feynman, ch. 2; Rohrlich, ch 4; Cushing, ch. 4 |
Homework 1 due Friday (short notice, but we want to get you started thinking ahead of lectures!) |
| 3 | Tuesday, 23 January | Kepler & Galileo; physics & cosmology; the role of mathematics. A new world view. |
Kuhn, Cop Rev, pp. 200-37; Cushing, chs. 5 & 6 |
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| 4 | Thursday, 25 January | Kepler to Newton. The meaning (& ambiguities) of Newton's laws. |
Rohrlich, ch. 5; Cushing, chs. 7 & 8 |
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| 5 | Tuesday, 30 January | Newtonian space & time; symmetries; metaphysical assumptions |
Sklar, pp. 19-25; Cushing, chs. 11 & 12 |
Homework 2 due |
| Transition to Modern Physics | ||||
| 6 | Thursday, 1 February | Conservation laws & energy. A glance at thermodynamics & the arrow of time. |
Bohm, pp. 1-10; Sklar, pp. 79-82, 202-4; Feynman, ch 4 | |
| 7 | Tuesday, 6 February | Waves, fields; electromagnetism & the ether. Newtonian cosmology. Philosophical pause: the limits of the classical world. |
Sklar, pp. 94-117, 121-32, & 142-55; Bohm, pp. 10-33; Feynman, ch. 5; Cushing, ch. 13 |
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| 8 | Thursday, 8 February | Searches for the luminiferous ether: why is it so elusive? |
Einstein, chs. 1-8 | Homework 3 due |
| Spacetime: Special and General Relativity | ||||
| 9 | Tuesday, 13 February | Einstein's motivation & postulates; spacetime. | Einstein, chs. 9-17; Rohrlich, pp. 54-72; Sklar, pp. 25-40; Kuhn, Structure Sci Rev, ch. X; Cushing, ch. 16 | |
| 10 | Thursday, 15 February | Apoorv lectures for Prof. Ceperley. Unification of electricity & magnetism; E = mc2 & speed limits; locality & conservation laws. |
Rohrlich, pp. 73-88; Cushing, ch. 17 |
Quiz 1 |
| 11 | Tuesday, 20 February | Invariants. What does 'mass' mean? Causality & the speed limit. |
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| 12 | Thursday, 22 February | How do you feel gravity? What does the answer tell you about the structure of the Universe? | Rohrlich, ch. 7; Sklar, pp. 40-69; Cushing, ch. 18 |
Homework 4 due |
| 13 | Tuesday, 27 February | Topology; GR cosmology. | Sklar, pp. 69-90; Hawking, ch. 3 |
419: term paper consultations (see Prof. Ceperley) |
| 14 | Thursday, 1 March | More cosmology; philosophical implications. Btw, does the Earth go around the Sun or vice-versa? |
419: term paper consultations | |
| Statistics, Quantum Mechanics, & Philosophical Responses | ||||
| 15 | Tuesday, 6 March | Thermodynamics, probability, & the arrow of time. Causality & chance. |
Rohrlich, pp. 49-54 | 419: term paper consultations |
| 16 | Thursday, 8 March | Experimental basis of QM. Lacunae & anomalies of classical physics. Light is a particle & electrons are waves (sort of). |
Rohrlich, ch. 9; Sklar, pp. 157-64; Cushing, ch. 19 |
9 March: last day to drop an undergrad course |
| 17 | Tuesday, 13 March | De Broglie's hypothesis; probability & uncertainty. Interference, Copenhagen interpretation(s). |
Rohrlich, ch. 10; Sklar, pp. 164-72; Feynman, ch. 6; Squires, §§1.3-2.6 |
419: term paper topic/ abstract due |
| 18 | Thursday, 15 March | EPR thought experiment; Bell's theorem; is local realism dead? |
Rohrlich, pp. 169-80; Sklar, pp. 213-25; Cushing, ch. 22; Squires, ch. 5 |
Homework 5 due (note change) 419: term paper consultations |
| 20 & 22 March | Spring Break | |||
| 19 | Tuesday, 27 March | Intro to QM 'measurement'. Determinism, chance, & objectivity in QM. |
Sklar, pp. 172-91; Squires, ch. 3 |
Quiz 2 419: term paper consultations |
| 20 | Thursday, 29 March | More possible approaches to measurement; reality, entanglement & decoherence. | Sklar, pp. 202-12; Cushing, ch. 21; Squires, chs. 4 & 6 |
419: term paper outline/ partial draft due |
| 21 | Tuesday, 3 April | Quantum summary | Rohrlich, pp. 180-4; Sklar, pp. 191-202; Cushing, chs. 23-24; Squires, ch. 7 |
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| Time, Fields, Cosmology | ||||
| 22 | Thursday, 5 April | Return to entropic arrow, entropy & entanglement |
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| 23 | Tuesday, 10 April | QM+SR: field theory; empty space isn't; problems with GR+QM and with QM-GR. What happens when forces are unified? |
Homework 6 due | |
| 24 | Thursday, 12 April | Arrows of time. | Hawking, ch. 8 | |
| 25 | Tuesday, 17 April | Symmetry breaking; cosmology; inflation? | Hawking, chs. 3 & 9 | 419: term paper rough draft due |
| 26 | Thursday, 19 April | Why are we here? String landscapes & the anthropic principle. |
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| 27 | Tuesday, 24 April | |||
| 28 | Thursday, 26 April | |||
| 29 | Tuesday, 1 May | Course summary & any issues that you wish to discuss. |
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| Thursday, 3 May | Reading Day | 419: final term paper draft due (11:59p on Compass) |
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| Tuesday, 8 May | Final Exam, 1.30p–4.30p (in 276 Loomis) | |||