|HPS 0410||Einstein for Everyone||Fall 2008| Back to main course
page For submission Mon. Aug. 25, Tues. Aug. 26, Wed. Aug. 27.
In this class, we are going to review a series of remarkable and
unexpected discoveries in science. We will find that the speed
of light represents an impassable barrier; that moving clocks
slow; that mass is a form of energy; that gravity is really a
curvature of the geometry of spacetime; and much more. With a
master like Einstein to guide us, it looks so easy. It is as if
no commonsense idea is secure. It seems as if the smallest nudge
is all that is needed to topple great edifices that seemed
completely secure. These discoveries are like the fictional gold
that supposedly paved the streets of London. Innocents arriving
in London found that wealth there was not easy to come by. It
isn't that easy. Revolutionary discoveries are exceedingly hard
to find. To give you some perspective, consider: 1. Briefly, in
a few sentences, describe a successful revolutionary discovery
in science N