Chapter 1 - The World of Atoms
Introduction: A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe



  • Related Book - "Atomic Structure and Lifetimes: A Conceptual Approach," by L.J. Curtis
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    A Conceptual approach

  • Quotes
  • Medieval style of presentation
  • The sum of the parts become clear when you've seen the whole

    • Until you know it, don't worry about who discovered it

  • Historical approach
  • Where to begin
  • Body of knowledge or voyage of discovery?
  • The "discovery" of Italy

    • What is your world view?

  • Quiz
  • Seasons
  • Put yourself in the picture

    • Sizes

  • Doublings
  • How big? How small?
  • Sunsets for electrons
  • Zoom in by 10's
  • 6 degrees

    • Are you ready to think outside the box?

  • The first three minute quiz
  • continued
  • Card trick

    • Nature is symmetric in space and time

  • Time quotes
  • Time rates
  • Time exposure: A landscape-timescape
  • The Lumiere brothers
  • Stop action
  • Slow-motion photography
  • Time-lapse photography
  • Reverse-action photography
  • Time reversal

    • The most important discovery ever made

  • Feynman's view
  • Feynman's voice
  • Attraction and repulsion of neutral atoms
  • Today's quiz
  • Atomic theory vs atomic fact: Einstein & Brownian motion
  • Atoms observable to all - STM
  • STM
  • Splashdown of a photon
  • Birth, life, and death of ions

    • What causes things to interact?

  • Exchanged quantum model for forces
  • It takes a whole universe
  • Mach's Principle: every interaction involves the entire universe

    • Electrons and positrons and the direction of time

  • Electron-Positron events
  • e-p pair creation & annihilation
  • One universal electron travelling reversibly in time
  • Feynman's Nobel recollections
  • Interview with Sam Ting
  • Bubble chamber tracks
  • Positrons and the PET scan

    • The photon-dressed electron

  • The photon re-invents itself
  • Just like SpongeBob clones himself
  • Bosons and ants
  • Let there be light: take the rest of the week off!

    • The limitations of cause and effect

  • The fallacy of Laplacian Determinism
  • Laplace: A life in exact science
  • Cometary orbit
  • Precise measurement of time?
  • John Michell's prediction of the black hole
  • Laplace's prediction of the black hole

    • Limitations - classical uncertainty

  • Joint uncertainty in canonical quantities
  • Economic Theory of Rational Expectations
  • Changing the legal landscape

    Snapshots versus time exposures

  • Kepler's 2nd law
  • Animation
  • Comet and solar system
  • Momentum
  • Applet-Laserlab-cooling1
  • Molecules in a room
  • Animation

    • Looking for deeper patterns

  • Bending light
  • Least time
  • Fermat's principle applet
  • Dynamics
  • Explore all paths until measurement
  • Interactive Java applets
  • A call to action, Am.J.Phys. 71, 423 (2003)
  • Feynman and least action
  • Least action and EBK quantization

    • Overview

  • Alternatives?
  • What is this universe we live in?