there is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. all that remains is more and more precise...
TRANSCRIPT
There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement.
(Lord Kelvin, 1900)
Address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 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.
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
FieldsParticlesElectromagnetic
Special relativity
Quantum mechanicsWave / particleFermions / Bosons
Spin Antimatter
W bosons
QED
Maxwell
SUSY
Higgs
Superstrings
Universe
NewtonKinetic theory,Thermodynamics
Brownian motion
General relativity
Big BangNucleosynthesis
Inflation
Atom
Nucleus
e-
p+
n
Particle zoo
u
μ -
π
νe
νμ
ντ
d s
c
τ-
τ-b
t
Galaxies; expanding universe
Nuclear fusion
Cosmic Microwave Background
GUT
ν mass
QCDColour
Dark Energy (?)
Dark Matter
W Z
g
Photon
Weak Strong
e+
p-
Fermi Beta-Decay Yukawa
π exchange
Boltzmann
Radio-activity
Technologies
Geiger
Cloud
Bubble Chamber
Cyclotron
Detector Accelerator
Cosmic rays
Synchrotron
e+e- collider
p+p- collider
Beam cooling
Wire chamber
Online computers
WWW
GRID
Moderndetectors
P, C, CP violation
STANDARD MODEL
EW unification
3 generationsCMB Inhomgeneities (COBE, WMAP)
1895
1905
1975
What are the most important questions that physics is asking?
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 yourmisconceptions)
Be young (most big discoveries are made by scientists early in their careers)
How Higher Physics students view physics
Physics learning climbing wall
mgh
1/2mv2 What am Idoing here?
CERN February 2010 CERN RCUK Teacher Programmes
Taking you on a tour … or a journey
CERN February 2010 CERN RCUK Teacher Programmes
Skills
Particles
Electricity
Waves
Our Dynamic Universe
UncertaintiesResearching Physics
NABs
Electronics
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)