STS.042
Einstein, Oppenheimer, Feynman: Physics in the 20th Century
Explores the changing roles of physics and physicists during the 20th century. Topics range from relativity theory and quantum mechanics to high-energy physics and cosmology. Examines the development of modern physics within shifting institutional, cultural, and political contexts, such as physics in Imperial Britain, Nazi Germany, US efforts during World War II, and physicists' roles during the Cold War. Enrollment limited.
Fall 2020
This class explores the changing roles of physics and physicists during the 20th century. Topics range from relativity theory and quantum mechanics to high-energy physics and cosmology. We examine the development of modern physics and the role of physicists within shifting institutional, cultural, and political contexts, such as Imperial Britain, Nazi Germany, and the US during World War II, and the Cold War.
Readings
- James Clerk Maxwell, Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism , 3rd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1998), vol. 1, v-xii, 155–68. ISBN: 9780198503736.
- Bruce J. Hunt, The Maxwellians (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991), 73–107. ISBN: 9780801426414.
- Albert Einstein, “On the electrodynamics of moving bodies,” translated and reprinted in Arthur I. Miller, Albert Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity: Emergence (1905) and Early Interpretation (1905–1911) (Reading: Addison-Wesley, 1981), 392–6. ISBN: 9780387948706.
- Optional : Michel Janssen, “Appendix: Special relativity,” in The Cambridge Companion to Einstein , ed. Michel Janssen and Christoph Lehner (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 1–19.
- Optional: Michel Janssen, “Appendix: Special relativity,” in The Cambridge Companion to Einstein , ed. Michel Janssen and Christoph Lehner (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 19–44.
- Albert Einstein, “What is the theory of relativity?,” in Ideas and Opinions , ed. Carl Seelig (New York: Crown Publishers, 1954), 227–32. ISBN: 9780517003930.
- David Kaiser, “General relativity primer: Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love curved spacetime,” unpublished manuscript, 2006.
- Optional : David Kaiser, “General relativity: An informal primer,” unpublished manuscript, 21 October 2011.
- Emilio Segrè, “Planck, unwilling revolutionary: The idea of quantization,” in Emilio Segrè, From X-Rays to Quarks: Modern Physicists and Their Discoveries (San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1980), 61–77. ISBN: 9780716711469.
- Thomas Kuhn, “Revisiting Planck,” Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 14 (1984): 231–52.
- John Heilbron, “Bohr’s first theories of the atom,” in Niels Bohr: A Centenary Volume , ed. A. P. French and P. J. Kennedy (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985), 33–49. ISBN: 9780674624153.
- Werner Heisenberg, “Quantum-theoretical re-interpretation of kinematic and mechanical relations,” translated and reprinted in Sources of Quantum Mechanics , ed. B. L. van der Waerden (New York: Dover, 1967), 261–6. ISBN: 9780486618814.
- Walter Moore, Schrödinger: Life and Thought (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 191–200. ISBN: 9780521354349.
- Niels Bohr, “The Bohr-Einstein dialogue,” in Niels Bohr: A Centenary Volume , ed. A. P. French and P. J. Kennedy (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985), 121–40. ISBN: 9780674624153.
- David Kaiser, “Life-and-death: When nature refuses to select,” in Quantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020), 29–38. ISBN: 9780226698052.
- David Kaiser, “Spooky actions at a distance,” in How the Hippies Saved Physics (New York: W. W. Norton, 2011), 45–67. ISBN: 9780393342314.
- Operation Epsilon: The Farm Hall Transcripts , ed. Charles Frank (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 70–91. ISBN: 9780520084995.
- Recommended : A BBC video production of Michael Frayn’s play Copenhagen, directed by Howard Davies, produced by Richard Fell et al., BBC Worldwide (2002).
- Lillian Hoddeson, “Mission change in the laboratory: The Los Alamos implosion program, 1943–1945,” in Big Science: The Growth of Large-Scale Research , ed. Peter Galison and Bruce Hevly (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992), 265–289. ISBN: 9780804718790.
- Note : In lieu of the class session, please watch the documentary film, The Day after Trinity (1981).
- Robert Serber with Robert Crease, Peace & War: Reminiscences of a Life on the Frontiers of Science (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), 121–44. ISBN: 9780231105460.
- Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy, “Development of a Super Weapon,” hearing typescript dated 9 January 1950, declassified.
- Note : In lieu of the class session, please watch the film Containment (2016), directed and produced by Peter Galison & Robb Moss.
- Evelyn Fox Keller, “The anomaly of a woman in physics,” in Working It Out , ed. Sara Ruddick and Pamela Daniels (New York: Pantheon, 1977), 77–91. ISBN: 9780394735573.
- David Kaiser, “Training quantum mechanics,” in Quantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020), 116–135. ISBN: 9780226698052.
- David Kaiser and W. Patrick McCray, “Introduction,” in David Kaiser and W. Patrick McCray, eds., Groovy Science: Knowledge, Innovation, and American Counterculture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016), 1–10. ISBN: 9780226372884.
- David Kaiser, “Zen and the Art of Textbook Publishing,” in Quantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020), 136–151. ISBN: 9780226698052.
- Robert Mills, “Tutorial on infinities in QED,” in Renormalization: Lorentz to Landau (and Beyond) , ed. Laurie M. Brown (New York: Springer, 1993), 57–88. ISBN: 9780387979335.
- Richard Feynman, QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985), 77–101. ISBN: 9780691164090.
- Geoffrey Chew, “Impasse for the elementary-particle concept,” in The Sciences Today , ed. Robert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler (New York: Arno, 1977 [1974]), 366–99. ISBN: 9780405071737.
- David Kaiser, “Something for nothing” and “Higgs hunting,” in Quantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020), 165–173 and 174–182. ISBN: 9780226698052.
- David Kaiser, “When fields collide,” in Quantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020), 183–201. ISBN: 9780226698052.
- Optional : David Kaiser, “Cosmic inflation: An informal primer,” unpublished manuscript, 23 November 2011.
- There is no assigned textbook for this course. All reading assignments should be completed before the appropriate class session.
Prerequisites & course information
Same subject as 8.225[J] Prereq: None Acad Year 2027-2028: U (Fall) Acad Year 2028-2029: Not offered 3-0-9 units. HASS-H
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2020
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.