Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2005 72nd Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Section of the APS
Thursday–Saturday, November 10–12, 2005; Gainesville, FL
Session EA: History of Physics Invited Session |
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Chair: Frederick Gregory, University of Florida Room: Hilton Century A |
Thursday, November 10, 2005 4:15PM - 4:45PM |
EA.00001: The History of Electron Spin Invited Speaker: A look back at the unsolved problems like para-, dia- and ferro magnetism, the doublet structure of the alkali spectra and the anomalous Zeeman effect that led to the introduction of the electron having an intrinsic spin will be given. Then a historical review of the work of Compton, Pauli, Goudsmit, and Uhlenbeck on electron spin follows. The first published work on electron spin was that of Compton in a paper entitled ``The Magnetic Electron'' in the Journal of the Franklin Institute in 1921. He introduced the idea of the spinning electron and its associate spin magnetic moment to explain para-, dia- and ferro magnetism and carried out experiments to support his idea. This work was unknown to Goudsmit and Uhlenbeck when they wrote a paper in 1925 on electron spin to explain the doublet nature of alkali spectra. The role of Pauli in the introduction of the idea of a spinning electron is described. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, November 10, 2005 4:45PM - 5:15PM |
EA.00002: Eddington's Journey Invited Speaker: In 1919 Sir Arthur Eddington coordinated two expeditions, one to Sobral, Brazil and another to the Gulf of Guinea to observe Einstein's predicted bending of starlight by the sun during an eclipse. The results were quickly touted to the public as definitive proof of Einstein's theory, although physicists challenged the accuracy of the results. The expedition and Eddington's subsequent work on relativity made him one of the earliest and most eloquent champion of Einstein's theory of relativity. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, November 10, 2005 5:15PM - 5:45PM |
EA.00003: Einstein's Years in Switzerland Invited Speaker: Albert Einstein left Germany, the country of his birth, in 1894 and moved to Switzerland in 1895. He studied, worked and taught there, except for a year's stay in Prague, until1914. That year he returned to Germany, where he lived until his emigration to the United States in 1933. In 1905, while living with his wife Mileva and their first son Hans Albert in Bern and working as a technical expert at the Swiss Patent Office, he published his dissertation on the determination of molecular dimensions, his papers on Brownian Motion that helped to establish the Kinetic Theory of Heat and on the Photo-Electric Effect that validated the Quantum Theory of Light, and the two papers introducing the Special Theory of Relativity. How the young Einstein could help to lay the foundations of these theories while still working on his dissertation, holding a full-time job and helping to raise a family has evoked much discussion among his biographers. In this contribution, the extent to which living within Swiss society and culture could have made this feat possible will be examined. Old and recent photos of places in Switzerland where Einstein has lived and worked will be shown. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, November 10, 2005 5:45PM - 6:15PM |
EA.00004: Planck and the Special Theory of Relativity Invited Speaker: Max Planck was considered to be among the most conservative figures in the history of physical science, because of his reluctance of accepting quantum mechanics (which he himself had helped to create) and his life-long effort to reconcile it with classical mechanics. Thus, it is something of a puzzle to see Planck as among the first physicists to embrace Einstein's special theory of relativity, equally revolutionary as quantum mechanics. The main burden of this paper is to find out why Planck so readily accepted and defended Einstein's theory. I suggest that Einstein's later criticism of certain interpretations of quantum mechanic may have its roots in Planck's skeptical attitude. [Preview Abstract] |
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