- Part two -
The nineteenth century was coming to an end, scientists could more and more reasonably think that they had solved almost all the secrets of the physical world - to name at least electricity, magnetism, gases, optics, acoustics, kinetics and statistical physics - all this lined up before them in an exemplary okay. Scientists have discovered X-rays and cathode rays, electron and radioactivity, came up with ohm, watt, kelvin, joule, ampere and tiny erg101.
If something can be vibrated, accelerated, disturbed, distilled, combined, weighed or transformed into a gas, then they achieved all this and along the way produced a mass of universal laws, so weighty and majestic that we are still inclined to write them with a capital letters 102: electromagnetic field theory of light, Richter's law of equivalents, Charles's law for an ideal gas, the law of communicating vessels, the zero principle of thermodynamics, the concept of valence, the laws of acting masses and countless others.
All over the world, machines and tools clanked and puffed, the fruits of the ingenuity of scientists. Many smart people then believed that science had almost nothing else to do. When in 1875 a young German from Kiel, Max Planck, was deciding whether to devote himself to mathematics or physics, he was ardently urged not to take up physics, because in this field all the decisive discoveries were already made. The coming century, he was assured, will be the century of consolidation and improvement of what has been achieved, and not revolutions. Planck did not listen. He took up the study of theoretical physics and devoted himself entirely to work on the concept of entropy, a concept at the very foundation of thermodynamics, which seemed very promising to an ambitious young scientist. * In 1891 he presented the results of his labors and, to his utter confusion, learnedthat all the important work on entropy has in fact already been done by a humble Yale scientist named J. Willard Gibbs.
Gibbs is perhaps the most brilliant personality most people have never heard of. Shy, almost invisible, he has essentially lived his entire life save for three years of study in Europe, within three blocks of his home and Yale University grounds in New Haven, Connecticut. In his first ten years at Yale, he didn't even bother getting a salary. (He had an independent source of income.) From 1871, when he became a professor at the university, until his death in 1903, his course attracted an average of just over one student per semester. The book he wrote was difficult to understand, and his own designations were considered by many to be incomprehensible. But these incomprehensible formulations of his hid strikingly vivid conjectures. * More specifically,entropy is a measure of randomness or disorder in a system. Darrell Ebbing, in his General Chemistry textbook, explains this very well with a deck of cards.
In the new package, just taken out of the box, the cards are folded according to suits and seniority - from aces to kings - we can say that the cards in it are in an ordered state. Shuffle the cards and you create a mess. Entropy quantifies how disordered the state is and helps determine the probabilities of different results from further shuffling. To fully comprehend entropy, one must also have an understanding of such concepts as thermal inhomogeneities, crystal lattices, stoichiometric relations, but here the most general idea was presented. In 1875-1878 Gibbs released a series of works under the general title "On the equilibrium of heterogeneous substances", where the principles of thermodynamics, one might say, almost everything - “gases, mixtures, surfaces, solids, phase transitions … chemical reactions,electrochemical cells, osmosis and precipitation,”lists William Cropper103. Basically, Gibbs showed that thermodynamics is related to heat and energy not only on the scale of large and noisy steam engines, but also has a significant impact on the atomic level of chemical reactions.
Gibbs's "equilibrium" has been called the "foundations of thermodynamics," 104 however, for reasons that defy explanation, Gibbs chose to publish the important results of his research in Proceedings of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, a journal that managed to be almost unknown even in Connecticut. that is why Planck found out about Gibbs when it was already too late. * Planck was often unlucky in life. His beloved first wife died early, in 1909, and the youngest of two sons died in the First World War. He also had two twin daughters, whom he adored. One died in childbirth. Another took care of the little girl and fell in love with her sister's husband. They got married and two years later she also died in childbirth. In 1944, when Planck was eighty-five years old, a bomb from the allies [in the anti-Hitler coalition] hit his house,and he lost everything - papers, diaries, everything that had been collected in a lifetime. The following year, his surviving son was convicted of conspiracy to assassinate Hitler and executed. Without losing his presence of mind - but, say, slightly discouraged - Planck turned to other subjects. * We'll get back to them shortly, but first we will briefly (but on business!) Glance in Cleveland, Ohio, at an institution then called Case School of Applied Sciences. There, in the 1880s, the comparatively young physicist Albert Michelson and his fellow chemist Edward Morley undertook a series of experiments with curious and worrying results that would have a profound impact on the subsequent course of events. In fact, Michelson and Morley inadvertently undermined long-standing faith into the existence of a certain substance called the luminiferous ether - stable,invisible, weightless, imperceptible and, unfortunately, completely imaginary environment, which, it was believed, pervades the entire universe. Spawned by Descartes, readily accepted by Newton, and revered by almost everyone ever since, the aether was central to nineteenth-century physics, explaining how light travels through the void of space.
It was especially needed in the nineteenth century, because light began to be seen as electromagnetic waves, that is, a kind of vibration. And vibrations have to happen in something; hence the need for broadcasting and a long commitment to it. Back in 1909, the outstanding British physicist J. J. Thomson105 categorically asserted: “Ether is not a product of the imagination of a speculative philosopher; we need it as much as the air we breathe. And this is more than four years after it was absolutely undeniably proved that it does not exist. In short, people are very much attached to the airwaves. If you were to illustrate the idea of America in the nineteenth century as a land of open possibilities, you would hardly find a better example than the career of Albert Michelson. Born in 1852 on the Polish-German border to a family of poor Jewish merchants, he moved with his family to the United States at an early age and grew up in California in a gold rush gold rush camp where his father traded in clothes. Unable to pay for college due to poverty, Albert traveled to Washington, DC, and began to hang out at the doors of the White House so that Ulysses S. Grant could catch the eye of Ulysses S. Grant during the daily presidential exercise. (It was a much more naive age.)and began to hang out at the doors of the White House, so that Ulysses S. Grant could catch the eye of Ulysses S. Grant during the daily presidential exercise. (It was a much more naive age.)and began to hang out at the doors of the White House, so that Ulysses S. Grant could catch the eye of Ulysses S. Grant during the daily presidential exercise. (That was a much more naive age.)
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During these walks, Michelson won the favor of the president so much that he agreed to give him a free seat at the United States Naval Academy. It was there that Michelson mastered physics. Ten years later, already a professor at the Cleveland School of Applied Sciences, Michelson became interested in the possibility of measuring the motion of the ether - a kind of headwind experienced by objects making their way through space. One of the predictions of Newtonian physics was that the speed of light moving in the ether should change depending on whether the observer approaches the light source or moves away from it, but no one has yet come up with a way to measure this. It occurred to Michelson that in six months the direction of the Earth's motion around the Sun changes to the opposite. Therefore,if you make careful measurements with a very accurate instrument and compare the speed of light in opposite seasons, you can get the answer.
Michelson persuaded the recently wealthy telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell to provide funds for the creation of an original and accurate device of his own design, called an interferometer, which could measure the speed of light with great accuracy. Then, with the help of the talented but overshadowed Morley, Michelson set about taking years of meticulous measurements. The work was delicate and grueling and was temporarily suspended due to serious nervous exhaustion of the scientist, but by 1887 the results were obtained. They were not at all what the two experimenters expected. As Kip S. Thorne, astrophysicist at California Institute of Technology, wrote 106: "The speed of light was the same in all directions and at all seasons." This was the first in two hundred years - indeed in exactly two hundred years - a hint thatthat Newton's laws may not always apply everywhere. The result of the Michelson-Morley experiment was, in the words of William Cropper, "perhaps the most famous negative result in the entire history of physics."
For this work, Mai-Kelson won the Nobel Prize in Physics - and he became the first American to receive this award - however, twenty years later. And before that, the Michelson-Morley experiments were unpleasant, like a bad smell, hovered on the outskirts of scientific thought. It is surprising that, despite his discoveries, at the dawn of the twentieth century, Maykelson ranked himself among those who believed that the building of science was almost completed and remained, in the words of one of the authors of the journal Nature, “add only a few turrets and spiers and cut out a few decorations on the roof.” In fact, of course, the world was about to enter an age of such science, in which many people will not understand anything at all and no one will be able to cover everything. Scientists will soon find themselves entangled in a messy realm of particles and antiparticles, where things arise and disappear over periods of time.in comparison with which nanoseconds seem unnecessarily prolonged and poor for events where everything is unfamiliar.
Science moved from the world of macrophysics, where objects can be seen, held, measured, into the world of microphysics, in which phenomena occur with incomprehensible speed and on a scale that defies imagination. We were about to enter the quantum age, and the first to push the door was the previously unlucky Max Planck. In 1900, at the ripe old age of forty-two, now a theoretical physicist at the University of Berlin, Planck unveiled a new " quantum theory ", which asserted that energy is not a continuous stream like flowing water, but comes in separate parts, which he called quanta. It was a really new concept, and a very successful one. It will soon help solve the mystery of the Michelson-Morley experiments, as it will show that light does not actually have to be a wave. And in the longer term, it will become the foundation of all modern physics. In any case, this was the first signal that the world would soon change.
But the turning point - the dawn of a new century - came in 1905, when the German physics journal Annalen der Physik published a series of articles by a young Swiss official who was not affiliated with universities, had no access to laboratories, and was not a regular reader of libraries larger than the national patent office in Bern. where he worked as a third class technical expert. (Shortly before that, an application for a promotion to second grade had been rejected.)
His name was Albert Einstein, and in one eventful year he presented five papers to the Annalen der Physik, of which three, according to C. P. Snow, "were among the greatest works in the history of physics" - one explored the photoelectric effect through Planck's new quantum theory, another dealt with the behavior of small particles in suspension (known as Brownian motion), and another set out the foundations of special relativity. * Einstein was honored with a somewhat vague "theoretical physics award." He had to wait sixteen years for the award, until 1921 - quite a long time by any standards, but a trifle compared to the awarding of the Frederick Raines Prize, who discovered neutrinos in 1957 and won the Nobel Prize only in 1995, thirty-eight years later,or to the German Enrst Ruske, who invented the electron microscope in 1932 and received the Nobel Prize in 1986, almost half a century later. Since the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously, longevity is an important prerequisite for its receipt, along with ingenuity. The first, for which its author was awarded the Nobel Prize, explained the nature of light (which, among other things, contributed to the emergence of television). * The second contained proof that atoms did exist, a fact that, oddly enough, continued to be disputed at the time. And the third just changed the world.for which its author was awarded the Nobel Prize, explained the nature of light (which, among other things, contributed to the emergence of television) *. The second contained proof that atoms did exist, a fact that, oddly enough, continued to be disputed at the time. And the third just changed the world.for which its author was awarded the Nobel Prize, explained the nature of light (which, among other things, contributed to the emergence of television) *. The second contained proof that atoms did exist - a fact that, oddly enough, continued to be disputed at the time. And the third just changed the world.
Einstein was born in 1879 in Ulm, in southern Germany, but raised in Munich. In the early period of his life, little said about the impending scale of his personality. In the 1890s, his father's electrical business began to decline, and the family moved to Milan, but Albert, by then a teenager, left for Switzerland to continue his education - although he could not pass the entrance exam on the first attempt. In 1896, to avoid being drafted into the army, he renounced German citizenship and entered the Zurich Polytechnic Institute for a four-year course, which graduated science teachers for secondary schools. He was a capable, but not particularly outstanding student. In 1900 he graduated from the institute and after a few months began to publish in the Annalen der Physik. His very first work on the physics of liquids in drinking straws (wow!) appeared in the same issue with Planck's work on quantum theory. From 1902 to 1904, he published a series of papers on statistical mechanics, only later to learn that in Connecticut the humble and prolific J. Willard Gibbs did the same in 1901, publishing the results in his Basic Foundations of Statistical Mechanics. Albert fell in love with a Hungarian student. classmate Mileva Marich. In 1901, they had a child born out of wedlock, a daughter, whom they slowly gave up for adoption. Einstein never saw his child. Two years later, she and Mileva got married107. Between these two events, Einstein went to work at the Swiss Patent Office, where he worked for the next seven years. He liked the job: it was interesting enough to give work to the mind, but not so stressful as to interfere with physics. It was in such conditions that he created the special theory of relativity in 1905.
"On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" is one of the most amazing scientific publications ever published, both in presentation and in content. There were no references or footnotes, almost no mathematical calculations108, there was no mention of previous or influential work, and only the help of one person - a colleague at the patent office Michel Besso. It turned out, wrote Ch. P. Snow109 that “Einstein came to these conclusions only through abstract reflection, without outside help, without listening to the opinions of others. Surprisingly, to a large extent, this is exactly how it was.
His famous equation E = mc2 was absent in this work, but it appeared in a short addition a few months later. As you may remember from your school days, E in the equation stands for energy, m stands for mass, and c2 stands for the speed of light squared. In the simplest words, this equation means that mass and energy are equivalent. These are two forms of one thing: energy is liberated matter; matter is energy waiting in the wings. Since c2 (the speed of light multiplied by itself) is actually a huge number, the formula shows that in any material object there is a monstrous - indeed monstrous - amount of energy. * * How it became a symbol of the speed of light is a kind of mystery, but here David Bodanis suggests that it comes from the Latin celentias, meaning speed. In the corresponding volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, prepared ten years before the advent of Einstein's theory, a variety of meanings are indicated for the symbol c, from carbon to cricket, but there is no mention of the symbol of light or speed. consider yourself a hefty small, but if you are just an adult of ordinary build, then inside your unremarkable figure there will be at least 7 x 1018 joules of energy. That's enough to explode with the force of thirty very large hydrogen bombs, provided you know how to release this energy and you really want to do it. Everything that surrounds us contains this kind of energy. We're just not very strong at releasing it. Even a hydrogen bomb is the most energetic thing we have managed to create today,- frees less than 1 percent of the energy that she could release if we were more skillful.
Among many other things, Einstein's theory explained the mechanism of radioactivity: how a lump of uranium can continuously emit high-energy rays and not melt from it like an ice cube. (This is possible due to the highest efficiency of converting mass into energy in accordance with the formula E = mc2.) This also explains how stars can burn for billions of years without exhausting their fuel. With a stroke of the pen, a simple formula, Einstein endowed geologists and astronomers with the luxury of operating for billions of years. But most importantly, the special theory of relativity showed that the speed of light is constant and limiting. Nothing can exceed it. Relativity has helped us see light (no pun intended) as the most central concept in our understanding of the nature of the universe. And, which is also far from coincidental,she solved the problem of the luminiferous ether, making it completely clear that it does not exist. Einstein gave us a universe that didn't need him. Physicists are usually reluctant to pay too much attention to the claims of the Swiss patent office, so, despite the abundance of useful innovations they contain, few people noticed Einstein's articles.
After solving some of the greatest mysteries of the universe, Einstein tried to get a job as a lecturer at the university, but was refused, then he wanted to become a teacher in high school, but here he was refused. So he returned to his place as a third-class technical expert - but of course he kept thinking. The end was not even in sight. When the poet Paul Valery once asked Einstein if he had a notebook where he wrote down his ideas, Einstein looked at him with genuine surprise. “Oh, that is not necessary,” he replied. "I don't have them that often." Needless to say, when he had them, they were usually good. Einstein's next idea was the greatest that anyone had ever thought of - truly the greatest of the greats, as Burs notes,Motz and Weaver in their voluminous history of atomic physics 111. "As a product of one mind," they wrote, "this is undoubtedly the highest intellectual achievement of mankind." And this is a well-deserved praise. It is sometimes written that somewhere around 1907, Albert Einstein saw a worker fall from the roof and began to think about the problem of gravity. Alas, like many funny stories, this one also seems dubious. According to Einstein himself, he thought about the problem of gravity, just sitting in a chair.like many funny stories, this one also seems questionable. According to Einstein himself, he thought about the problem of gravity, just sitting in a chair.like many funny stories, this one is also questionable. According to Einstein himself, he thought about the problem of gravity, just sitting in a chair.
In fact, what Einstein thought of was more than the beginning of the solution to the problem of gravity, since it was obvious to him from the very beginning that gravity is the only thing missing from his special theory. The "special" thing about this theory was that it dealt mainly with objects moving freely112. But what happens if a moving object - primarily light - encounters such a hindrance as gravity? This question occupied his thoughts for most of the next decade and led to the publication in early 1917 of a work entitled "Cosmological Considerations on General Relativity" 113. The special theory of relativity of 1905 was, of course, a profound and significant work; but, as Ch. P. Snow, if Einstein hadn't thought about her in his time, someone else would have done it,perhaps in the next five years; this idea was in the air. General theory, however, is a completely different matter. “Had she not appeared,” Snow wrote in 1979, “we might have been waiting for her to this day.” With his pipe, low-key appeal and electrified hair, Einstein was too talented to remain in the shadows forever, and in 1919 year, when the war was behind, the world suddenly opened it. Almost immediately, his theories of relativity acquired a reputation for being incomprehensible to mere mortals. Incidents such as what happened to the New York Times, which decided to give material on the theory of relativity, did not help to correct this impression. Einstein was too talented to remain in the shadows forever, and in 1919, with the war behind him, the world suddenly opened him up with a low-key appeal and an electrified head of hair. Almost immediately, his theories of relativity acquired a reputation for being incomprehensible to mere mortals. Incidents such as what happened to the New York Times, which decided to give material on the theory of relativity, did not help to correct this impression. Einstein was too talented to remain in the shadows forever, and in 1919, with the war behind him, the world suddenly opened him up with a low-key appeal and an electrified head of hair. Almost immediately, his theories of relativity acquired a reputation for being incomprehensible to mere mortals. Incidents such as what happened to the New York Times, which decided to give material on the theory of relativity, did not help to correct this impression.decided to give material about the theory of relativity.decided to give material about the theory of relativity.
As David Bodanis writes about this in his excellent book E = mc2, for reasons that caused nothing but surprise, the newspaper sent to interview the scientist of its sports correspondent, golf specialist, a certain Henry Crouch. The material was clearly not for him. teeth, and he messed up almost everything. Among the tenacious blunders contained in the material was the assertion that Einstein had managed to find a publisher brave enough to take on the issue of a book that only a dozen wise men "in the whole world can understand". There was no such book, such a publisher, such a circle of scientists, but the glory remained. Soon the number of people able to comprehend the meaning of relativity decreased even more in human fantasy - and, I must say, in the scientific community, little was done to prevent the circulation of this invention. When a journalist asked the British astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington if it was true that he was one of only three people in the whole world who understood Einstein's theories of relativity, Eddington pretended for a moment to think deeply, and then replied: “I am trying to remember, who is the third. " In fact, the difficulty with relativity was not that it contained a lot of differential equations, Lorentz transformations and other complex mathematical calculations (although it was so - even Einstein needed the help of mathematicians when working with them), but that it was contrary to the usual ideas. In fact, the difficulty with relativity was not that it contained a lot of differential equations, Lorentz transformations and other complex mathematical calculations (although it was so - even Einstein needed the help of mathematicians when working with them), but that it was contrary to the usual ideas. In fact, the difficulty with relativity was not that it contained a lot of differential equations, Lorentz transformations and other complex mathematical calculations (although it was so - even Einstein needed the help of mathematicians when working with them), but that it was contrary to the usual ideas.
- Part two -