Newton Henry Black,

8.225 / STS.042
Harvey N. Davis (1913)
Practical Physics, The
MacMillan Co., USA, p.
Einstein, Oppenheimer, Feynman:
Physics in the 20th Century
242, fig. 200. Image is in `
the public domain.

David Kaiser
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 Course Aims

Superconducting
Supercollider under
construction, 1993
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Pierre & Marie Curie,

Paris, early 1900s
Image is in the public domain.

J. Robert Oppenheimer and

General Leslie Groves at the Planck satellite and
Trinity test site, July 1945 the CMB, 2013

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Course Aims
No prerequisites: This is a Communications Intensive (CI-M) subject for
Physics majors, but no prior coursework is required. Our main aim is to improve
written communication skills.

Some readings will involve equations and other formalism, others will not —
for this class, our goal is not to master techniques for calculating. Rather, we will
explore a range of ideas in modern physics and the changing contexts —
intellectual, cultural, political, institutional — within which researchers have
pursued those ideas. (It’s always okay to ask for clarifications about any mathematics or
related formalism!)
The class offers a preview of many exciting
topics for early students, and an opportunity to
synthesize material for more advanced students.

3
 Course Overview
Image is in the public domain.
I. Nineteenth-Century Legacy
Newton Henry
Black, Harvey N.
Davis (1913)
Practical Physics,
The MacMillan
Co., USA, p. 242,
fig. 200. Image is
in the public
domain.

Maxwell’s
“molecular vortices”
iron filings around a bar magnet

Maxwell’s equations:
always in fashion!

Senate House at Cambridge:

Tripos examination
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4
Course Overview
I. Nineteenth-Century Legacy

II. Einstein: Relativity, Quanta, and the Philosopher-Scientist

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see https://ocw.mit.edu/help/faq-fair-use/

The Physikalisch- Dhatfield,

Technische Schrödinger’s
Wikimediacat
Reichsanstalt,
Berlin, ca. 1900
Image is in the public domain.
Einstein’s route to the patent office,
Bern (Switzerland), 1905 Early data on blackbody
spectrum, ca. 1900
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Image is in the public domain.
excluded from our Creative Commons license. For more
information, see https://ocw.mit.edu/help/faq-fair-use/

5
Course Overview
I. Nineteenth-Century Legacy

II. Einstein: Relativity, Quanta, and the Philosopher-Scientist

III. Oppenheimer: Physics, Physicists, and the State

Loading “fat man”
Oak Ridge, TN bomb on Tinian,
isotope separation August 1945
plant, 1944

Hahn and Strassmann’s

benchtop apparatus in
Berlin, 1938
Image is in the public domain.

© source unknown. All rights reserved. This content is excluded © Los Alamos National Laboratory. Image is in the public
from our Creative Commons license. For more information, see All rights reserved. This content is domain. US Gov't work.
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Commons license. For more
information, see https://
6 ocw.mit.edu/help/faq-fair-use/
Course Overview
I. Nineteenth-Century Legacy

II. Einstein: Relativity, Quanta, and the Philosopher-Scientist

© American Physical Society. All rights
reserved. This content is excluded from
our Creative Commons license. For
more information, see https:// III. Oppenheimer: Physics, Physicists, and the State
ocw.mit.edu/help/faq-fair-use/

IV. Feynman: From Quarks to the Cosmos

CERN, 2000s

Feynman diagram, 1949

Particle accelerator, ca. 1953

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Image is in the public domain. National Archives no. 22119232. license. For more information, see https://ocw.mit.edu/help/faq-fair-use/

7
 Harper’s, 1946: “Physical scientists are in vogue
these days. No dinner party is a success without at
least one physicist.”

© Harper's Magazine. All rights

reserved. This content is excluded
from our Creative Commons
license. For more information, see
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use/

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MITOpenCourseWare
https://ocw.mit.edu

STS.042J / 8.225J Einstein, Oppenheimer, Feynman: Physics in the 20th Century

Fall 2020

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