Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2014
Volume 59, Number 5
Saturday–Tuesday, April 5–8, 2014; Savannah, Georgia
Session B10: History of Physics |
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Sponsoring Units: FHP Chair: Catherine Westfall, Michigan State University Room: 204 |
Saturday, April 5, 2014 10:45AM - 10:57AM |
B10.00001: Reactions to Einstein's 1929 Unified Field Theory Proposal Paul Halpern We will examine the variety of reactions to Einstein's announcement in 1929 that he had unified gravitation with electromagnetism using the modification of general relativity known as distant parallelism. In particular, we will consider the physics community's response, specifically Pauli's criticisms, as well as the deluge of news stories about Einstein's results. We'll show how while Einstein's theory was not physically viable, the press widely assumed to it be such, due perhaps to the fame of its proposer. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 5, 2014 10:57AM - 11:09AM |
B10.00002: The Origins of the Franck-Hertz Experiments Clayton Gearhart This April APS meeting marks the 100th anniversary of the experiments of James Franck and Gustav Hertz, in which they bombarded mercury atoms with slow electrons. Today, we interpret their results as confirming the existence of quantized atomic energy levels. Their own interpretation was quite different---they thought they were recording ionization, not excitation, and said not a word about Niels Bohr's new theory. Even more surprising, quantum theory had little to do with the initial motivation for their experiments. Franck, beginning with his doctoral dissertation in 1905, had been measuring ion mobilities in gases. At first, his work involved clever but hardly earthshaking extensions of Ernest Rutherford's experiments at the Cavendish Laboratory in England. But in 1910, in measuring the mobilities of argon ions, Franck made an astonishing discovery: Electrons freed from argon atoms did not immediately attach to other atoms, forming negative ions. Rather, they remained free. This discovery led Franck to question earlier theories of ionization by collision, and led him to propose to Hertz the collaboration that eventually led to the experiments on mercury. I will sketch this early history, and time permitting, talk about what if anything they knew about Bohr's theory in 1914. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 5, 2014 11:09AM - 11:21AM |
B10.00003: Nikola Tesla, the Ether and his Telautomaton Kendall Milar In the nineteenth century physicists' understanding of the ether changed dramatically. New developments in thermodynamics, energy physics, and electricity and magnetism dictated new properties of the ether. These have traditionally been examined from the perspective of the scientists re-conceptualizing the ether. However Nikola Tesla, a prolific inventor and writer, presents a different picture of nineteenth century physics. Alongside the displays that showcased his inventions he presented alternative interpretations of physical, physiological and even psychical research. This is particularly evident in his telautomaton, a radio remote controlled boat. This invention and Tesla's descriptions of it showcase some of his novel interpretations of physical theories. He offered a perspective on nineteenth century physics that focused on practical application instead of experiment. Sometimes the understanding of physical theories that Tesla reached was counterproductive to his own inventive work; other times he offered new insights. Tesla's utilitarian interpretation of physical theories suggests a more scientifically curious and invested inventor than previously described and a connection between the scientific and inventive communities. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 5, 2014 11:21AM - 11:33AM |
B10.00004: Minkowski's Road to Space-Time, and its Consequences and an Alternative Felix T. Smith The road from Maxwell's equations to early relativity and then to Minkowski's space-time is traced through his G\"ottingen lecture in 1907 and his paper in 1908 that introduced the 4-dimensional tensor form of electrodynamics. This led to a puzzle: What is the reason for the time dependence in its position space geometry shown in the metric sum $ds^2 = dx_1^2 + dx_2^2 + dx_3^2 -c^2dt^2$? Having no physical explanation for this, Minkowski made the drastic move of enlarging 3-space into 4-dimensional space-time, advocating it powerfully in his paper ``Space and Time'' (1909). I will discuss the circumstances that led to its rapid acceptance (but not by Poincar\'e), and its consequences that emerged much later in the partial disconnect between relativity and the other domains of modern physics. Much later still, the Hubble expansion of our cosmos can now be shown to imply that the term $-c^2dt^2$ is a direct concomitant of an expanding, negatively curved 3-space and does not require either a 4-dimensional space-time or multiple time dimensions for multiple particles. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 5, 2014 11:33AM - 11:45AM |
B10.00005: Rapidity: The Special Relativity Work of Dr. Vladimir Karapetoff Hamilton Carter Between 1924 and 1944 Dr. Vladimir Karapetoff, a professor in the electrical engineering department of Cornell University, authored 11 papers on the topic of special relativity. While his initial papers focused on the then popular oblique angle treatment of special relativity, he soon became a vocal proponent of performing special relativistic calculations using rapidity, a technique that emphasizes the hyperbolic geometric nature of Minkowski space-time. While rapidity has fallen out of usage with the exception of a specialized dialect within particle physics, it offers interesting technical and pedagogical perspectives on the geometrical nature of space-time not evident in the present day relativistic parlance. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 5, 2014 11:45AM - 11:57AM |
B10.00006: Developments in Computational Physics at Particle Accelerators Francisco Cano Computational physics is a field that employs existing physics formulas, as well as mathematical algorithms to perform large-scale calculations with the help of computers. Throughout the years, we have come to completely and accurately understand the basic natural laws that govern certain systems. Over the past two decades however, the considerably increased power of both computing hardware and numerical algorithms have made the treatment of even more complex systems possible as well. Many physics fields depend on both programming and computation to interpret data collected through experiments.~~In accelerator physics, for example, computers must monitor, record, and analyze vast quantities of information each time that particles are collided in a particle accelerator. We will discuss the developments, requirements and use of computational algorithms, software developments and hardware specifications of some particle accelerators. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 5, 2014 11:57AM - 12:09PM |
B10.00007: From the Dawn of Nuclear Physics to the First Atomic Bombs Stephen Woolbright, Jacob Schumacher, Ekaterina Michonova-Alexova This work gives a fresh look at the major discoveries leading to nuclear fission within the historical perspective. The focus is on the main contributors to the discoveries in nuclear physics, leading to the idea of fission and its application to the creation of the atomic bombs used at the end of the World War II. The present work is a more complete review on the history of the nuclear physics discoveries and their application to the atomic bomb. In addition to the traditional approach to the topic, focusing mainly on the fundamental physics discoveries in Europe and on the Manhattan Project in the United States, the nuclear research in Japan is also emphasized. Along with that, a review of the existing credible scholar publications, providing evidence for possible atomic bomb research in Japan, is provided. Proper credit is given to the women physicists, whose contributions had not always been recognized. Considering the historical and political situation at the time of the scientific discoveries, thought-provoking questions about decision-making, morality, and responsibility are also addressed. The work refers to the contributions of over 20 Nobel Prize winners. [Preview Abstract] |
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