Atoms and Stars, Fall 2002 (Bowen)
Information sheet for Final Exam

  1. SPEED OF LIGHT. 
    1. Roemer 1676 and eclipses of Io (moon of Jupiter) 16 min leads to 186,000 mi/sec with today's radius of earth's orbit
  2. ASTRONOMY.
    1. Ptolemy c. 140 AD Geocentric, planets on spheres
    2. Nicholas Copernicus (1473 - 1543) Heliocentric, simpler arrangement of spheres. Possible Arabic influence. Conflict with Catholic church primarily after his death.
    3. Tycho Brahe (1546 - 1601) Danish nobleman, decades of accurate astronomical data, relationship with Kepler.
    4. Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630) 3 laws (ellipse, equal areas, r2 proportional to t3) based on Brahe's data for Mars. Tortuous path to discoveries, many false starts, changes of direction. Poor health, few friends, hard on himself.
    5. Galileo (1564 - 1642) Telescope, moons of Jupiter, sunspots, horns of Venus: basis for arguing for Copernican universe. Pope = Simplicius? Experiments done later to confirm hypotheses. Inclined planes, law of odd numbers, inertia, speed of fall independent of mass. Trial and conviction (Bellarmine), house arrest, still new work - strength of beams, publishing work with inclined planes. Movement of science to France (René Descartes) and England (Francis Bacon). 
    6. Isaac Newton (1642-1727) Principia Mathematica Philosphia Naturalis. Three laws of motion: body at rest tends to stay at rest, F = ma, action and reaction. Gravitation F = Gm1m2/r2. Calculus (Leibnitz controversy) and geometry to show Kepler's three laws followed. Same law worked for moon's orbit and force of gravity on earth. Clockwork universe (not accepted today because of Quantum Mechanics and Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle). Gravitation action at a distance, contradicted Descarte mechanical universe but today most forces due to exchange of particles.
    7. Motivated to show God working in world (natural explanations for mechanics and astronomy were not yet extensive enough to support a 100% natural approach to the world?)
    8. Einstein 1904 - 1910 Special and General Relativity. Special is constant speed of light, General is gravity comes from bending of space-time, bending of light.
    9. AU Astronomical Unit radius earth orbit 93 M mi, light year distance light travels one year
    10. Stars, planets ("wanderers"), galaxies (spiral, elliptical, irregular), super galaxies (groups of , nebula (clouds), comets (orbits), asteroids (one pass-by).
    11. Big Bang about 15 BYA further away = faster receding, get speed from relativistic shift in atomic spectra, age from distance / speed, also microwave background is cooled light, can see light warms up coming through nebula so comes from far away. Age of earth from radioactive dating
  3. CHEMISTRY.
    1. Four Aristotle elements: air, earth, fire, water. C, H, N, O elements (cannot be broken down but not the case in 20th century), CO2, CO, H2O, NO2 molecules (atoms combine - Dalton) Vs mixture in any ratio without forming molecules (cinnamon-sugar, dough)
    2. Stephen Hale, 1727 many different types of "air"
    3. Antoine Lavoisier (1743 - 1794) different types of "air", electrolysis of water, H and O. Modern terms (oxygen, air, hydrogen etc), burning is combination with oxygen. Importance of gases.
    4. John Dalton (1766 - 1844) and Atomic Theory of Matter (misread Principia?) Law of Definite Proportions. Air empty space with a few atoms, equal volumes equal numbers, gas weight is relative atom/molecule weight.
    5. Ludwig Boltzmann (1844 - 1906) applied Atomic Theory to gas of Newtonian atoms, invented Statistical Mechanics (with J. Willard Gibbs), explains Second Law of Thermodynamics - "energy runs downhill." 
  4. EXPANDING CIRCLES COLLIDING
    1. 1865 James Clerk Maxwell electricity and magnetism combine to explain light as e-m radiation. Also Boltzmann and Newton (uniting terrestrial and celestial).
  5. Kansas School Board - 1999 removed Evolution, Geologic Time Scale (5 BY), Big Bang and Continental Drift from state requirements, became "local choice" (no other areas treated this way). 2001, action reversed by newly elected members.
  6. Archimedes. Screw pump, weight less by amount of displaced water, work on lever, screw, block and tackle, war machines