University of Applied Sciences
Rapperswil
E = mc2, by David Bodanis
Book & Chapter Summary
Nikola Stanković, Robin Suter, Jonas Matter, Marcel
Stocker, Patrick Scherler, Cyrill Gsell
June 3, 2016
Contents
1 Context
3
2 Preface
4
3 Summary and Analysis
3.1 Bern Patent Office, 1905 . . . . . . . . .
3.2 E is for Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3 = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.4 m is for mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.5 c is for celeritas . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.6 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.7 Einstein and the Equation . . . . . . . .
3.8 Into the Atom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.9 Quiet in the Midday Snow . . . . . . . .
3.10 Germany’s Turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.11 Norway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.12 America’s Turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.13 8:16 A.M. - Over Japan . . . . . . . . .
3.14 The Fires of the Sun . . . . . . . . . . .
3.15 Creating the Earth . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.16 A Brahmin Lifts His Eyes Unto the Sky
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5
5
6
9
10
12
15
18
20
22
23
26
27
29
32
36
37
4 Study Questions
40
5 Character List
48
6 Analysis of Major Character
50
7 Themes, Motifs, and Symbols
51
2
1 Context
The book E = mc2 , written by David Bodanis, is a biography of the world’s most famous
equation. David Bodanis attempts to explain the meaning, beauty and implications of
the most famous equation in physics.
Purpose of this summary
This summary was created by Nikola Stanković, Robin Suter, Jonas Matter, Marcel
Stocker, Patrick Scherler, Cyrill Gsell to give a good overview of the book E = mc2 ,
which was discussed during the course Where Tech Meets BEC at the university of applied sciences Rapperswil, Switzerland.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Mr. Brett Davidson for leading the course Where Tech Meets BEC and
reviewing this summary.
3
2 Preface
In 1905, Albert Einstein produced five history papers that shattered many cherished scientific beliefs. One of those papers introduced the theory of special relativity and his
legendary equation, E = mc2 . Generation have grown up knowing that this equation
changed the shape of our world but without understanding what it really means and why
it is so significant.
In this fascinating biography David Bodanis tells the story of one of the greatest scientific
discoveries in history.He looks at the elements ’e’, ’m’ and ’c’; and honors the scientists
whose landmark discoveries paved the way for Einstein. He plots the course of the equation
through the twentieth century, showing how our lives have been revolutionized by its
applications; and looks far ahead to the future. But as with any biography, it is the
human stories that rally ignite the subject - stories of love, courage and tragedy, of
near misses, disappointments and disasters that, brought together by Bodanis in this
remarkable book, turn Einstein’s seemingly impenetrable theory into a dramatic and
accessible human achievement.
4
3 Summary and Analysis
3.1 Bern Patent Office, 1905
Hermann Einstein, Albert Einstein’s father, wrote to Professor Wilhelm Osterwald to
please him to write a letter to Albert with a few words of encouragement, so that be
might recover the joy of Einstein in living and working. Einstein felt profoundly unhappy
with his lack of position in that time and his idea that he has gone off the tracks with his
career. No answer from Professor Osterwald was ever received.
In the year 1905, Einstein wrote a series of papers that changed our view of the universe
forever.
Einstein married a fellow student, Mileva, and worked in the patent office. He spent his
time often in pub visits and long walks. Einstein’s final university grades were unusually
low. Teachers were irritated by his lack of obedience. Everyone in authority seemed to
enjoy putting Einstein down.
Einstein and his wife had given away their first child, a daughter born before they were
married. He couldn’t even afford the money for part-time help to let his wife go back to
her studies.
Even the hours he had to keep at the patent office worked against him. By the time he
got off for the day, the one science library in Bern was usually closed. During the few free
moments, he scribbled on sheets he kept in one drawer of his desk - which he jokingly
called his "department of theoretical physics".
The first articles he wrote weren’t especially impressive. He was always aiming for grand
linkages. Einstein wrote his theory of relativity in just five or six weeks filling thirty-some
pages. He sent his articles to Annalen der Physik to be published. A few weeks later he
realized that he had left something out, so he delivered a supplement.
5
3.2 E is for Energy
The word Energy is surprisingly new, and can only be traced in its modern sense to the
mid 1800s. People before were thought that all the different powers around were unrelated
things.
What kind of apprenticeship did Michael Faraday make?
Michael Faraday was a apprentice bookbinder in the 1810s. And he had no interest in
spending his life binding books. His job saved him from the poverty in London. And his
job had a singular advantage: ”There were plenty of books there”. Faraday used to read
a lot.
How did he get in touch with Humphrey Davy?
When Faraday was twenty, a shop visitor offered him tickets to a series of lectures at
the Royal Institution. Sir Humphrey Davy was speaking on electricity, and on the hidden powers that must exist behind the surface of our visible universe. Faraday made a
impressive-looking book with notes and sketches of Davy’s lectures and demonstration
apparatus, which he sent to him. Davy relied that he wanted to meet Faraday and gave
Faraday a job as a lab assistant. But Faradays new position was not as ideal as he’d
hoped.
What was the relationship between Humphrey Davy and Michael
Faraday like?
Sometimes Davy behaved as a warm mentor, but at other times he would seem angry,
and push Faraday away. It was especially frustrating to Faraday. When Faraday, in his
late twenties, was asked to work on how the link between electricity and magnetism might
occur he immediately become more cheerful.
6
How much formal education did Faraday have?
Faraday wasn’t to Oxford, or to Cambridge or, indeed, even attended much of what we
call secondary school. He was a relatively uneducated young binder, and also poor, like
his father and friends. Faraday’s limited formal education, curiously enough, turned out
to be a great advantage. This doesn’t happen often, because when a scientific subject
reaches an advanced level, a lack of education usually makes it impossible for outsiders
to get started.
What explains Faraday’s ability to understand the connection
between magnetism and electricity?
Most science students had been trained to show that any complicated motion could be
broken down into a mix of pushes and pulls that worked in straight lines. But this
approach didn’t show how the power of electricity might tunnel trough space to affect
magnetism. Because Faraday did not have that bias of thinking in straight lines, he could
turn to the Bible for inspiration. The Sandemanian religious group, in which he become
an official member, like his family, he belonged to believed in a different geometric pattern:
the circle. Farady propped up an magnet. From his religious background, he imagined a
whirling tornado of invisible circular lines swirling around it.
7
What is this? And when was it built?
This is Michael Faraday electric motor and it was built in 1821. Farada’s invention was
the basis of the electric engine. The full concept of ”Energy” had still not been formed,
but Faraday’s discovery that these different kinds of energy were linked was bringing it
closer. He made this discovery with just 29 years and it was the high point of his life.
Unfortunately Sir Humphry Davy accused Farady of stealing the whole idea and offend
him. That Faraday stole the idea was false. Faraday never spoke out against Davy. But
for years after the charges of plagiarism and their repercussions, he stayed warily away
from front-line-research. Only when Davy died, in 1829, did he get back to work.
This informations aren’t in the book. Informations summarized from the internet.
What does the Law of the Conservation of Energy mean?
Faraday’s experiments yield that the balancing occurs everywhere. Energy has clearly
changed its forms; the system looks very different. Bit the total is exactly, precisely the
same. Everything was connected; Everything neatly balanced.
8
What new energy source did Einstein discover and what effect does
this have on the Law of the Conversion of Energy?
Einstein discovered the new energy source: ?
3.3 =
When were most typographical symbols created?
The most of the main typographical symbols were created by the end of the Middle
Ages.
At the beginning text had looked like telegraphs. Everything was written in uppercase.
The first change was to write the most in lowercase. Another shift was to use the point
and comma for major and minor breathing pauses.
There was a huge amount of symbols used in the world by different cultures, f. e. all of us
know the old Greek alphabet, but also the Hebrew language or the old Egyptian symbols
were used in the past. Important is, that it isn’t natural that we don’t use this symbols
instead of ours today.
Trough the mid-1500s there was still place for entrepreneurs to set their own mark by
establishing the remaining minor symbols. Robert Recorde found in 1543 the sign "+"
later on he invented the symbol for is equal to ==========.
There was also other persons, who promoted there signs for is equal to. Now a short list,
as it might have looked
• E || mc2
• E −→ mc2
• E .æqus. mc2
• E
ih
mc2
• E ========== mc2
9
How did Einstein use the = symbol ‘like a telescope’?
Scientists started using the = symbol as something of a telescope for new ideas. A device
for for directing attention to fresh, unsuspected realms. And in this way Einstein have
used the equals symbol as a telescope.
3.4 m is for mass
How is Lavoisier’s character described?
He has keen sense of justice. He rescued an innocent thirteen-year-old daughter, Marie
Anne, of his friend and boss Jacques Paulze from a forced marriage to an uncouth, gloomy,
rich ogre of man by marrying her himself.Lavoisier was hard working, six days a week
and had a obsession with careful measuring. So he was a romantic person with a great
sense of finicky precision.
What did Lavoisier discover when analyzing the burning/rusting of
metals?
He wanted to find out whether the small piece of metal, which slowly burn or rust, would
weigh more or less that it did before. To find the answer he built a entirely closed
apparatus. With a huge amount of repetitions he has found out that a rusted sample
does not weigh less. It doesen’t weigh the same. It weighs more. He discovered that some
of the gases must habe flown down and stuck to the metal. That was the extra weight he
had found.
Which famous scientist had already developed a theory of mass and
movement in the 1600s?
Isaac Newton. He has shown that all the planets, moons and comets we see could be
described as being cranked along inside an immense God-created machine. Lavoisier was
the right man to find out if Newton’s vision really did apply on Earth.
10
Why was Lavoisier so unpopular during the French revolution?
Lavoisier was so unpopular during the French revolution, because he decided to build
a wall around Paris, a missive one, where everyone could be stopped, searched, and
forced to pay tax. He made this decision a short time before the start of the french
revolution. The Parisians hated it, and when the Revolution began, it was the first large
structure they attacked. Additional he had with the Swiss-born Dr. Jean-Paul Marat a
hidden enemy. Hidden because Lavoisier forgot that he have turned him down, but Marat
never forgot. By 1793, Jean-Paul Marat was head of a leading faction in the National
Assembly. He’d suffered years of poverty because of Lavoisier’s rejection. Marat didn’t
kill him immediately. Instead, he made sire Paris’s citizens were constantly reminded of
the wall. In November 1793 Lavoisier was arrested in the Louvre and executed with Dr.
Guillotin’s instrument as the fourth victim, just after his friend Paulze.
What was Einstein taught in the 1890s about mass and energy?
By the mid-1800s, scientists accepted the vision of energy and mass as being like two
separate domed cities. Everyone thought that nothing connected the two realms. That
was what Einstein was thought in the 1890s: that energy and mass were different topics,
that they had nothing to do with each other.
How did Einstein establish a link between the two domains?
Einstein did find that that there was a link between the two domains, but he didn’t do
it by looking at experiments with weighing mass and seeing if somehow a little bit was
not accounted for, and might have slipped over to become energy. Instead he took what
seems to be an immensely roundabout path. He seemed to abandon mass and energy
entirely, and began to focus on what appeared to be an unrelated topic; He began to look
at the speed of light.
11
3.5 c is for celeritas
1. Who was the first scientist to try to measure the speed of light?
Almost everyone was convinced that light travelled infinitely fast. Galileo was the first
person to clearly conceive of measuring the speed of light, but he was too old to carry out
the experiment himself. The experiment was a good idea, but the technology of the time
was too poor and the distance too short to get any clear result.
2. How did Ole Roemer discover the speed of light?
He analysed the movement of the moon Io of Jupiter: It was supposed to travel around
its planet every 42.5 hours. But it never stuck honestly to schedule. Roemer assumed
that the problem was in how Earth traveled. In the summer, for example, if Earth was
closer to Jupiter, the light’s journey would be shorter, and the moon’s image would arrive
sooner. Because of the great distance he was able to get precise results.
3. What is the explanation given for the fact that Roemer
discovered the speed of light?
"What was needed was the brilliance, the inspiration, that a young outsider applying
his mind could provide." (p. 41) Roemer was an outsider, not part of the astronomy
establishment.
4. How did Cassini react to Roemer’s success?
Cassini declared he had not been proven wrong at the challenge and he had lots of
supporters. Roemer had performed an impeccable experiment, with a clear prediction,
yet Europe’s astronomers still did not accept that light traveled at a finite speed.
12
5. How fast is the speed of light?
The value he had estimated for light’s speed was close to the best current estimate, which
is about 670’000’000 mph (300’000 km/s)
6. In what ways were Faraday and Maxwell similar?
They were both deeply religious men. Maxwell was bullied in school when he was younger.
He never expressed any anger about it. Faraday also still carried the wounds from his
experiences with Sir Humphry Davy in the 1820s.
Maxwell was such a great mathematician that he was able to see beyond the surface
simplicity of Faraday’s sketches.
7. What is the inner property of light?
A light beam consists of electromagnetic waves.
What was happening inside a light beam, Maxwell began to see, was just another variation
of the back-and-forth movement. When a light beam starts going forward, one can think
of a little bit of electricity being produced, and then as the electricity moves forward it
powers up a little bit of magnetism, and as that magnetism moves on, it powers up yet
another surge of electricity, and so on.
8. In what ways is light different from other movement?
A surfer’s water wave can appear to hold still, because all the parts of the wave take up
a steady position in relation to one another. To catch up with a streak of light and see it
standing still would be like saying, "I want to see the blurred arcs of a juggling act, but
only if the balls are not moving."
Einstein concluded that light can exist only when a light wave is actively moving forward.
13
9. Why is it impossible to catch up with the speed of light?
Whenever you think you’re racing forward fast enough to have pulled up next to a light
beam, look harder and you’ll see that whatever part you thought you were close to is
powering up a further part of the light beam that is still hurtling away from you.
10. Why is -273 degree the coldest possible temperature?
The temperature of a substance is a readout of how much its inner parts are moving,
and at some point they’re going to stop vibrating entirely. That happens at about -273
degrees on the centigrade scale, and that’s why this is said to be the "absolute zero".
11. What happens to matter approaching the speed of light?
The energy of speed will become mass, so the matter will expand.
What’s happening is that energy that’s pumped into the matter has to turn into extra
mass. Just as the equation states: that "E" can become "m", and "m" can become "E".
That’s what explains the "c" in the equation.
12. "Energy does not stand alone, and neither does mass. But the
sum of ? will always remain constant." What is in the gap?
"But the sum of mass plus energy will always remain constant" (p. 54)
13. Why did nobody before Einstein notice the connection between
mass and energy?
The speed of light is so much higher than the ordinary motions we’re used to.
The effect is weak at walking speed, or even at the speed of locomotives or jets, but it’s
still there.
14
3.6
2
Who was Voltaire?
Mr. Voltaire was in fact Francois-Marie Arouet who supported Newton’s laws by own
means. He thought if Newton can find a rational explanation for the universe, Voltaire
could find a rational explanation for the things going on on earth. e.g. the demanded
obedience of the king, Aristocrats who got authority from the king which nobody is
allowed to question this, the role of money, or other hidden forces in politics. After
Francois returned from Paris, three years after that he pushed those ideas. Due to his
writings the name Voltaire got more known than Arouet. The next thing he wanted to do
was to find a place where he can put the seeds of his studies, as it would not be possible
to change the nation at once. Which was Emilie du Chatelet.
What was Emilie du Châtelet like?
Emilie was boy-like (a tomboy). She was strong, fast and had a good intellect which most
of the time kept her away from getting friends with others. She was never really into men.
More than that, she frightened them away and challenged them etc. she climbed trees
and did stuff boys would do. Until she was 19. She then took a husband who was a soldier
and was most of the time away. She did that intentionally. And both agreed that she
could have affairs while he was out. One of those affairs was a twenty-something year old
officer Pierre-Louis Maupertuis, who fulfilled her life until he left for a polar expedition.
Emilie needed a replacement for him. Then Voltaire came to replace him. They shared
the interest in political forms. Emilies husband (Du Chatelet) had a Chateau (old and
abandoned) in Cirey (northern France), which was in his family since Columbus came
to America. Emilie and Voltaire then used it for Scientific researches. The funny thing
was, when Voltaire ordered the constructors to build a library she ordered them to build
a salon, where he planned to place elms, she planted lime trees etc. Finally he still got
a Library with seminar areas. The library was comparable to the Academy of Sciences
in Paris. Voltaire did alot of gossip during his researches and was distracted many times
by other stuff. Emilie was more eager than Voltaire and was ALMOST about to jumpstart future discoveries. Finally she came up with the elementar key question: what is
energy?
15
What was the dispute between Leibniz and Newton about?
It was about the theory of the movements of objects and what happens when they crash.
Newton said that an objects mass times velocity, or their mv1. If a 5-pound ball is going
10 mph, it has 50 units of energy. Leibniz countered: the important factor to focus on
was mv2. If a 5-pound ball is going at 10 mph, it has 5 times 100, or 500 units of energy.
Beyond this points of views the dispute was also a question of religious beliefs.
Why was this also a religious conflict?
Newton believed that god was responsible for the movements of the objects and was
responsible for the fact that if two identical objects with identical weight and velocity
hit each other frontally, the movement of one object gets stopped to zero by the equal
movement of the other object. So the energy of the movement is lost. As if god erased
it. Leibniz on the other hand thought that the when the objects hit the energy they had
added up. All the energy they carried remained busily in existence, throwing the parts of
the objects around. In Leibniz’s view nothing is lost. The world runs itself and there is
no god controlling this energy flow.
How did du Châtelet prove that Leibniz was right?
As Leibniz did not provide good evidence for his theory she added up the experiments of
a guy named sGravesande, who was not able to publish his research because he was not a
theoretician enough. The research of sGravesande was that he let weights fall onto a soft
clay floor. The research showed proof for Leibniz equation E = mv 2 : If Newton’s simple
E = mv 1 was true, then a weight going twice as fast as an earlier one would sink in twice
as deeply. One going three times as fast would sink three times as deep. But that’s not
what ’sGravesande found. If a small brass sphere was sent down twice as fast as before,
it pushed four times as far into the clay. If it was flung down three times as fast, it sank
nine times as far into the clay. Which is just what thinking of E = mv 2 would predict.
Soon after her publishing she had a baby and died within a week after due to an infection.
This was usual during that time, as the doctors did not know that they need to wash
their instruments and had no antibiotics to control infections etc.
16
Why is squaring the velocity of what you measure such an accurate
way to describe what happens in nature?
Not the Answer, but a prove for the answer: One reason is that the very geometry of our
world often produces squared numbers. When you move twice as close toward a reading
lamp, the light on the page you’re reading doesn’t simply get twice as strong. Just as
with the ’sGravesande experiment, the light’s intensity increases four times. When you
are at the outer distance, the light from the lamp is spread over a larger area. When
you go closer, that same amount of light gets concentrated on a much smaller area. The
interesting thing is that almost anything that steadily accumulates will turn out to grow
in terms of simple squared numbers. If you accelerate on a road from 20 mph to 80 mph,
your speed has gone up by four times. But it won’t take merely four times as long to
stop if you apply brakes and they lock. Your accumulated energy will have gone up by the
square of four, which is sixteen times. That’s how much longer your skid will be.
Answer: The interesting thing is that almost anything that steadily accumulates will
turn out to grow in terms of simple squared numbers.
What does it mean for mass when c2 is such a large figure?
it’s almost as if the ultimate energy an object will contain should be revealed when you
look at its mass times c squared, or its mc2
8. Mass is simply the ultimate type of condensed or concentrated
This means that mass is simply the ultimate type of condensed or concentrated energy.
Energy is the reverse: it is what billows out as an alternate form of mass under the right
circumstances. As an analogy, think of the way that a few wooden twigs going up in
flames can produce a great volume of billowing smoke. To someone who’d never seen fire,
it would be startling that all that smoke was "waiting" inside the wood. The equation
shows that any form of mass can, in theory, be manipulated to expand outward in an
analogous way. It also says this will happen far more powerfully than what you would
get by simple chemical burning—there is a much greater "expansion." That enormous
conversion factor of 448,900,000,000,000,000 is how much any mass gets magnified, if it’s
ever fully sent across the "=" of the equation.
17
3.7 Einstein and the Equation
When and where did Einstein publish the equation?
Einstein published E=mc2 in September 1905. (’Where’ is not mentioned)
What material discovered in the 1890s gave hints about the
equation?
metal-streaked ores, which was spraying out some sort of mysterious energy beams.
Who was Marie Curie and how did she die?
Marie Curie was one of their first investigators, and indeed in 1898 coined the word
radioactivity for this active spurting out of radiation. She died of cancer (leukemia),
which was produced by the radioactive material (namely: Radium). In detail: The minute
traces of radium powder, which she had carried unknowingly on her blouse and hands as
she walked across the muddy cobblestones of 1890s Paris and later, had been pouring out
energy in accord with the then-unsuspected equation, barely shrinking at all, for thousands
of years. They had been spray-releasing part of themselves without getting used up back
when they were deep underground in the Belgian mines in the Congo; they continued
through her years of experiments, ultimately giving her this killing cancer. More than
seventy years later, the dust would still be alive and could squirt out poisonous radiation
onto any archivists who were examining her office ledger, or even the cookbooks at her
home.
Why are atomic bombs so powerful?
Take the great speed of light and square that to get an even more immense number.
Then, multiply that by the amount of mass you’re looking at, and that’s how much
energy, exactly, the mass will be able to pour out. But it is easier to access the power
of uranium than other material. A uranium bomb works when less than 1 percent of the
mass inside it gets turned into energy
18
What was so ground-breaking and amazing about Einstein’s
discovery? (p. 80, 84)
Mass and energy were never combined. Einstein was like Newton able to produce a
complete theory of the physical world.
How precisely did he discover it? (p. 80 top)
He did not have any labs or tests he could do. He just came to his discovery by dreamingly
thinking about it, and by thinking about the discoveries of long dead scientists.
How could you explain the theory of relativity easily? (p. 83)
For a person watching a car drive by, the driver seems to move slowly in point of view of
the observer. But same thing happens to the driver: the passenger standing on the street
is moving slowly. Which one of those two is right? Another example: Think, for example,
of a portable music player at a picnic. To someone standing next to it, it’s loud. To
someone who walks a few hundred yards away, the music is soft. We accept that there’s
no answer about how loud it "really" is
What does the term ‘relativity’ NOT mean? (p. 84)
Einstein never especially liked the label relativity for what he’d created. He thought
it gave the wrong impression, suggesting that anything goes: that no exact results any
longer occur. That’s not so. The predictions are precise. The label is also misleading
because all Einstein’s equations are cohesive, and exactly linked up.
How did Einstein’s upbringing and background help him discover
‘relativity’?
Einstein learned as a child that he should always be critical with the new things he learns.
For example: Suppose, Veblen began, a young boy learns that everything in the Bible
19
is true. He then goes to a secular high school, or university, and is told that’s wrong.
"What you learned at your mother’s knee is entirely false. What we teach you here,
however, will be entirely true." Some students would say, Oh, fine, I’ll accept that. But
others will be more suspicious. They’d been fooled once before, taking on faith an entire
traditional world. They’re not going to be fooled again. They would learn what was on
offer, but always hold it critically, as just one possibility among others. Einsteins parents
also tought him: When Einstein was a little boy, he was fascinated with how magnets
worked. But instead of being teased about it by his parents, they accepted his interest.
How did magnets work? There had to be a reason, and that reason had to be based on
another reason, and maybe if you traced it all the way, you’d reach ... what would you
reach?
How did Einstein’s family life develop as his theory became gradually
accepted?
As his theory was accepted, his career started to succeed, he got a professor in Berlin.
As a matter of fact he had not much time left for family or friends. So he got legally
separated from his wife and only occasionally saw his two kids and he had no more time
for his friends in Bern.
3.8 Into the Atom
How is Ernest Rutherford’s character described?
He had a common man’s accent. As a student he did not show proper deference to his
superiors. But he was the kindest leader of men.
What break-through discovery about the atom did he make?
That Atoms are almost entirely made of free space. There is just an extremely small
concentrated center and a few electrons which flew around them, but in between there is
just a lot of free space.
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Why did scientists assume that a lot of energy was hidden in the
nucleus?
because it must have been a reason for why the extremely fast electrons were not by its
speed to squirmingly escape from the center, but keep the extremely fast electrons in a
near distance to the center. Additionally to that, or because of that, there was a big
amount of electricity inside the atom (keeping the items together).
Who was James Chadwick and what did he discover?
James Chadwick was an assistant of James Rutherford. he detected another item in the
nucleus (center of the atom): the neutron. It was the same size of the proton (which is
in the center) but it was not loaded with electricity, it is neutral. That is why it is called
neutron.
Who was Enrico Fermi?
James Chadwick wanted to try to shoot neutrons into a nucleus so that they would stick
there, but with all his test/experiments shooting the neutrons in more and more faster
speed he failed. Enrico Fermi an Italian scientist from Rome was the one succeeding.
What important technique did he provide in 1934?
He got to the conclusion that if the neutron is too fast it will just slip through the
atom/center. He found out, that the shooting neutron must be slowed down in order to
stick to the nucleus.
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3.9 Quiet in the Midday Snow
Who were Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn?
Lise Meitner was an Austrian who moved to Germany to become one of its leading
scientists. Einstein called her "our Madama Curie". Meitner moved to Berlin in 1907 and
quickly became friends with Otto Hahn. Throughout their working relationship, Meitner
and Hahn were very formal to each other. Although they never officially dated, Meitner
nerver dated anyone else in these years.
In 1934, when they worked together again (after they switched to different labs), Meitner
was fired from the University of Berlin because she was Jewish. She moved back to
Austria.
What happened to Hahn and Meitner’s work in 1938?
When in 1938 Germany took over Austria, Meitner became a German citizen by default.
Kurt Hess, another researcher at the same institute, whispered around that she was
Jewish. Shortly after, Hahn asked them to get rid of Meitner. That wasn’t nice of him.
Meitner moved to Stockholm. She still remained involved from a distance with the work
she had been leading. They tried to stuck neutrons to the nuclei of uranium atoms, but
couldn’t yet figure out what new substance they were creating with this process.
When did Meitner first meet Einstein and what did she learn there?
Meitner had first met Einstein at a conference in Salzburg in 1909 where Einstein explained his findings from 1905 that energy could appear out of diappearing mass.
How did Meitner manage to explain the Meitner-Hahn-Strassmann
experiments in 1938?
Niels Bohr, who created the most recent model of the nucleus, viewed an atom like a liquid
drop. The protons in the nucleus push against each other (both are positively charged).
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But combined with the electrons, the atom stays stable. Elements with a big nucleus like
uranium, the force of the protons is so strong that it can be broken apart by the neutrons
that hit the nucleus. Togehter with her nephew, Meitner explained it like a full water
balloon. When you squeeze it in the middle, eventually the water will burst out.
She concluded that with the Meitner-Hahn-Strassmann experiments, they cracked the
uranium in half. With calculating the energy, they confirmed that the extra energy from
the mass was exactly what E = mc2 predicted.
This splitting apart of atoms was labeled nuclear fission. Hahn published the findings in
Berlin, with minimal credit to Meitner.
3.10 Germany’s Turn
Why did Einstein write a letter to the American president in 1939
and what was the reply?
In 1933, Einstein went to America to the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton.
Following the discoveries of Meitner’s, he wrote a letter to the White House, in which he
informs about the possibilities of uranium as an energy source. He also warned the White
House that this could be used to build powerful bombs.
The reply was a brush-off, they ignored his "warning".
Why did the USA not pursue plans to build a bomb, while the
Germans did?
While in 1944 the British authorities were convinced that a practical bomb could be
built, they sent a message to the USA, but Lyman J. Briggs, who was a conservative man
and responsible for the U.S. atomic bomb developement, ignored that letter and kept it
secret.
Germany, in the midst of World War II, was unterstandably much more excited about a
possible weapon of mass destruction (who can blame them? They had a rough time...)
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Who was Heisenberg and why did he get in trouble with the SS?
Werner Heisenberg was the world’s greatest physicist after Einstein (famous for his work
in quantum mechanics).
In 1927, another physicist (Johannes Stark), was a jerk and told the SS that Heisenberg wasn’t patriotic enough, worked with the Jews, etc. etc.. (He wasn’t completely
wrong, Heisenberg did work with Bohr and Einstein, who were Jews, but he was loyal to
Germany)
What saved him?
Heisenberg’s mother knew Himmler’s mother, so she got a letter from Heisenberg to
Himmler. Through this family connection, the investigation from the SS ended (on the
condition that he disavowed Einstein and other Jewish scientists).
In 1940 Heisenberg wrote a report on how to construct a workable atomic bomb
What was Heisenberg’s bomb design based on?
His bomb design was based on the results from Meitner and Fermi’s idea, that slowing
down neutrons would increase a nuclear reaction. With "heavy water", water mixed with
deuterium, these neutrons could be slowed down.
What happened at Heisenberg’s first test in early 1941?
Nothing happened. There wasn’t enough uranium to get a reaction going.
How did the Germans produce Uranium dust?
Machining uranium into uranium dust required a lot of labor and is dangerous to workers.
But hey, Germany had all these people in concentration camps, why not use them? Of
course they did, they used female "slaves" to prepare the uranium oxide. Yaay.
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When did the Germans get the first successful test results?
In spring 1942, the breakthrough happened. It was pouring out 13 percent more neutrons
than the source had pumped in. This made Himmler happy.
When did the Americans start to develop their bomb and what was
the name of the project?
Einstein heard of the work in Germany and wrote another letter to the President, Franklin
D. Roosevelt. But Einstein was a socialist, so the americans didn’t like him much. They
ignored everything he said.
In 1941, Briggs (then responsible for the atomic bomb developement), got replaced by
Ernest Lawrence, a physicist from Berkeley. In December, after Pear Harbor happenend,
the project took of, now called The Manhattan Project.
What was superior about the American bomb design?
Eugene Wigner, a refugee from Belgium, found the most efficient design for the shape
of uranium inside a bomb: a sphere (Heisenberg used a flat sheet, which was the worst
possible option). Wigner had an engineering degree, and Heisenberg did not, which
provided many improvements to the atomic bomb.
What did the Allied forces do to win the race for the bomb?
The USA had a pretty weak army compared to Germany (only 10th in the world). Germany also had the best engineers, which didn’t make the race for the bomb any easier.
The German effort would have to be sabotaged...
(Cliffhanger of this chapter. See next chapter, I guess..?)
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3.11 Norway
How did the Allied forces try to sabotage the German bomb project?
Producing the heavy water required for the nuclear reaction was hard. Instead of building
a whole factory, Germany decided to use the power-generating waterfalls of Norway.
Norway was resistant to cooperate with the Nazis, but after they destroyed the Norwegian
army and asked nicely backed with some machine-guns, the Norwegians agreed.
What happened in the first attack on the Norwegian plant?
Britain decided this remote factory in Norway was Germany’s weak point in the construction of the atomic bomb. They attacked it with Airforce bombers, but they failed before
they even reached the factory (mostly because of bad weather).
What was different in the second sabotage attempt?
The brits decided on a second attack, this time with soldiers from Norway. A narrow
bridge was thought to be the only way in, but through aerial reconnaissance they found
another way in. The workes inside didn’t stop them from setting charges. They set the
explosives under every one of the eighteen "cells" that separated the heavy water.
The explosion caused the heavy water to flow out and damaged pipes with its shrapnel.
The soldiers got away uncaught.
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3.12 America’s Turn
1. Who was appointed as the day-to-day manager of the Los Alamos
bomb construction team?
The exquisitely oversensitive J. Robert Oppenheimer was selected to be in day-to-day
control of the scientists at Los Alamos.
The man who was appointed to the overall charge of the atomic bomb program, was Leslie
Groves. He was effective in getting things built. Groves got all the required factories and
the vast reactor done on time and under budget. But he would almost certainly have
failed at inspiring theoreticians in unexplored intellectual terrain. Luckily he had chosen
Robert Oppenheimer for this task.
2. What was Oppenheimer like and how did he motivate his team?
Still in his twenties he become one of America’s top theoretical physicists. He seemed
effortlessly good at everything. Oppenheimer was superb at identifying weaknesses or
inner doubts in others. This ability to detect other people’s deepest fears made him a
perfect leader.
3. Which two ways to build a bomb did America pursue?
One team took a blunt approach and was simply trying to extract the most explosive
component in natural uranium. When enough of that was accumulated, there’d be a
bomb.
Another team was taking a more subtle approach. They were starting with ordinary
uranium, and then hoping to transform it into the wickedly powerful, new plutonium
metal.
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4. How did the scientists try to make Plutonium explode?
The idea was to start with a ball of plutonium that was fairly low density. That wouldn’t
explode. But then you’d wrap explosives around it, and set them off, all at precisely the
same instant.
5. What news did Niels Bohr bring from Europe in February 1944?
The Germans were very close to building the bomb. They repaired the Vemork factory
in Norway to produce heavy water for their atomic bomb.
6. What kind of sabotage did the Norwegian Haukelid do?
He sank the ferry which should bring the heavy water from Norway to Germany.
7. What did finally happen to Germany’s bomb building capacity?
By the end, the German researchers had reached about half the rate of nucleus splitting
needed for a sustained chain reaction. Heisenberg knew he wouldn’t get further.
8. What happened to Heisenberg?
He became a prisoner of war, and returned to being professor of physics in Germany in
1946.
Heisenberg would be welcomed as a hero in Germany when he was finally released in
1946, while Oppenheimer, even before the war ended, knew his postwar life wouldn’t be
so simple.
9. What happened to Oppenheimer after the war?
He was completely monitored by the FBI and he regretted the use of the bomb.
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"It’s common today to state that the atomic bombing of Japan was obviously justified,
on the grounds that the alternative would have been an invasion that had to be much
worse. But at the time it was not so clear." (p. 160)
10. Which two opposing views were there in the US concerning the
deployment of the bomb in Japan?
The initial plan was to use the bomb on city of Japan and force them to surrender.
The feeling it might not be needed was so strong that there was talk about having demonstrations first, or at least adjusting the phrasing in the surrender demands to make clear
that the emperor could remain in place.
11. Why was the bomb deployed?
President Truman’s most forceful adviser Jimmy Byrnes convinced him to use the bomb.
It was also Byrnes who ensured that the clause protecting the emperor - which might
mollify Japanese opponents of a settlement - was taken out.
3.13 8:16 A.M. - Over Japan
The bomb (made in New Mexico), an elongated (stretched) trash can, had taken 43
seconds to fall from B-29 and hit the ground.
There were small holes in the middle where wires had been tugged out of it as it dropped
away to start the clock switches of its first arming system.
More small holes were farther back to took in samples of air during the fall. As soon as
the bomb was under 7’000 feet above the ground a barometric switch was turned, priming
the second arming system.
The bomb was 3m long and 80cm wide, so impossible to see from the ground.
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Weak radio signals were being pumped down from the bomb to the ground. Some signals
were absorbed by the hospital walls directly below but most of it bounced back to the
bomb. The time lag was used to measure the height remaining to the ground. The last
signal arrived at 1’900ft.
John von Neumann had calculated that a bomb exploding much higher than 2’000ft.
would dissipate much of its heat in open air. Exploding much lower would dig a huge
crater. At just under 2’000ft. the height would be ideal.
What happened inside the bomb when it was triggered?
An electric impulse lit cordite sacs, producing a conventional artillery blast. A small part
of the purified uranium was now pushed down a gun barrel inside the bomb. The first
uranium segment impacted the remaining bulk of the uranium. There were a number
of stray and loose neutrons inside it. Although the uranium atoms were protected by
electrons, the escaped neutrons (having no electrical charge), were not affected by the
electrons. While many of them flew straight through out the other side, a few where on
a collision course for the speck of a nucleus far down the center.
That nucleus blocked outside particles normally, for it was seething with positively charged
protons. But since neutrons have no electric charge they’re invisible to the protons.
The arriving neutrons pushed into the nucleus, overbalancing it, making it wobble. Once
the wobbling in the nucleus was enough to break the strong force glue, then the ordinary
electricity of the protons was available to force them apart. Its speeding impact into
the other parts of the uranium didn’t heat it up much. But the density of uranium was
enough that a chain reaction started.
So there wasn’t just two fragments of uranium nuclei, there were four, then eight, and so
on. Mass was "disappearing" within the atoms and coming out as the energy of speeding
nuclei fragments. E=mc2 was now under way. The chain reaction of multiplying releases
was finished in barely a few millionths of a second. It went through 80 generations of
doubling before it ended. By the last few, the segments of broken uranium nuclei were
moving so fast, that the started heating up the metal around them. From this point on,
all the action of the E=mc2 reaction was over. No more energy appeared. The energy
in the movement of those nuclei was simply being transformed to heat energy (just as
rubbing hands together). The uranium fragments were rubbing against resting metal at
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immense speed. The rubbing made the metals inside the bomb begin to warm. Because
the generations of chain reaction doubling had gone on, it got warmer and warmer to
several million degrees (temperature of the center of the sun). The heat move out. It
goes through the steel tamping around the uranium and the massive casing of the bomb,
but then it pauses.
What happens on the ground and what is the condition inside the
triggered bomb compared to?
Entities as hot as that explosion have energy that must be released. It starts pushing X
rays out of itself. The explosion is hovering, the fragments are trying to cool themselves
off. They remain that way, pouring out large part of their energy. Then when the X ray
spraying is over, the heat ball resumes its outward spread. Only now does the central
eruption become visible. An object resembling a sun now appears. The object burns at
full power for about 0.5 seconds, then begins to fade away, taking 2-3 seconds to empty
itself out. The emptying is accomplished by spraying heat energy outward. Fires begin,
skin explodes off. The first of the tens of thousands of deaths in Hiroshima begin.
A third of the energy from the chain reactions comes out in this flash. The rest follows
behind. The objects heat pushes on ordinary air, accelerating it to speeds that have never
occurred.
After that heat wave there’s a second air pulse, a little slower. After the atmosphere
sloshes back. This lowers the air density to virtually zero. Life-forms that survived the
heat wave will now explode outward.
A small amount of the heat that was produced cant move forward. In a few seconds it
begins to rise. It swells as it goes, and at a sufficient height it spreads out producing the
mushroom.
Short answer: What happened inside the bomb when it was
triggered?
Short answer: A chain reaction
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Why was it triggered at 2000 ft. above ground?
John von Neumann had calculated that a bomb exploding much higher than 2’000ft.
would dissipate much of its heat in open air. Exploding much lower would dig a huge
crater. At just under 2’000ft. the height would be ideal.
Short answer: What is the condition inside the triggered bomb
compared to?
The centre of the sun.
How much heat is produced?
The rubbing and battering made the metals inside the bomb begin to warm to boiling
temperature. But the generations of chain reaction doubling had gone on, as more uranium atoms had been splitting, it will reach several million degrees and then it kept on
rising.
Short answer: What happens on the ground?
Heat wave, vacuum and an incredibly strong storm, radioactive fall-out
3.14 The Fires of the Sun
The flash of light from the explosion over Hiroshima in 1945 reached the orbit of the
moon. Some of it bounced back to earth, the rest continued onward to the sun, and then
indefinitely beyond.
Our sun explodes the equivalent of many million such bombs every second. So Hiroshima
was just a insignificant flicker for the galaxy. E=mc2 does not just apply on earth. Einstein
and other physicists had long recognized this. It was just a quirk that the pressures of
wartime hat led to the first application in weaponry.
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Since the discovery of radioactivity in the 1890s researchers had suspected that uranium
or a similar fuel might be operation in the universe, in particular in the sun to keep it
burning. But point a spectroscope at the sun: there is no uranium or other radioactively
glowing element up there.
What did seem to leap out, was that there was always iron inside them. So in 1909, the
best evidence was that the sun was about 66% pure iron. This was a discouraging result,
because Uranium could pour out energy in accord with E=mc2 and iron is different. The
nucleus of iron is one of the most perfect and stable. A sphere made of iron could not
pour out heat for thousands of millions of year like the sun.
Suddenly the vision of using E=mc2 to explain the universe was blocked.
Cecilia Payne broke that barrier. She had to face a lot of resistance at Cambride because
of her being a woman (the only one in the course). Rutherford was mocking her during
the lectures. A woman couldn’t do graduate work in this field in England and so she
went to Harvard. She was bursting with enthusiasm. But that’s dangerous because that
usually means you’re trying to fit in with their ideas and approaches. Researches should
keep a critical distance. Payne hat that distance. But there was still a ordeal of sexism
at Haward. Payne wrote a Ph.D. that would let her confirm and further develop an new
theory about how to build up spectroscope interpretations. She checked for ambiguities
in spectroscope lines. Payne’s interpretation was that there is over 90% hydrogen in the
sun, and most of the rest being the nearly as lightweight helium. That would change
what was understood about how stars burn. Iron is so stable that no one could imagine
it transformed through E=mc2 to generate heat in the sun. But what wold hydrogen
do? The old guard knew. Their career depended on the fact, that there should be iron
in the sun. Her thesis adviser declared her wrong. Even her old thesis adviser (Russel)
declared her wrong. If she wanted to get her reaseach accepted she’d have to recant
and say that the enormous abundance of hydrogen is certainly not real. A few years
later when independent researchers backed her spectroscope reinterpretations, Payne was
vindicated. The way was now open to applying E=mc2 to explain the fires of the sun.
She had shown that the sun and the stars are great E=mc2 pumping stations. The seem
to squeeze hydrogen mass out of existence. But in fact they’re simply squeezing it along
E=mc2 , so that what hat appeared as mass now bursts into the form of explosive energy.
Down on earth, hydrogen atoms won’t stick to each other. But trapped near the center of
the sun, under thousands of miles of weighty substance overhead, hydrogen nuclei can join
together to become the element helium. The mass of 4 hydrogen nuclei can be written as
4. When they join together as helium, the weight is 0.7 percent less. That missing weight
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comes out as roaring energy. The reason the sun is so much more powerful (than the
uranium bomb over Japan) is that it pumps 4 million tons of hydrogen into pure energy
each second.
What is the topic of this chapter? (p. 173)
How the equation controls how stars ‘work’ and how life will end. It shows how the
equation’s sway extends throughout the universe: controlling everything from how the
first stars ignited, to how life will end.
What did astronomers believe about the sun’s content at the time
Einstein discovered that E=mc2 ?
The sun is made up of 66% iron.
How does a spectroscope work?
Every element gives off a distinct visual signal: spectroscope breaks the spectrum of
electromagnetic radiation into various wavelengths allowing them to be identified.
What was Cecilia Payne’s academic career?
University of Cambridge (England), switched majors multiple times, a woman couldn’t
do graduate work in this field in England and went to Harvard, wrote a Ph.D..
How did Payne come up with a different interpretation of the
spectroscope lines?
She reinterpreted the spectroscope lines (different amount of ionization at different temperatures): the sun consists mostly (90%) of Hydrogen.
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How did the astronomy establishment react to her findings?
The old guards career depended on the fact, that there should be iron in the sun. Her
thesis adviser declared her wrong. A few years later when independent researchers backed
her spectroscope reinterpretations, Payne was vindicated.
What happens inside the sun to release so much energy?
Hydrogen atoms fuse to one helium atom, releasing lots of energy in the process.
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3.15 Creating the Earth
1. What is the leading question of this chapter? (p. 185)
How could E=mc2 operate to create the ordinary elements of our planet and daily life as
well?
2. How did Hoyle explain the creation of the elements?
If a star ever imploded, its center could reach close to 100 million degrees. That would
be enough to squeeze even the larger nuclei of more massive elements together.
3. Where did he get his inspiration for the theory of implosion?
He found out that the scientists of the Manhattan Project use implosion to get a full
nuclear reaction of the plutonium when the bomb explodes. Implosion raises the pressure
and temperature enough to do that.
4. What keeps our planet hot at the core and causes continental
shifts (earthquakes)?
Along with the initial heat left over from the impacts of Earth’s creation, the radioactive
blastings from the uranium and similar heavy elements have kept our planet’s depths from
cooling.
This high temperatures underneath the surface shift the thin continents on top to shape
the surface of Earth.
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5. What examples of modern human applications of E=mc2 are
given?
Atomic bombs were one of the first direct applications. Then nuclear submarines and
power stations were built. E=mc2 continues at work in ordinary houses (smoke detectors,
exit signs), hospitals (PET scans) and the archaeology (C-14 clock).
3.16 A Brahmin Lifts His Eyes Unto the Sky
Even though the sun is vast, it can’t keep on burning forever. The sun’s mass is now 2 *
1027 tons, but it consumes about 700 billion tons of its own bulk as hydrogen fuel to keep
the multimegaton blasts going each day.
What will happen to the sun in five billion years?
In a further 5 billion years , the most easily available portions of that fuel will be gone.
All that remains at the center is helium ash. The reactions in our sun will start shifting
upward and fuel closer to the surface will be used. The outer layers of the sun will
expand and coll down to glow red. The sun will keep on expanding and glowing until it
reaches Mercury’s orbit. The planet surface will have already melted. The rest will no
be absorbed in the flames. A few tens of millions of years later, the same will happen to
Venus. What will happen to Earth?
The opinions were divided. Some thought it will end in a great cooling down of the
universe. And the other thought that fire and outpourings will take over at the end.
What will happen to Earth is actually both. Any beings left alive in 5 billion years will
see the sun get larger and larger until it fills about half the daytime sky. The oceans
will boil away and the surface will melt. Life would have to migrate to other planets or
survive in deep tunnels but the Earth will have long been barren.
The sun will hold at that great size for another billion years, as the helium ash left inside
takes over the burning. Then it will shrink and get weaker and weaker. The burning will
not longer be steady. This is what will bring the ice. The sun’s surface will sink inward,
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cause of that the energy output will roar higher again, and the surface will bounce upward
again. At this stage, six billion years into our future, it’s the final boom of the Titans.
Enough mass is blown away at each bounce upward, that in just a few hundred thousand
years, there will be much less of our sun. The sun will lose its gravitational pull. The
sun’s grip will let the planets go and Earth flies away.
Short answer: What will happen to the sun in five billion years?
Hydrogen will burn out in 5 billion years, helium sun expands, too hot on earth, Helium
will burn out, Earth will cool, and the sun will lose its Gravitational pull, earth will fly
away.
What concept did Chandra (Chandrasekhar) come up with on a trip
from India to England in 1930?
It was known that giant stars can explode, with their top portions rebounding away after
they’ve collided with the core within. But what will happen to the remnant core after
that? Chandra knew that the dense core of a star is under a lot of pressure, and now
he began to think about the fact that pressure is a form of energy and energy is another
sort of mass. A compressed star core is under a lot of new pressure, and that pressure
can be considered a sort of energy, and wherever there’s a concentration of energy, the
surrounding space and time will act just as if there’s a concentration of mass. So gravity
in the remnant star will get more intense due to all this mass (through the pressure). The
stronger gravity continues squashing what’s left and the pressure can be treated as more
energy again. The gravity ratchets up again. It’ll result a buildup of pressure. Chandra
could now see the insight of E=mc2 Regardless of how hard the substance is at the core,
the inside of the star will be crushed. But what will happen to the remaining substance of
the star, as it poured into the hole created by this never-ending collapse? Could Chandra
be predicting that the inside of the star would disappear. If he was right, then rips were
opening up in the very substance of the universe.
By the 1960s there was the first evidence of a start that spins around an area that seems
to be entirely empty space. The only thing that would be powerful to do this, is a black
hole. In the centre of our galaxy, there’s evidence for another black hole, swallowing on
average, an ordinary star each year.
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Chandra was not able to get backup in public for his work and left England for America
and received the Nobel Prize in 1983.
Short answer: What concept did Chandra (Chandrasekhar) come up
with on a trip from India to England in 1930?
Black hole.
What will happen to planet Earth in six billion years?
Six billion years from now, if Earth is flung loose from the sun, the flight won’t be stable
through this darker expanse. Our Milky Way is already on track to collide with the
Andromeda galaxy and in several billion year, that collision will happen. The turbulence
will be enough to shift an Earth’s trajectory once more and if Earth slingshots inward,
then in a few tens of millions of years we will be within range by the giant black hole at
the galaxy’s center. The slingshot outward, will simply delay the end.
By 1018 years from now, all galaxies will have emptied out because of such collision. The
black holes will travel on their own, sucking mass and energy.
Short answer: What will happen to planet Earth in six billion years?
Earth will fly away from sun and be swallowed up by a black hole.
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4 Study Questions
Questions for the preface
1. What is the book about?
2. What is NOT the topic of the book?
3. Why is there a central section about WW2?
Questions for part 1
1. What was Einstein’s economic and family situation around 1900-1905?
2. How well did Einstein do in his final physics university exams?
3. Where did Einstein do his research?
4. Where exactly did Einstein publish his ground-breaking formula?
Questions for part 2
E is for Energy
1. What kind of apprenticeship did Michael Faraday make?
2. How did he get in touch with Humphrey Davy?
3. What was the relationship between Humphrey Davy and Michael Faraday like?
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4. How much formal education did Faraday have?
5. What explains Faraday’s ability to understand the connection between magnetism
and electricity?
6. What is this? And when was it built?
7. What does the Law of the Conservation of Energy mean?
8. What new energy source did Einstein discover and what effect does this have on the
Law of the Conversion of Energy?
=
1. When were most typographical symbols created?
2. How did Einstein use the = symbol ’like a telescope’?
m is for Mass
1. How is Lavoisier’s character described?
2. What did Lavoisier discover when analyzing the burning/rusting of metals?
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3. Which famous scientist had already developed a theory of mass and movement in
the 1600s?
4. Why was Lavoisier so unpopular during the French revolution?
5. What was Einstein taught in the 1890s about mass and energy?
6. How did Einstein establish a link between the two domains?
c is for Celeritas
1. Who was the first scientist to try to measure the speed of light?
2. How did Ole Roemer discover the speed of light?
3. What is the explanation given for the fact that Roemer discovered the speed of
light?
4. How did Cassini react to Roemer’s success?
5. How fast is the speed of light?
6. In what ways were Faraday and Maxwell similar?
7. What is the inner property of light?
8. In what ways is light different from other movement?
9. Why is it impossible to catch up with the speed of light?
10. Why is -273◦ the coldest possible temperature?
11. What happens to matter approaching the speed of light?
12. ”Energy does not stand alone, and neither does mass. But the sum of ? will always
remain constant.” What is in the gap?
13. Why did nobody before Einstein notice the connection between mass and energy?
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To the power of 2
1. Who was Voltaire?
2. What was Emilie du Châtelet like?
3. What was the dispute between Leibniz and Newton about?
4. Why was this also a religious conflict?
5. How did du Châtelet prove that Leibniz was right?
6. Why is squaring the velocity of what you measure such an accurate way to describe
what happens in nature?
7. What does it mean for mass when c2 is such a large figure?
8. Mass is simply the ultimate type of condensed or concentrated ?
Listen to some of the 10 scientists explaining E = mc2 to help you further your understanding of the formula! http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/experts.html
Part 3
Einstein and the equation
1. When and where did Einstein publish the equation?
2. What material discovered in the 1890s gave hints about the equation?
3. Who was Marie Curie and how did she die?
4. Why are atomic bombs so powerful?
5. What was so ground-breaking and amazing about Einstein’s discovery? (p. 80, 84)
6. How precisely did he discover it? (p. 80 top)
7. How could you explain the theory of relativity easily? (p. 83)
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8. What does the term ‘relativity’ NOT mean? (p. 84)
9. How did Einstein’s upbringing and background help him discover ‘relativity’?
10. How did Einstein’s family life develop as his theory became gradually accepted?
Into the atom
1. How is Ernest Rutherford’s character described?
2. What break-through discovery about the atom did he make?
3. Why did scientists assume that a lot of energy was hidden in the nucleus?
4. Who was James Chadwick and what did he discover?
5. Who was Enrico Fermi?
6. What important technique did he provide in 1934?
Quiet in the midday sun
1. Who were Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn?
2. What happened to Hahn and Meitner’s work in 1938?
3. When did Meitner first meet Einstein and what did she learn there?
4. How did Meitner manage to explain the Meitner-Hahn-Strassmann experiments in
1938?
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Part 4
Germany’s turn
1. Why did Einstein write a letter to the American president in 1939 and what was
the reply?
2. Why did the USA not pursue plans to build a bomb, while the Germans did?
3. Who was Heisenberg and why did he get in trouble with the SS?
4. What saved him?
5. What was Heisenberg’s bomb design based on?
6. What happened at Heisenberg’s first test in early 1941?
7. How did the Germans produce Uranium dust?
8. When did the Germans get the first successful test results?
9. When did the Americans start to develop their bomb and what was the name of the
project?
10. What was superior about the American bomb design?
11. What did the Allied forces do to win the race for the bomb?
Norway
1. How did the Allied forces try to sabotage the German bomb project?
2. What happened in the first attack on the Norwegian plant?
3. What was different in the second sabotage attempt?
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America’s turn
1. Who was appointed as the day-to-day manager of the Los Alamos bomb construction
team?
2. What was Oppenheimer like and how did he motivate his team?
3. Which two ways to build a bomb did America pursue?
4. How did the scientists try to make Plutonium explode?
5. What news did Niels Bohr bring from Europe in February 1944?
6. What kind of sabotage did the Norwegian Haukelid do?
7. What did finally happen to Germany’s bomb building capacity?
8. What happened to Heisenberg?
9. What happened to Oppenheimer after the war?
10. Which two opposing views were there in the US concerning the deployment of the
bomb in Japan?
11. Why was the bomb deployed?
8:16 A.M. – Over Japan
1. What happened inside the bomb when it was triggered?
2. Why was it triggered at 2000 ft. above ground?
3. What is the condition inside the triggered bomb compared to?
4. How much heat is produced?
5. What happens on the ground?
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Part 5
The fires of the sun
1. What is the topic of this chapter? (p. 173)
2. What did astronomers believe about the sun’s content at the time Einstein discovered that E=mc2 ?
3. How does a spectroscope work?
4. What was Cecilia Payne’s academic career?
5. How did Payne come up with a different interpretation of the spectroscope lines?
6. How did the astronomy establishment react to her findings?
7. What happens inside the sun to release so much energy?
Creating the earth
1. What is the leading question of this chapter? (p. 185)
2. How did Hoyle explain the creation of the elements?
3. Where did he get his inspiration for the theory of implosion?
4. What keeps our planet hot at the core and causes continental shifts (earthquakes)?
5. What examples of modern human applications of E=mc2 are given?
A Brahmin lifts his eyes unto the sky
1. What will happen to the sun in five billion years?
2. What concept did Chandra come up with on a trip from India to England in 1930?
3. What will happen to planet Earth in six billion years?
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5 Character List
Ernest Rutherford Physicist known as the father of nuclear physics
James Chadwick English physicist
George C. Marshall (Chief of Staff of the United States of Army, supplied airplanes with
Geiger counters
Michael Faraday a boy from a poor landsman family, desperate for a mentor to lift him
to a better life, later invented the basis of the electric engine
Émilie du Châtelet woman trapped in the wrong century, trying to carve out a space
where she wouldn’t be moked
Nut Hockalet?
Cecilia Payne an english woman, who finds her carier destroyied after daring to glims
the suns faith in year 86 billion
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Indian American astrophysicist
Michele Besso 1905 friend of Einstein, sharp mind simplicity
Humphry Davy Cornish chemists and inventor
Charles Dickens English writter and social critic
Robert Recorde invented "equals" (=) and "plus" (+) sign
Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier He is widely considered in popular literature as the "father
of modern chemistry"
Built a wall for serveral million dollars, 6 feet heigth with armed guards.
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Experiment metal rust and it’s weight, what has shown that matter can move around
from one form into another, prime discoverie of the 17 hunderts
Jean Paul Marat Swiss born doctor invented a early infrared scope, allowing to detect
a shimmering heat wave of a candle or a cannonball
Galileo Galilei first person measuring the speed of light
Giovanni Domenico Cassini (Jean Dominique) Italian who arrived in Paris, to take up
his position as head of the newly established Paris-Observatory
Ole Rømer a Danish astronomer who in 1676 made the first quantitative measurements
of the speed of light. He convinced other experts of his experiment 50 years later,
when Cassini was gone.
Robert Recorde
Einstein
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6 Analysis of Major Character
more is coming soon :) ...
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7 Themes, Motifs, and Symbols
more is coming soon :) ...
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