Course Title: Physics for Poets
A Foundation Course in Physics for Liberal Arts Education
Designed by: Umeshkanta Thounaojam, PhD
“Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars - mere globs of gas atoms. I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more?
-Richard Feynman (Nobel Laureate in Physics, 1965)
This statement captures the need to integrate humanities with natural sciences in order to understand about how nature works while appreciating its beauty.
Preamble: This course is developed with a mission of imparting a broad appreciation of basic physics to liberal arts undergraduates. Major developments of ideas such as those associated with Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Maxwell, Einstein and Planck have revolutionized not just physics but have changed the way in which we all think, influencing various disciplines. Knowledge on the developments of physics (as well as other basic sciences) can help in all areas of study. In this course, it is hoped to give students a window for understanding their own field of interest and its relationships with the physical sciences. It is hoped that this will lead to the realization of the importance of fundamentals of physics and its useful association with various disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, economics, sociology etc.
Course Description: This course aims to invoke curiosity and scientific inquiry and also to stimulate students to understand how nature works. We will discuss the origin of physics, the roots of scientific revolution(s), birth of modern science and its implications for other disciplines in its simplest ways, enabling students from different backgrounds to learn physical principles and their applications to the world around us. A strong emphasis will be given to understand how the revolutionary ideas of physics were formulated. It is hoped that this course will help the student appreciate the beauty of the natural world.
Prerequisites: No prior experience is necessary but the courage to think with imagination.
Class Structure: Classes will be a combination of lectures, tutorials, interactive sessions, videos and demonstrations. Readings will be given to complement the lectures. An important aspect is to understand (not very technical) science articles and related essays.
Grading Scheme:
Course at a Glance: 12 weeks of study. 4 hours per week.
Note: Details of each of the modules is given in the appendix.
Required reading:
R. K. Logan, The Poetry of Physics and The Physics of Poetry, (World Scientific, Singapore, 2010).
S. Weinberg, To Explain the World: The Discovery of Modern Science, (Harper Collins, New York, 2015).
Suggested readings (Books):
S. Chandrasekhar, Truth and Beauty: Aesthetics and Motivations in Science, (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1987).
T. S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1970).
A. Lightman, Einstein's Dreams, (Vintage, London, 2004).
S. Malin, Nature Loves to Hide: Quantum Physics and the Nature of Reality a Western Perspective, (World Scientific, Singapore, 2012).
R. McCormmach, Night Thoughts of a Classical Physicist, (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1982).
Suggested readings (Articles):
Paul Collins, Rhyme and Reason: The Victorian Poet Scientist, New Scientist, 2011
Ruth Padel, The Science of Poetry and The Poetry of Science, Gaurdian, 2011
N. Mukunda, Mathematics as a language of nature: A historical view Proc Indian Natn Sci Acad 81 No. 2 March 2015 pp. 347-356
Patrick Dasgupta, Mathemagical 2014 - An Indian Perspective, arXiv 2014
Jarmo Mäkelä , Is reality digital or Analog? arXiv:1106.2541, 2011
Walter Isaacson, The light-Beam Rider, New York Times Review on Einstein theory of special and general relativity, 2015.
George Musser, The Quantum Physics of Free Will, Scientific American, 2012.
Micheal Shermer, How Randomness rule our World and why we cannot see it?, Scientific American, 2008.
Cristi Stoica, And the Math will set you free. arXiv 2015
Foundation Questions, Trick or Truth: the Mysterious Connection Between Physics and Mathematics Winning Essays
APPENDIX
Course Details
Origin of Physics: This module will introduce how Physics originated in ancient times. Physics is the study of nature and so the subject itself had begun with the evolution of mankind through observations of nature and its components in various forms. Observation that the usefulness of certain things like tools, fire, wheels were known and became a part of human existence even though theoretical generalizations in the form of laws were not established. An overview of history of ancient science developed in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, the middle east, India, and China will also be given, and the focus will be on understanding of how science had driven ancient civilizations to flourish.
Genesis of Scientific Revolution: This module will examine the ideas and factors that paved ways to science revolution during Renaissance in Europe. Ancient Greek’s contribution to astronomy, Egyptian to Geometry, Arabs to Bio-medical sciences and Indian contribution of zero to number system were some of the important developments prior to Renaissance. We will examine the manner different ideas developed and spread across space and time (ancient Greek, medieval Islamic world and India) and then reached Europe. Why did scientific revolution occur in Europe?
Birth of Modern Science: During the Renaissance period, there was a paradigm shift in the way science was pursued. Experiments had begun, methods were reconsidered and mathematics was used in the formulation of natural physical laws. Modern science came into existence when people started questioning the then existing ideas and thus formulated general principles/laws of nature on the basis of observations and experiments. We will examine how modern science was “discovered”, the driving forces, and what distinguishes the science of ancient and modern times.
Laws of Motion and Gravitation: Observation of moving bodies like the pendulum, the planets, the falling objects were crucial to the development of modern science. This module will discuss ideas of the Universe and planetary motions given by Ptolemy, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton. We will examine how the observation of planetary motions and acquisition of knowledge helped in finding mathematical law of great generality and predictive power. We will also examine how the inventions of printing and publication of Newton's Principia Mathematica helped the spread of scientific ideas, and made an impact on various philosophical thinkers.
Birth of Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics: The invention of steam engine during Industrial revolution gives rise to the birth of thermodynamics. First law of thermodynamics is the conservation of energy. The second law tells about entropy and direction of natural process. Here, the important question is how physical processes show irreversibility despite nature’s perfect symmetry in space and time, and thus continues to pose challenges till date. We will examine the ideas of Clausius, Carnot, Joule, Kelvin, Maxwell, and Boltzmann and how the laws of thermodynamics were formulated, and why there was the need to introduce Statistical Physics.
Electricity and Magnetism: In ancient times, awareness of electric and magnetic properties of matter comes from natural causes like lightning. Renaissance witnessed a significant experimental development of electric and magnetic properties of matter. Coulomb formulated laws about the forces between two charged bodies or magnetic poles. Faraday demonstrated that current could be generated in a coiled wire by simply moving a magnet making a deeper interrelation between electric currents and magnetic fields. Later, Maxwell was able to express all known properties of electricity and magnetism in terms of four simple equations. Through Maxwell’s equation, light was identified as electromagnetic waves but many mysteries remains. Michelson Morley's experiment to detect the presence of a medium called aether in space will also be discussed.
Introduction to Special Theory of Relativity: Albert Einstein formulated the “Special Theory of Relativity’ in order to have a deeper insight of the nature of electromagnetism. This radical theory is about measurement and understanding of how relative motion between an object and observer affects the measurement. One of the revolutionary ideas is that light in space is propagated with a constant velocity, independent of the nature of motion of the emitting body. The special theory of relativity is counterintuitive, and we will examine the ideas about the limiting speed of signals propagating in the universe, length contraction, twin paradox and geometry of space and time. Applications to GPS and cell phones will also be discussed.
Birth of Quantum Mechanics and Philosophical Implications: By the end of 18th century many physical phenomena had been studied and understood, but behaviors of matter at small distance or scale posed a challenge. The laws of classical physics in particular to explain the radiation emitted by blackbody were shown to be inadequate by Planck who introduced the idea that energy was “quantized”. This led to a major revolution, the birth of quantum mechanics. We will discuss the need for the paradigm shift, due to the works of Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrodinger etc. We will examine how a dilemma of radiation led to new course of radical thinking leading to series of deep philosophical developments.
Chaos Theory and Complex Systems: The power of Physics lies in the ability to relate cause and effect. Such a viewpoint is changed by discovery of “Chaos” by Henri Poincare where deterministic systems show different behaviors with slight changes in initial conditions. The modern study of chaotic dynamics has its origin in Lorenz’s 1963 study about modeling atmospheric circulation. He introduced the terminology “ the Butterfly effect” to describe how small changes could lead to large differences. We will also examine “Complex Systems” where interactions between different components and environment lead to various emergent behaviors. This module will examine some of the ideas of chaos that are applied to social and economic systems and how the science of complexity attempts to find common laws operating across different biological, economic, ecological and social systems.
Impacts of Physics on Theology, Arts, Philosophy and Humanities: The Scientific revolution led to rationality. Philosophers advocated empiricism and discovery of knowledge. Poetry remained a means to connect the beauty and wonders of nature specifically at times of the failure of scientific formulae. Newton’s physics of cause and effect had a great impact on Economics and Psychology. Laws of supply and demand of Adam Smith supported Newton’s cause and effect. Philosophers attempted to understand human mind through observation and analysis. Biological intrinsic and external factors remain as the two main drivers that powered and influenced human behavioral performances. Until 1940s, it was believed that motivations for a performance were only driven by these two factors linearly which is similar to what was with Newton and Smith’s ideas. However, psychological experiments suggested that long-term motivations could diminish by rewards. Another drive for motivation was “the joy of performing a task is the reward itself”. This third drive remained as a powerful idea that deviates from the mechanistic view of human behaviors. In this final module, we will examine the impact of physics outside the field of science in more detail, driven by questions and the interest of the students.
Acknowledgements:
I sincerely appreciate the motivational and extremely helpful guidance provided by my Ph.D. supervisor and mentor Prof. Ram Ramaswamy, School of Physical Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi by introducing me to Liberal Arts education, thereby resulting in the present structure of this course.
I would also like to thank my colleague Dr. Neeraj Kumar Kamal, Department of Physics, Central University of Rajasthan for ever-stimulating discussions on basic Physics, helping in getting clarity on various topics. Finally, I would also like to thank my wife, Dr. Oinam Hemlata Devi, School of Human Ecology, B.R. Ambedkar University, New Delhi for carefully reading the initial drafts. Her critical insights helped to rethink, rework and finalize the present course structure.