In the “uncomfortable questions” comment thread, Thony C. suggests: You say you’re teaching “modern physics” so how about a running commentary on the stuff your teaching? That’s a good suggestion, and I’ll start posting some sketchy reports soon. First, though, Bora asks: What is un-modern physics? Roughly speaking, physics gets divided into “Classical Physics” and… Continue reading Reasonably Comfortable Questions: Modern Physics
Category: History of Science
Photoelectric Follies
I spent most of yesterday helping out with an on-campus workshop for high school teachers and students. Seven high school physics teachers and seventeen high school students spent the day doing a half-dozen experiments to measure various physical constants. I was in charge of having them measure Plack’s constant using the photoelectric effect. The actual… Continue reading Photoelectric Follies
Einstein and Millikan
In the previous post, I promised to say something more about Einstein and the photoelectric effect. It turns out that I already wrote about this, back in 2005. That post is the end of a long chain of links about the history of photons. This is a good thing, because it frees me from having… Continue reading Einstein and Millikan