What I'm really interested in is whether God
could have made the world in a different way, that is;
whether the necessity of Logical Simplicity leaves any
freedom at all. Albert Einstein
(remark to his
assistant quoted in "Mainsprings of Scientific
Discovery" by Gerald Horton in The Nature of
Scientific Discovery, Owen Gingereich, editor)
The Philosophical
Foundations of Science Phi 123 (SPRING TERM 2012)
Reading for next week: Isaac Asimov, "I Robot: Chapter 3
(pdf)" (note: Powell and Donovan are employees of US
Robotics sent to a space station to investigate Robot behavior,
the purpose of this reading is to explore the role of
fundamental assumptions and how they shape our world view, the
three laws of Robotics can
be seen here)
Extra Credit Opportunity:
Attend 3 lectures of the UA College of Science lectures at
Centennial Hall, Tuesdays at 7:00pm, (find me and sign the
sign-in sheet, I will be on the main floor, balcony right at the
end, standing up until the lecture begins. Come early, as last
year Centennial Hall filled up quickly). Dates, times and more
info available here
Wednesday - Jan. 25
The week we will explore what Is Science and compare it to
Pseudo-Science or other types of non-scientific knowledge. In
particular we will explore the role of Logic in Science and the
necessity of axioms (starting places assumed to be true, but not
deduced from other assumptions). Of particular interest is
whether Scientific knowledge (whatever that is) can progress
along lines of very different initial assumptions.
Wednesday - Feb. 1
Deductive Discoveries
No additional readings for tonight. We will break into small
groups and work on problems that demonstrate the ability of
deduction and reasoning to uncover sometimes unexpected results.
* (requires student password) Required: *Time as Change
Please review the concepts explained in EinsteinLight
(an interactive Flash Media presentation from the University of
New South Wales)
Suggested: *The Foundations of Special
Relativity, from Appearance and Reality: An Introduction to the
Philosophy of Physics by Peter Kosso, Oxford University
Press (1998)
For those interested in how to derive
the Lorentz Transformation for Time dilation, here are
two pages taken from:
Gibilisco, Stan. Understanding Einstein's Theories of
Relativity: Man's New Perspective on the Cosmos.
(Dover, 1983) [Highly Recommended!] Page 44 (pdf),
Page 45(pdf)
Fun:
Here is a humorous
and
delightful animation of Einstein explaining
some elements of his Special Theory of Relativity
(note: this is a European production, where they exchange the
American use of the comma and decimal point)
Deadline for letting
me know if:
1) You plan on doing your project alone or in a group
2) Your proposed general topic
Wednesday - March 14 Spring Break
Wednesday - March 21
Gravity = Warped
(curved/non-euclidean) Space-Time
Quantum Weirdness Readings for this week:
Gravity=Warped Space-Time
Online Exploration at your own pace: "General
Relativity" (The Max-Plank Institute for
Gravitational Physics) Boomeranging
Through the Earth (pdf)- ( a short lecture on General
Relativity, simplified to one dimension)
PRESENTERS:
Please tailor your presentation to be 30 minutes per
presentation with 12.5 minutes for questions.
For everyone else, this time limit gives us a 10 minute break,
and gets us out at 9:50 (the official class ending time) -
please bring snacks or whatever else you need to get through it.
Next week, "snacks" are on me!
