Transcript Introducing Higher Physics

Address to the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, 1900
There is nothing new to
be discovered in physics
now. All that remains is
more and more precise
measurement.
(Lord Kelvin, 1900)
©Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk.
All that remains to do in physics is to fill in
the sixth decimal place
(Albert Michelson, 1894)
What did we know about science,
the world and the universe in 1900?
What has been discovered in
physics since 1900?
Fortunately…
‘No matter how we may single out a
complex from nature...its theoretical
treatment will never prove to be ultimately
conclusive... I believe that this process of
deepening of theory has no limits.’
(Albert Einstein, 1917)
Lord Kelvin did have a little
idea…
… he mentioned two ‘clouds’ on
the horizon of physics:
1) blackbody radiation
2) the Michelson–Morley
experiment.
Kinetic theory,
Thermodynamics
Boltzmann
Particles
Maxwell
Universe
Fields
Electromagnetic
1895
e-
Brownian
motion
1900
1905
Geiger
n
e+
Cosmic rays
Quantum mechanics
Wave / particle
Fermions / Bosons
p+
Fermi BetaDecay
Yukawa
π exchange
Spin Antimatter
μ-
1980
General relativity
Cloud
Galaxies; expanding
universe
Cyclotron
Dark Matter
Nuclear fusion
τ-
Synchrotron
P, C, CP
violation
QED
p-
1975
Accelerator
Radioactivity
Photon
π
1970
Detector
Special relativity
1930
1960
Strong
Nucleus
1920
1950
Weak
Technologies
Atom
1910
1940
Newton
Big Bang
Nucleosynthesis
Particle zoo
νe
W bosons
Cosmic Microwave
Background
Higgs
νμ
τντ
u
d
EW unification
s
GUT
c
STANDARD MODEL
b
Superstrings
g
W
1990
3 generations
e+e- collider
Wire chamber
Beam cooling
QCD
Colour
SUSY
Bubble Chamber
Online computers
p+p- collider
Inflation
Modern
detectors
Z
CMB Inhomgeneities
(COBE, WMAP)
WWW
t
2000
2010
Dark Energy (?)
ν mass
GRID
What are the most important
questions that physics is asking?
©
CERN
http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/910381/
Three fundamental questions drive
the research at CERN
Where do we come from?
What are we made of?
What is the future of the universe?
What do you need to be
successful in Higher Physics?
What do you need to be successful ?
Alvaro de Rujula, theoretical
physicist, CERN
It pays not to know very much (no
preconceived ideas!)
Challenge what you do know (let go of your
misconceptions)
Be young (most big discoveries are made by
scientists early in their careers)
How Higher Physics students view physics
Physics learning climbing wall
1/2mv2
What am I
doing here?
mgh
CERN February 2010
CERN RCUK Teacher Programmes
Taking you on a tour … or a journey
Waves
Our Dynamic Universe
Particles
Researching Physics
Uncertainties
NABs
Electricity
CERN February 2010
Skills
Electronics
CERN RCUK Teacher Programmes
And remember...
to study physics
© Mary Evans Picture Library
‘The only way of discovering the
limits of the possible is to venture a
little way past them into the
impossible.’
(Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001 : A
Space Odyssey)