Thomas L. Isenhour
The Evolution of Modern Science
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The Evolution of Modern Science
Contents
Contents
he cover is a painting by Patricia M. Isenhour and is entitled „Surfaces“.
It is metaphorical for science and what lies ahead of us beneath the surface
Preface
10
Acknowledgements
14
To the Student
16
1
Before the Greeks (Pre-history–600 BCE)
17
2
Ancient Greek Science (600 BCE–300 CE)
21
2.1
Greek heories
21
2.2
Greek Philosophy and Science
24
2.3
Greeks under Roman Domination
31
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The Evolution of Modern Science
Contents
3
A Period of Stagnancy – he Dark Ages (300–1400)
37
3.1
he Dark Ages
37
3.2
he Scholastic Synthesis
39
4
Classical Physics and Astronomy (1400–1600)
41
4.1
A New Cosmology
41
4.2
he Language of Nature
55
5
Experimental Science and Knowledge: he Scientiic Revolution and
he Enlightenment (1500–1700)
58
5.1
he Scientiic Revolution
58
5.2
A Mechanistic World
61
5.3
he Scientiic Method
64
5.4
Space and Time
66
5.5
Newtonianism and he Scientiic Revolution
75
5.6
he Enlightenment and the Idea of Progress
83
5.7
Preface to the Industrial Age
89
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Contents
6
Classical Chemistry (1700–1900)
90
6.1
he Foundations of Modern Chemistry
90
6.2
Chemistry Becomes a Science
96
6.3
Organic (living) Chemistry
105
7
Classical Electricity, Magnetism and Light (1700–1900)
111
7.1
Electrical Phenomena
112
7.2
Volta’s Cell Applied to Chemistry
116
7.3
Electricity, Magnetism and Light
117
7.4
Electrical Technology
124
8
hermodynamics (1700–1900)
127
8.1
he Rise of Steam Technology
127
8.2
Heat and Energy – the First Law of hermodynamics
128
8.2
Entropy – he Second Law of hermodynamics
133
8.3
Entropy and Civilization
137
9
Natural History – Taxonomy and Geology (1700–1800)
139
9.1
Foundations of Natural History
139
9.2
Natural History and Classical Geology
146
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Contents
10
Classical Biology (1800–1900)
155
10.1
Evolution
155
10.2
Darwinism
164
10.3
Darwinism in America
167
11
Origin of the Social Sciences (1750–1900)
172
11.1
Economics
172
11.2
Sociology
174
11.3
Political Science
175
11.4
Psychology
177
11.5
Social Science and Statistics
178
11.6
Social Darwinism
180
12
Atomic and Nuclear Era (1900–1950)
186
12.1
Pre-1900 American Science
186
12.2
heories of the Aether
188
12.3
X-Rays and Radioactivity
189
12.4
Atomic Structure
195
12.5
Nuclear Fusion and Fission
202
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Contents
12.6
Special Relativity
203
12.7
Quantum Mechanics
207
13
Science and the U.S. Government (1900– )
213
13.1
he Atomic Bomb
213
13.2
Sputnik and the Space Race
224
14
A New Understanding of Life (1700– )
227
14.1
he Cell
227
14.2
Genetics
233
14.3
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)
237
15
Modern Cosmology – the Origin of the Universe (1900– )
240
15.1
Galaxies and Cepheids
241
15.2
General Relativity and Black Holes
242
15.3
he Redshit and the Big Bang
243
16
he Chemical Bond (1900– )
247
15.4
Molecular Bonding
250
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Contents
17
he Computer Revolution (1900– )
257
17.1
Counting, Numbers, and Calculation
257
17.2
Mathematics and Digital Computers
260
17.3
Boolean Algebra
262
17.4
Systems of Mathematics
266
17.5
Computing Machines
266
18
he Conservation Movement and Ecology (1900– )
270
18.1
National Parks
270
18.2
Preservationists vs. Wise-Use Advocates
271
18.3
Food Chains and Ecology
273
19
Modern Geology (1900– )
276
19.1
he Age of the Earth
276
19.2
Continental Drit and Plate Tectonics
279
20
Aterword
286
21
Appendices
289
21.1
Appendix 1 – Arithmetic and Geometry
289
21.2
Appendix 2 – Formal Logic
291
21.3
Appendix 3 – Algebra
293
21.4
Appendix 4 – Analytical Geometry
297
21.5
Appendix 5 – Calculus
298
21.6
Appendix 6 – Statistics
302
21.7
Appendix 7 – Boolean Algebra and Set heory
303
21.8
Appendix 8 – he Ancients Revisited – Titus Lucretius Carus
305
22
Bibliography
313
23
Endnotes
316
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Preface
Preface
When I was a child, I would lie in the grass on a summer’s evening and stare into the starry sky. All
sorts of imaginations led me to wonder about the universe, about life beyond Earth, about the beginning
and the end, about where we are, what we are and most of all why we are. Why may have been the
most important word in my vocabulary because it allowed me to bombard adults with questions about
everything. Because of a patient father, I got a reasonable number of answers. Most of all, I learned that
it was alright to question, to wonder and to seek explanations.
Science (from the Latin scire, to know), seeks answers, explanations of the natural world. From the irst
cave person that wondered why the mountains rumbled during a storm, we have evolved a set of consistent
explanations for natural phenomena. In efect, the cave dwellers were crudely practicing science when
they hypothesized that the noises were made by monsters, or gods, in the mountains. he cave dwellers
were practicing a crude political science when they decided to give oferings to these gods to make them
benevolent. he cave dwellers were practicing religion when they decided to worship (and fear) the gods
in the mountains. Perhaps religion and science began simultaneously. Unfortunately, there developed
a mythology around these suppositions and, when humans became able to measure phenomena more
accurately, they found the conclusions of science at odds with religion, or at least with mythology. Much
of the rocky road of scientiic progress has been impeded by these potholes of mythology.
he Evolution of Modern Science outlines the history of science from Aristotle to the present. (I have
been asked why I chose the word Evolution for the title and not Development or something else. I will
answer that at the end, but we need to cover some important ideas irst.) Scientiic progress has always
been coupled with human progress and subject to the politics and culture of the time. Scientists, in most
instances, have been in the main stream of society; however, through their curiosity and innovation they
have oten clashed with the prevailing culture.
Aristotle, who some say was the irst scientist, was a student of Plato and integrated philosophy, science
and religion. Aristotle tried to explain everything in the universe. Aristotle’s cosmology was incorporated
into Christianity by St. homas Aquinas and when Galileo disproved much of Aristotle’s mechanics and
cosmology, he found himself on trial for heresy.
Isaac Newton was born the year Galileo died and, at the age of 22, launched the Scientiic Revolution
with the invention of calculus. However it took a hundred years of advocacy by such notables as Voltaire,
homas Jeferson, and Madame du Chatelet, to establish Newton’s physics.
10
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Preface
Wöhler disproved the vitalist theory of life by synthesizing an organic compound in 1828 and his
laboratory research was seminal to the development of the great chemical industry. Darwinism, even
though it is 150 years old, is still the favorite target of fundamentalists. A recent court battle in Dover,
Pennsylvania, in 2005, ruled that Intelligent Design was religion, not science.1 (Karl Marx admired
Charles Darwin, believing the theory of evolution was a scientiic basis for his economic theory. he
admiration was not returned.)
he deinitive experiment that gave birth to special and general relativity was done by Michelson and
Morley in 1888, but seventeen years passed before Einstein found the correct interpretation – that time
is a function of your frame of reference. In 1905 Einstein published papers that led to the development
of quantum mechanics and relativity, including the famous equation that led to the discovery of nuclear
energy and, inevitably, to the building of nuclear weapons.
Ater a brief introduction to pre-Greek science, he Evolution of Modern Science will begin with the ancient
Greeks and Aristotle. his section will reach a pentacle with Archimedes who solved the mathematics
of levers and said: “Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the Earth.”2 he irst third of the book
will progress from the science of the ancient Greeks through the developments of the Renaissance that
prepared the way for the Scientiic Revolution. he second third will cover the Scientiic Revolution
and the Enlightenment concentrating on the 17th and 18th centuries. he inal third of the book will be
devoted to the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
We will move in parallel through the basic disciplines of physics (including astronomy and cosmology),
geology, chemistry and biology. Mathematics, as it has inluenced the development of science, will be
included and presented in a manner that will provide an understanding of its importance. We will briely
introduce arithmetic, Euclidean geometry, formal logic, algebra, analytical geometry, calculus, statistics,
and Boolean algebra and set theory. (No special background in either science or mathematics is required,
but you must gain an understanding of the essential role of mathematics to understand science.) We will
focus on how science developed in the context of major historical movements.
he Scientiic Revolution played a major role in the development of the social sciences. I believe one
cannot understand Marx, Locke or Adams without irst understanding Galileo, Newton and Darwin.
Carl Sagan parallels science and democracy by stating that both are based on the principles of open
debate, have mechanisms for correcting errors, and must not depend upon authorities that must be
believed and obeyed.3
I have two goals for this work. he irst is to show the evolution of modern science in historical context.
he second is to demystify science by demonstrating that science is understandable; I believe an
understanding of science is essential for a person to be educated.
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Preface
We stand upon the threshold of momentous possibilities ranging from the cloning of human beings
to the development of unlimited energy through fusion power. Science does not develop in a vacuum,
but rather as part of the overall progress of human society. One needs to be prepared to deal with the
dramatic changes that science is bringing to one’s life. By knowing the tenets, methods, and history of
science, you will be better able to deal with scientiic advances on a day-to-day basis.
In some ways the scientist is like the main character in a Greek tragedy. I believe this is what Steven
Weinberg, an American Nobel Laureate in physics, is saying in the conclusion to his remarkable book,
he First hree Minutes. “But if there is no solace in the fruits of our research, there is some consolation
in the research itself. Men and women are not content to comfort themselves with tales of gods and
giants, or to conine their thoughts to the daily afairs of life; they also build telescopes and satellites and
accelerators, and sit at their desks for endless hours working out the meaning of the data they gather.
he efort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lits human life a little bit above
the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.”4
he Evolution of Modern Science tells a strange story, a history that is intertwined with politics and
religion; one that turns on personalities and the ever curious drive to understand, to make sense of the
world. And, as the world was expanded by instruments like the telescope and microscope, to make sense
of the universe and life, to ask ultimate questions and seek their answers.
Science is respected and worshiped in our modern world. he man on the street uses the word science
to mean anything that has reached a state of sophistication, predictability, and understanding. To say
something is a science, whether it is surgery or political forecasting, is to give it the highest level of
credibility. Science has given us remarkable rewards from the preservation of foods by refrigeration to
the preservation of health by inoculation. he beneits of science, and its partner engineering, are so
ubiquitous in this world of technology, that most cannot diferentiate the three. (An interesting exercise
is to ask someone to diferentiate science, engineering and technology.)
Science was not always so highly regarded. Science emerged from the darkness of mysticism, alchemy,
astrology, and sorcery. In fact, metaphysics was the original attempt to give rational explanations for
natural phenomena and a necessary step in the development of an objective science.
here has always been and still is a fundamentalist movement to return to the days when answers were
given by holy men rather than wise men. It was certainly the case before the irst great era of science,
that of the ancient Greeks, and for another period of a thousand years, called the dark ages.
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Preface
We will start our discussion with the world as it was before the ancient Greeks. We will then spend
some time on the Greeks and, ater a brief discussion of science in the Golden Age of Islam, skip to the
Renaissance and the stories of Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton. From the wonderful 17th
century we will move forward making continuous progress in science up to the present day. We will
discover atomic theory, electricity and magnetism, heat and energy, and radioactivity, all of which will
give us the ability to build devices for the greatest and worst of uses.
As a preview, here is my selection of the ive most important scientists of all time: Galileo, Newton,
Lavoisier, Darwin, and Einstein. (How could I have let out Faraday?) By the end of the book, I hope
the reader will have their own list and, if it difers from mine, will feel free to write and tell me.
Do demons cause volcanoes, whirlpools, diseases? Does the sun go around the Earth? Would a cloned
human being be identical to its twin? hese, and other questions, are issues of science and through
science we can ind rational answers.
What is science? Science is the philosophy that the natural world can be known through human reason
and that nature is rational, ordered and regular. When things seem irrational, the scientiic answer is
that we don’t have enough data to solve the problem. Scientiic studies lead to hypothesis, theory and
law. Scientiic (natural) law is transcendent of time and culture; independent of ethical or value systems;
and cumulative and progressive.
We feel that we understand a phenomenon when we can formulate it mathematically. In many ways,
science is the mathematical description of nature. Welcome to he Evolution of Modern Science. here
is no more exciting story.
homas L. Isenhour
Norfolk, Virginia USA
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The Evolution of Modern Science
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
his book is the outgrowth of more than iteen years of teaching honors and humanities courses at
the undergraduate and graduate levels in the history of science. Dr. Jack M. Holl, Emeritus Professor of
History, Kansas State University, and I have been in continuous debate on many of the topics contained
herein since we became neighbors in a trailer park in Ithaca, New York, in 1964. Jack was pursuing his
PhD in History at Cornell and I was pursuing mine in Chemistry.
Later, when we were on the faculty together at Kansas State University, we outlined a course called, at that
time, he Foundations of Modern Science. We wanted to show the development of science in historical
and social context from ancient times to the present age. Our discussions about the correct approach
wandered widely because of the diverse perspectives of a research humanist and a research scientist. On
most issues we found agreement but I am not sure we will ever agree on all of them. his diversity may
have added considerable spice to the meat-and-potatoes that histories of this sort tend to be.
I moved to Duquesne University and we irst taught Foundations as an Honors Course there in the spring
of 1996. Jack took leave to join me in the efort and we found the students enthusiastic about many of the
topics we covered. We revised and then started teaching separate courses at our respective institutions.
I developed my course in two directions, teaching it both as a general education course and as a science
entry in a Masters of Liberal Studies program. When I came to Old Dominion University in 2000, my
course had evolved considerably and I presented it to the Department of History who accepted he
Evolution of Modern Science as a junior level history course, labeled to fulill a technology requirement of
our general education program. I continue to teach Evolution every semester on campus and sometimes
through our distance learning network. he popularity of the course has grown steadily. Every section
quickly ills to capacity.
We started with, and I continued to use, A History of Western Science, by Anthony M. Alioto, 2nd Ed.,
Prentice Hall, Englewood Clifs, 1983. It was my hope that Dr. Alioto, who teaches at Columbia College
in Missouri, would write other editions. But he has told me he has other projects now. In addition to
Alioto, I have drawn frequently on another outstanding book, SCIENCE and the Making of the Modern
World, by John Marks, Heinemann, London, 1983. In general, I wish to reference and acknowledge the
ine contributions of Alioto and Marks. here are many ideas that came from one or the other of them
in this publication. I apologize if I have inadvertently overlooked referencing either of these books
speciically at some important point. I have prepared my own manuscript from more than a decade of
lecture notes and I worry that I may not have noted the source in every case.
14
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Acknowledgements
Part of the impetus for writing this book is a desire to include science of the last 30 years as well as to cover
other areas not emphasized in either of these two books. he socio-political context of the advancement
of science continues to be relevant. For example, you can say: “stem-cell research,” or “global warming” and
initiate a vigorous debate at any gathering. And, who would have thought that the latter half of the 20th
century would see the re-birth of the evolution debate in the form of vigorous political attempts to deine
school curricula from a fundamentalist viewpoint? Science continues to advance from the launching of
space telescopes to the development of string theory to cloning and magnetic resonance imaging. While
I have not tried to be comprehensive, there should be some mention of cutting-edge science.
I wish to acknowledge the organizations and individuals that contributed in many ways to this project.
Kansas State University, Duquesne University, and Old Dominion University supported the teaching
of he Foundations of Modern Science, and he Evolution of Modern Science to hundreds of students
over the last iteen years. Old Dominion University was gracious enough to give me leave to complete
this manuscript and also to let me test it in class. I want to thank the students for inding many errors
and making many ine suggestions. I wish to thank Vice Provost Nancy Cooley for her support in my
teaching this course through ODU’s TeleTechnet.
Most of all, I wish to acknowledge, Dr. Jack Monroe Hall, Historian, Teacher, and Scholar. His insights,
advice, and creative discussions have led me down many paths that I would not have explored otherwise.
And, Jack, while I know you won’t agree with all of my conclusions, you can certainly see your own
arguments in many of them.
Finally, I wish to thank Patricia Marie Isenhour for listening and responding to me as I discussed many
of these topics, and, for actually taking the course while pursuing her Master of Fine Arts Degree. You
support me in all that I do. You decorate my life.
homas L. Isenhour
Norfolk, VA USA
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To the Student
To the Student
he facts stated in this book are not in dispute. he information on each development and about each
individual is recorded numerous places. Students are urged to add to their understanding by referring
to other books and articles. (A bibliography is provided for that purpose.)
he opinions and conclusions represent my interpretation of this history. Clearly, others will have difering
interpretations of speciic instances, but I think on major issues there will be considerable agreement.
he history of the evolution of modern science is interesting, exciting and curious. It is easy to be a
Monday-morning-quarterback and denigrate intellectuals of the past for not seeing the obvious. However,
the obvious oten isn’t obvious until someone else shows you. I urge you to be gentle on the characters
of this story, to sympathize with their situations, to understand when they stray, and to marvel at their
leaps of genius.
I encourage you to join me and continue to read and discover, to dig deeper and ind answers and add
your own insights. he hardest part of this entire project was to stop long enough to write, because it
was always much more fun to keep learning.
Please note that Links instead of Figures have been given in most instances. he modern internet provides
links to many helpful presentations, many of them animated, that aid in understanding scientiic concepts.
Unfortunately we have no control over the authors of these links removing or modifying them at any
time. If some don’t work, I apologize for the inconvenience. But I also urge you to use the internet to
ind other links that may be helpful to your understanding.
Finally, to all students and others who read this work, your comments, corrections, suggestions, and
criticisms will be greatly appreciated.
homas L. Isenhour
Norfolk, Virginia USA
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Before the Greeks (Pre-history–600 BCE)
1 Before the Greeks
(Pre-history–600 BCE)
Ancient civilizations practiced what we would today call applied science and mathematics. In Egypt,
Babylonia, China, India, Phoenicia and ancient Israel discoveries in mathematics and astronomy were
put to practical purposes. However, it is important to emphasize that virtually no coherent theory of
science preceded the ancient Greeks, whom we will discuss in the next chapter.
Tally sticks, used for counting, have been dated to earlier than 30,000 BCE. Counting may have been
the beginning of recording information. hat is, counting may have begun as accounting and writing
may have begun as counting marks on a stick or bone.
Basic arithmetic, which we learn in grade school, emphasizes addition, subtraction, multiplication and
division. Subtraction is the reversal of addition. Multiplication is a series of additions and division is a
series of subtractions. hus, basic arithmetic is a variety of ways of counting.
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Before the Greeks (Pre-history–600 BCE)
Babylonians, Egyptians, and other ancient civilizations practiced astronomy and engineering. Astronomy
is useful in that it can predict the seasons and deine times for planting and harvesting. With the advent
of agriculture, which allowed permanent settlements (putting down roots, so to speak), geometry (Earth
measure) became important for deining areas of land for ownership and commerce. With geometry
one can design and construct buildings and design irrigation ditches. Geometry is the foundation of
mechanical engineering.
he decimal system undoubtedly arises from the fact that we have 10 ingers. Every small child quickly
learns to count to 10 by bending or touching ingers and all the cardinal numbers up to 10 are easily
represented by ingers. (here were societies that used base 20 –presumably they had put their toes to
work also.)
he ancient Babylonians, who were quite advanced mathematically, used base 60. It has been speculated
that this might have been because a lunar month has 30 days and 30 nights. Mathematical relationships
with lunar phases were important in mythology because the lunar and menstrual cycles correlate. Others
argue that the base 60 system is very convenient, especially in operations like multiplication, division,
and manipulating fractions, because 60 has many factors: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30.
Another important lunar inluence that developed is the division of a circle into 360 degrees. With 12
lunar months of 30 days each, there are approximately 360 days in a year, meaning the Earth moves (or
sun moves depending on your perspective) about 1/360 of its arc in one day.
Both solar and lunar calendars were invented but the two are hard to correlate. he Earth revolves around
the sun in about 365.2425 days per year. he Julian calendar, named for Julius Caesar, had 365 days and
was corrected by adding 1 day every 4 years. (hese special years are called leap years.) As we will discuss
later, this caused a slow, but important, shit in the dates of the beginnings of the seasons. he modern
calendar (Gregorian calendar) corrects the Julian calendar by skipping the leap year every 100 years
while keeping the leap year every 400 years. (Even more complicated are lunar calendars. E.g. the Jewish
lunar calendar has months of 29 or 30 days and years of either 12 or 13 months. Let’s leave it at that.)
Mining yields materials for weapons and tools. Moving beyond the Stone Age, lint was mined for spear
and arrow heads. Later, copper and tin were mined which lead to the discovery of bronze. (Heating copper
and tin together makes an alloy, bronze, that is much stronger than either of the individual metals or
any other pure metal found in nature.) Finally, iron was discovered by heating iron oxide with charred
wood. (he carbon in charcoal forms carbon oxides with the oxygen in iron oxide thereby reducing it
to the metal.) Iron was much much stronger than any of the previous materials and could be machined,
leading to the industrial age.
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Before the Greeks (Pre-history–600 BCE)
Because of agriculture, which was invented around 12,000 BCE and spread slowly, some botany and
chemistry was discovered. Medicine developed as an art and herbal cures were oten combined with
incantations and other magic. Ancient surgery also developed and included such bizarre operations as
trephination, opening the skull to remove brain tumors. (he skull has few nerve endings and heals well.
Brain tumors oten cause irrational behavior and in many instances were removed successfully and the
patient recovered.) Midwifery was also an early form of medical practice.
Medical applications were usually combined with religious or magical practices and disease in general
was thought to be caused by supernatural agents until the 19th century BCE, gave us modern germ theory.
Egyptians became excellent at embalming but did not discover much about the way of body functions
(physiology), even though they removed organs and viscera.
he Egyptians also developed advanced geometry and applied engineering as shown by the pyramids.
hey had a plumb bob for alignment and invented shadow clocks that evolved to sun dials.
In Mesopotamia both medicine and astrology were practiced. Some texts on diagnosis were written in
an obvious educational efort. As mentioned above, Babylonian mathematics was quite advanced – they
solved irst and second degree equations and did other simple algebra. he Babylonians discovered
extensive astronomy and geometry.
he Phoenicians wrote tables of weights and, as with other ancient civilizations, developed a calendar.
India became advanced mathematically and was one of the places where zero was discovered. Indian
mathematics were recorded in sacred texts. Indian medicine was also advanced. And, there is an indication
that they sought to subject nature to reason, the beginning of a scientiic philosophy.
China also developed advanced mathematics, including geometry, arithmetic and some algebra. Music
and astronomy were important to the Chinese and they developed mechanics and some optics. In the
study of medicine, botany and chemistry played important roles.
We learn from anthropology that certain discoveries and developments happened in multiple locations,
e.g. the invention of the calendar and the use of astronomy to predict seasons, times for planting and
harvesting. Depending on the botany of the region, plants were found that healed certain diseases. Other
natural products were discovered that were purgatives, abortives, and poisons. Mathematic relations,
such as the Pythagorean heorem were discovered repeatedly.
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Before the Greeks (Pre-history–600 BCE)
However, neither frameworks of reason nor functional theories to explain nature, other than religious
and metaphysical ones, appear to have developed. Hence ancient science was a collection of discoveries
that could be applied usefully but it was not a world-view as we think of science in the modern world.
Superstition and magic played a large role in ancient science and it was not until the ancient Greeks,
the subject of the next chapter, that attempts to prove mathematical relationships and explain physical
phenomena occurred.
In efect, what we have been discussing was really a pre-science. he philosophy of the ancient Greeks
will be much closer to an actual science. But, it was not until the end of the Renaissance that modern
science, as we think of it, emerged. Hence, most of what we call modern science has been developed in
the last 400 years.
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Ancient Greek Science (600 BCE–300 CE)
2 Ancient Greek Science
(600 BCE–300 CE)
2.1
Greek Theories
Civilizations long before the Greeks possessed agriculture, used engineering, practiced medicine, made
calendars and discovered and used mathematics. here were Chinese, Egyptians, Babylonians and
others that enhanced their cultures with science, mathematics and technology. Astronomy was among
the earliest sciences developed and its use of calendars, both solar and lunar (metonic), was important
for long-range planning in agriculture. Calendars were also used in religious practices as they are today.
Metallurgy and metallurgical advances divide history into great eras based upon the materials available for
tools; the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. While engineering and mathematical discoveries predate
recorded history, there appears to have been no earlier scientiic civilization than that of the ancient
Greeks. Science was sought by the Greeks, not only as a practical tool, but also as an explanation for the
behavior of nature. Religion and science were integrated and, while the ancient Greeks started mankind
on the path towards a scientiic worldview, in no way was the Greek worldview scientiic.
he predominant Greek view was that we seem to live in two worlds, a Material World and a Spirit
World. he Material World includes nature, physical reality, consciousness and mind. he Spirit (Ideal)
World includes ideas, spirit (God or gods), and soul.
he question (philosophical or theological) is how these worlds relate to each other. Dualism is the belief
that both worlds exist. Most religions adopt this view and assume that the Spirit World is ultimately in
charge. Materialism denies the existence of a Spirit World, e.g. Marxist dialectical materialism.
Science assumes there is a natural order and rational structure to nature. Science assumes there are
rules and, while there may be a Spirit World (God) that has ultimate control, nature is not arbitrary
but follows consistent laws. Science does not require the absence of God or spirit but does require that
nature is rational in its behavior. For this reason, science can co-exist with the world-views of Dualism
and Materialism. he view that there is only a spirit world excludes the possibility of science.
Around 600–500 BCE, there appeared in the Greek city states, a number of Natural Philosophers. hales
of Miletus is credited with the invention (or discovery) of philosophy around 600 BCE. Philosophy is
an approach to answering ultimate questions such as existence, truth or beauty, by using reason rather
than mysticism. In a sense, the very invention of philosophy foreordained the conlict between science
and fundamentalism that is still occurring today.
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hales, in searching for rational explanations for nature, was joined by a number of other philosophers: e.g.
Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Xenophanes, Parmenides, Pythagoras, Zeno, Plato, Anaxagoras,
Empedocles, Democritus, Aristotle, Archimedes, and Aristarchus. We will talk briely about several of
these and their theories.
It is oten said that Greek science depended solely on theory and not on experimentation. his is
a simplistic view that is perhaps a bit harsh. he Ancient Greeks were not able to do the kind of
experimentation that dominated the Renaissance because the technology did not exist. New materials
and techniques of machining would have to come irst. In reality, the Greeks depended upon observation
and theory that would reconcile the observation. For example, consider the ancient notion that the Sun
went around the Earth. To the casual observer, without accurate measurements recorded over time, it
certainly does look like the Sun goes around the Earth, although more than one Greek thought otherwise.
Greek science sought to answer the most fundamental questions: What are matter, motion, space, and
time? (An introductory physics book of today will address matter and energy while an advanced one
will address space and time.) he Greeks pursued these topics in a number of ways but always with
a direction of producing logical relationships, the very essence of science. he Greeks became quite
advanced in mathematics and integrated their mathematics and science.
hales of Melitus lived around 624–546 BCE. He was a merchant and carried information from one area
to another. It is said that he brought geometry from Egypt where he measured the heights of pyramids
from their shadows. hales did not separate the spiritual from the material. For example, he believed
that magnets had souls because they could move each other. He also believed that all things were made
from water, that water was the universal substance.
Also in Mellitus, and probably hales’ student, was Anaximander (ca 610–546 BCE). Anaximander
proposed a continuous cycle of creation and destruction in the universe with the basic ingredients
remaining unchanged. He proposed the irst living creatures came from seeds in moisture. here was a
basic ethic in Anaximander’s concept of the continuously changing universe. Some consider Anaximander
to be the irst scientist although Aristotle holds that place in many people’s minds.
Empedocles of Sicily (ca 490–430 BCE) irst proposed that all things were made up of four elements:
earth, air, ire, and water. Combinations of these elements accounted for the diferent properties of various
substances. Today we refer to the common states of matter as solid, liquid and vapor (gas), and to less
common states such as plasmas (ire).
We do not want to dwell on the Ancient Greeks and will simply give a few other basic ideas before we
proceed to talk about Aristotle. Whether or not Aristotle was the irst scientist he science was certainly
the most comprehensive of the Ancient Greeks.
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Anaxagoras (ca 500–428 BCE), from the city of Clazomenea in Asia Minor, believed that everything
was made up of countless seeds, ininite and imperceptible. All things were simply combinations of
these seeds and they were neither created nor destroyed. his particle idea of nature was expounded by
Democritus (ca 460–370 BCE) of Abdera, who used the term atoms claiming they were the building
blocks of all things.
Motion, according to Democritus, was the nature of things. Clearly the Greeks had the idea that matter
was constructed of submicroscopic particles. From Anaxagoras and Democritus one can construct a
totally materialistic universe. his idea is developed and used to explain many natural phenomena in
Lucretius’s On the Nature of the Universe, a lengthy summary of Greek science.
Also, one of the later Greeks, Aristarchus of Samos (ca 310–230 BCE) believed the Earth went around the
Sun. He arrived at this conclusion by estimating the weights of the Sun, Moon, and Earth, and, because
his estimate of the Sun’s weight was so much greater than that of the Earth, Aristarchus concluded that
the Earth was moving not the Sun. However, Aristarchus’s theory was rejected because it contradicted
Aristotle. We shall see how Aristotle’s science takes on the mantle of authority and ultimately becomes
a major stumbling block to the advancement of science.
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Of particular signiicance, Parmenides (born about 515 BCE) claimed that all movement was illusion.
Parmenides developed an entire philosophy (perhaps a religion) built upon contradiction. His student,
Zeno (ca 490–430 BCE) defended this viewpoint with a set of mathematical paradoxes. he essence of
Zeno’s approach was to break any apparent movement down to smaller and smaller pieces. For example,
to walk across a room to a wall, you must irst walk one-half way. But, ater you walk one-half way, you
must then walk one-half of the remaining way to the three/fourths point. his continues as seven-eighths,
iteen-sixteenths, etc. and Zeno concludes that it is not possible to ever reach the wall. (See Link 2.1.)
Link 2.1 Zeno’s Paradox of Walking Across a Room h
ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbNNFtuwA0k
In order to walk across a room, you must irst go 1/2 way. But once you go 1/2 way, you must go 1/2 of
the remaining 1/2 or 1/4 way, which brings you 3/4’s the way. Now you must go 1/2 of the remaining
1/4 way or 1/8 way, which brings you 7/8’s the way. And next you reach the 15/16’s way point, and then
31/32’s and 63/64’s and 127/128’s and 255/256’s and 511/512’s and on and on and on. But, you never get
completely across the room!
Another of Zeno’s paradoxes is a hypothetical race between Achilles and a Tortoise. Achilles, being much
switer, gives a head-start to the Tortoise. But, as Zeno points out, when Achilles runs to the point where
the Tortoise starts, the Tortoise will have moved. he argument continues with Achilles never being able
to catch the Tortoise. (See Link 2.2.)
Link 2.2 Zeno’s Paradox of a Race between Achilles and a Tortoise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbNNFtuwA0k
he mathematical problem this presents is one of ininities and Greek mathematics could not deal with
ininities. We will come back to Zeno when algebra becomes available, in the 9th century, and show that
Zeno must be wrong. However, it will not be until the invention of calculus, in the 17th century, that
Zeno’s logic can be shown to not constitute a paradox.
2.2
Greek Philosophy and Science
Mathematics played a major role in the development of Greek science. Pythagoras of Samos (c. 570–500
BCE) formed a secret society (Pythagoreans) that sought power through mathematics. He was not the
author of the Pythagorean heorem; but rather gained recognition by using mathematical proofs to solve
problems. (he Pythagorean heorem was known by many diferent civilizations before the Greeks.
However, the Greeks were the irst to prove it mathematically. We will make the distinction between
discovered mathematics and proven mathematics.)
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he Pythagoreans vowed secrecy of their knowledge and took no individual credit for discoveries.
hey believed that whole numbers were their rulers and that anything geometric should be able to be
represented by whole numbers (integers) or the ratio of two whole numbers. he Pythagoreans were
noted for solving geometry and number theory problems. However, one of their members proved the
existence of irrational numbers; that is numbers that cannot be represented by the ratio of two integers.
his proof involved applying the Pythagorean theorem to the diagonal of a square whose two sides each
have a value of 1. he value of the hypotenuse is the square root of 2 which is irrational. (Anecdotally,
it is said that the individual who discovered the proof was thrown into the sea from the boat on which
they were riding by other Pythagoreans because it disproved their core belief that all numbers could be
represented as the ratio of two integers.) (See Link 2.3.)
Link 2.3 Square with side = 1 and diagonal = √2
For any right triangle, the Pythagorean heorem tells us that C2 = A2 + B2, where C is the hypotenuse
(side opposite the right angle), and A and B are the two other sides. In our igure the diagonal (D) forms
a right triangle with two of the sides and, since every side is equal to 1, D = √2. (D2 = 12 + 12; D2 = 1 +
1; D2 = 2; thus D = √2.) Proof that the square root of 2 is irrational is accomplished by a method called
proof by contradiction. In this proof, you assume there are integers R and S, such that R/S = √2. Now you
square both sides to get R2/S2 = 2. From this we know that R2 is even and hence R is even. Since R is an
even number, it can be replaced by 2T where T is another integer. So, 2T/S = √2 and 4T2/S2 = 2. his
last equation may be rearranged to S2 = 2T2. Now we have proven that S2 is even and hence S is even.
But, if R and S are both even numbers, they can both be divided by 2 and the whole process repeated.
his goes on without limit which is absurd and means that there cannot be a pair of integers, R and S,
such that their ratio is √2.
he Pythagorean Society was responsible for the discovery of important mathematics and helped set the
stage for Euclid of Alexandria who was arguably the most famous Greek mathematician. Euclid lived
around 300 BCE. However, Euclidean geometry was not invented or discovered by Euclid. Rather, what
Euclid did was to systemize the known geometry of the time into his 13 volume Elements of Geometry.
Euclid gives a set of deinitions and postulates (axioms) and then mathematical proofs for postulates
which are themselves theorems and constructions. By putting together all known geometry of the time,
Elements of Geometry became the most important mathematical book of all time.
Euclid’s Elements starts with 23 deinitions and ive postulates. he irst four postulates have been accepted
since Euclid’s time. For example, the irst postulate says that a line can be drawn between any two points.
(he ith postulate, sometimes called the parallel postulate because it states that parallel lines never meet,
became a major issue in the 19th century.) Euclid goes on to provide proofs of several hundred theorems.
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Starting with the Pythagoreans, the Greeks considered the circle or sphere the most perfect expression
of mathematics in nature. he circle represented: Harmony, Unity, Unbroken Perfection, Ininity–no
beginning, no end. he Greek belief that heavenly bodies are perfect (or ideal) and must be spherical
and travel in perfect circles will cause major problems when accurate astronomical measurements begin
to be made in the Renaissance.
No treatment of Ancient Greece would be complete without discussing the tremendous inluence of
Plato (428/427–347/348 BCE). While Plato made contributions to mathematics, he is thought of as a
philosopher and not a scientist. Plato believed that we can never gain more than partial knowledge by
observation. He expressed this philosophy in his allegory in the cave in which men live chained in a
circle facing outward with a ire behind them. heir only knowledge is gained by the shadows they see
on the cave walls. hus, Plato believed our perceptions may be only illusions. But, by applying reason,
we can gain knowledge that approaches the ideal. Plato believed in a system of ideas with a hierarchical
structure from divine perfection to the degraded and evil.
Plato rejected the anthropomorphic gods of Greek mythology. God is the ideal of good, divine perfection,
perfect form, and ideal order. God is not the creator but rather the basis of all being. Humans are created
in the image of absolute perfection but from base materials. So we have a soul (spirit world) and body
(material world). hrough our nature we strive towards the ideal but are dragged back by the material.
Nature is the basis of our realty. he ultimate in Platonic dualism is: spirit is being; matter is non-being.
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Plato opened his Academy about 387 BCE. Aristotle (384–322 BCE) studied at the Academy for twenty
years. he Academy lourished for over 900 years until the emperor Justinian closed it in 529 CE, claiming
it was a pagan institution.
Unquestionably, Aristotle was the Greek who had the greatest inluence on science. His world-view,
which was an integrated science and religion, dominated the western world for over 2000 years.
Aristotle was born in Stagirus, a Greek colony in hracia. Aristotle’s father was court physician to the
King of Macedonia. At 17 Aristotle was sent to Athens to further his education and he stayed at Plato’s
Academy for about 20 years leaving only ater Plato died. Aristotle was brought back to Macedonia by
King Philip to tutor his young son, Alexander. Aristotle tutored the future Alexander the Great for ive
years. Ater Philip’s death, Alexander became king and Aristotle returned to Athens. Aristotle’s philosophy
was spread across the world by Alexander during his conquests.
Aristotle’s intellectual interests were very broad spanning Logic, Physics, Psychology, Natural History
and Philosophy. He did extensive biological classiication and knew that things like whales and dolphins
were not ish. He is credited with the invention of formal logic and the syllogism. Aristotle set out to
describe the entire universe and, as such, was certainly the irst comprehensive scientist.
Modern science, as we think of it today, did not come into existence until about 400 years ago. he
science that emanated from the Ancient Greeks, through the Roman Empire and Middle Ages, was a
mixture of theology and metaphysics. he celebrated clash between Galileo and the Church was caused
by Galileo’s disproof of Aristotle’s physics.
Aristotle accepted the basic structure of Platonic Idealism. However, he disagreed with Plato’s radical
separation of spirit and matter, mind and body. His background was in a family of physicians and he
remained interested in biology, as well as physics and astronomy, all of his life.
Aristotle’s cosmology was teleological just as Plato’s. here was purpose in nature. But while Plato
dismissed natural objects, Aristotle believed that the Ideal could not exist apart from a material object.
Aristotle’s cosmology had the Earth at the center of the universe surrounded by spheres that held the
heavenly bodies, stars and planets. His universe was made up of ive elements: earth, water, air, ire and
aether. he irst four elements each seek their own level. Hence, solids sink in water, air bubbles up, rain
falls, and lames rise. And the ith, aether, ills all the space between the heavenly bodies. he heavens
are the eternal ixed realm, perfect in nature.
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Aristotle believed that change arises from four causes. he material cause is what brought things into
existence. he formal cause is what the thing is, as determined by its shape, pattern, essence, etc. he
eicient cause is what makes the thing what it is. he inal cause is the purpose to which it is put. Notice,
purpose is central to Aristotle’s universe.
In the case of a bronze statue, the bronze is the material cause, the shape of the statue the formal cause,
the sculptor is the eicient cause and use of the statue to honor the warrior is the inal cause.
According to Aristotle, everything in nature is purposeful. he change of the acorn to become an oak
tree is its natural change to reach the ideal. And, the oak tree will, under certain circumstances, yield up
the elements of which it is made in the form of earth (ash), water (steam), air (smoke) and ire.
Aristotle also deined three kinds of Movement. Qualitative movement is a change in the state of things.
For example, people grow older, meat decays, lowers bloom. In Quantitative movement things increase
or decrease. e.g. people gain weight; lowers lose their blooms, etc. Change of location is the ordinary
kind of movement that we associate with animals, machines, etc.
A thing may be moved by its nature or by something else. As we said above, it is the nature of the
elements to seek their natural place. Perfect movement, as exhibited by the stars, is circular. (Because
of their retrograde movement, the planets presented a problem that Aristotle could not solve. We will
discuss this later as we deal with astronomy.)
he paradoxes of Zeno, described earlier, were based on the idea that space was ininitely divisible,
e.g. that we could move across the room by ever decreasing fractions. Aristotle rejected the notion of
ininity because his universe was ixed and there would be no place for an ininite thing. Hence, Aristotle
dismissed Zeno’s paradoxes as nonsense.
Likewise, Aristotle dismissed the concept of zero because it represented nothing. Aristotle restricted his
world to the inite numbers, those that lie between zero and ininity. And, since zero was meaningless,
no consideration could be given to negative numbers. Likewise, Aristotle denied the idea of a vacuum,
a place with nothing, because that would imply the absence of God.
According to Aristotle, the motion of a body depends upon its weight and the density of the medium
through which it is moving. his is just common sense and can easily be demonstrated by dropping
objects into water verses air. However, the idea that an object falls according to its weight is wrong which
we shall see later.
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According to Aristotle, when an object such as a spear is moving, there must be a mover. his leads to
a problem for Aristotle. As long as the spear is in your hand, it is being moved by you. However, when
it leaves your hand, the spear’s natural movement is downward and it should fall straight to the ground,
not travel in the arc as we observe. To solve this problem Aristotle assumed the spear pushed air out
of the way and the air came around behind the spear and pushed it forward. Clearly you could use the
same argument with a boat continuing to move through water ater the rowers had stopped rowing.
Notice that when we reach the time of Newton, Newton’s irst law of motion will be: A body in motion
tends to continue in motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an outside force. Aristotle would have
said something like: A body in motion tends to seek its own level unless a mover keeps acting upon it. his
is what we oten observe in examples such as a ball rolling to a stop. In many ways Aristotle’s physics
was driven by common sense observation. But, if the ancient Greeks had been able to measure velocity
accurately, they would have learned that a two pound object does not fall twice as fast as a one pound
object. When we get to Galileo, we will discuss the clever way he determined that both the objects fall
at the same speed.
In terms of Cosmology, Aristotle assumed that the Universe is spherical and full; the Universe rotates
in ceaseless circular motion of the celestial spheres; above the Moon the universe is illed with aether;
below the Moon it is illed with earth, water, air, and ire; and the Earth is round but does not move.
hat the Earth is moving seems to be disproved by throwing a rock straight up and observing that it
hits the Earth directly below where it was thrown.
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Aristotle believed God is the unmoved mover, the prime mover, and the inal cause. God keeps the circular
motion of the celestial spheres going.
It is important to realize that Aristotle’s physics and cosmology were intertwined. To question one was
to question the other.
But, the astronomy of Aristotle didn’t really work. One problem was the varying brightness of the stars
and planets and the changing distance of the planets. (We can see about 1000 stars and ive planets
without a telescope.) A much more serious problem, was the retrograde movement of the planets that
could not possibly be explained with circular orbits around the Earth. (See Link 2.4.) So Aristotle simply
ignored these problems the same way he ignored Zeno’s paradoxes.
Link 2.4 Retrograde Motion of Planets
http://www.bisque.com/help/Patterns/image/retrograde_motion_of_mars_wmf.gif
Aristotle’s cosmology is the basis for what came to be called the Great Chain of Being. With God as the
First Cause, and the Earth as the center of the universe, a progression from God to Evil (or Heaven to
Hell) is easily constructed.
A linear model for the Great Chain (or Ladder of Creation) is given here:
God-Being
|
Angels
|
Humanity
|
Nature
|
Satan
|
Non-Being
For humanity, the chain moves downward towards base things and approaches Non-Being. Climbing
up the ladder one approaches, but never reaches, God-Being.
We will talk more about the Great Chain when we discuss St. homas Aquinas and he Scholastic
Synthesis. But, it is important to realize that the concept of the Great Chain follows directly from
Aristotle’s cosmology.
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2.3
Ancient Greek Science (600 BCE–300 CE)
Greeks under Roman Domination
Perhaps the greatest of the Greek science scholars was born in Syracuse on the island of Sicily. Archimedes
(ca 290/280–212 BCE) studied mathematics in Alexandria which was then a center of intellectual activity
and had one of the greatest libraries of antiquity.
Archimedes made fundamental contributions in mathematics, science, and engineering. None of
his original manuscripts exist but translations into Arabic credit Archimedes with a wide range of
contributions. In many ways, Archimedes pre-empted Newton in his discoveries of basic mechanics and
can appropriately be called the irst mathematical physicist.
Archimedes solved the law of the lever using formal logic. he result tells us that for a lever to balance,
the weight on each end times the distance from the end to the fulcrum, must be equal for each side. i.e.
W1 × L1 = W2 × L2 where W is the weight of objects 1 and 2 and L is the distance of each object from the
balance point. Hence, if the arms of the lever are not equal, the weights (or forces) on each end difer by
the inverse ratio. So, if we apply a weight of one pound on a lever arm that is two feet long, the force on
the other end of a one-foot lever arm is two pounds. A mechanical advantage of 2 is gained from such
a lever. (See Link 2.5.) By making a lever very long, a large force can be produced.
Link 2.5 he Law of the Lever
http://bit.ly/1d3Mmnw
Archimedes proved, by a very clever use of logic, the Law of the Lever. he Law of the Lever says that
a lever with a weight on each end and a fulcrum between the weights will balance under the following
condition: W1 × L1 = W2 × L2. Where W1 is the weight on side 1; L1 is the distance (length) between
W1 and the fulcrum; W2 is the weight on side 2; and L2 is the distance (length) between W2 and the
fulcrum. From practical experience, we know that there will be a balance point somewhere between the
two weights. We also know from practical experience that the balance point will be closer to the heavier
weight. With the Law of the Lever we can calculate just where the balance point has to be. And, since
weight is the force of gravity on an object, we can turn this into a mechanical advantage equation. For
example, if we want to lit a 100 pound object, we can do so by putting the fulcrum of a lever one foot
from the object and two feet from where we apply a 50 pound weight. his means that if you weigh 150
pounds, you could lit 300 pounds with this lever. (Look at a tire jack and you will see why 100 pounds
of force can lit the side of a 2000 pound car.)
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Mechanical advantage applies to various mechanical devices including levers, pulleys, and gear wheels.
he mechanical advantage of any of these systems can be calculated by the ratio of the lengths of
movement of the two ends of the device. e.g. the lever described above had two arms one of which was
twice the length of the other. he longer arm would move twice the arc of the shorter and, hence, the
force on the shorter would be twice that of the longer.
In those days, ships were built on the beach and then pulled down to the water with ropes. It is said
that Archimedes bet his friends that he could launch a ship by himself. He won the bet by constructing
a block-and-tackle (ropes and pulleys) and towing the ship to the water.
Archimedes discovered the law of buoyancy by observing that the water rose when he sat in a tub. He
realized that his weight decreased by the weight of the water he displaced and when he had raised as much
water as he weighed, his own body weighed nothing in the tub. It is said that Archimedes was so excited
he ran out into the street naked shouting: “Eureka.” (Eureka means “I have found it” in classic Greek.)
In another anecdote, the King asked Archimedes to determine whether a crown he was given was solid
gold without destroying it. Archimedes weighed the crown and then determined its volume by how
much water it displaced. Density is just weight divided by volume and Archimedes discovered that the
density of the crown was less that of pure gold but more than that of pure silver. Hence the crown was
counterfeit and, as the story goes, the giver of the git lost his head.
.
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A water pump that operates by pulling air out of a pipe can only raise water about 30 feet. (his is because
the water is being pushed upward by the pressure of the air above it.) Archimedes circumvented this
problem with the invention of the Archimedes screw, a hollowed log with a vein carved inside which,
when rotated, propels the water. Archimedes screws are still in use today. (See Link 2.6.)
Link 2.6 Archimedes Screw
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes%27_screw
Archimedes used his knowledge of engineering to build great war machines to defend Syracuse from a
Roman invasion from the sea. It is said he built catapults that could throw a one ton rock a kilometer
with enough accuracy to hit a ship. He also built devices that could lit a ship out of the water when it
came close to the shore. Finally, it is said that he built a parabolic mirror that could focus the sun on a
ship’s sails and set them aire.
Not all of these inventions have been veriied historically but it is clear that Archimedes used his knowledge
to defend his country. he Roman capture of Syracuse took two years because of Archimedes. At one
point, King Hero II is said to have been so impressed by Archimedes that he ordered everyone to believe
whatever Archimedes said.
In pure mathematics, Archimedes was proudest of his solution that proved that the surface area and
volume of a sphere inscribed in a cylinder were each two-thirds that of the cylinder. At his request, a
igure showing this relationship was carved on his tombstone.
Archimedes found a mathematical way to calculate the value of π. Given a circle the relationship between
the circumference (C) and diameter (D) is: C = π × D. A polygram inscribed within the circle will have a
perimeter smaller than C and a polygram circumscribed around the circle will have a perimeter larger than
C. By calculating the two perimeters, a range is determined for C. As the number of sides of the polygram
increases, the range of C becomes smaller and π can be calculated more accurately. (See Link 2.7.)
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Link 2.7 Archimedes Estimation of π
https://wiki.eee.uci.edu/index.php/3.14159265
C = 2rπ = πD where C is the circumference, r is the radius and D is the diameter of a circle. Using
geometric construction we can calculate the perimeter for the inscribed hexagon (Pi) and the perimeter
for the circumscribed hexagon (Pc) in units of the radius. Pi = 6.00r and Pc = 6.93r. herefore, 6.00r <
C < 6.93r and since C = 2rπ, 3.00 < π < 3.46. By using a 96-gon, Archimedes determined: 3.1409 < π <
3.14292, thereby establishing 3.14 for the irst three signiicant igures of π. (Archimedes numbers are
estimates because he had to estimate the square roots involved in determining the perimeters. he local
book store was not selling pocket calculators in Syracuse in 250 BCE!)
Archimedes could also determine the area within irregular shapes by drawing ever smaller triangles in
the shape and adding up the areas of the triangles. his approach, much like the estimation of π, borders
on calculus and solves problems like Zeno’s paradoxes. Had the ancient Greeks discovered algebra, it is
possible that Archimedes would have invented calculus almost 2000 years before Newton!
When the Romans conquered Syracuse a soldier killed Archimedes. he soldier did not realize who he
had captured. he Roman General, Marcellus, had wanted to use Archimedes’s knowledge and, inding
he had been killed, had the tomb built for Archimedes with the marble monument of the sphere in the
cylinder that he had requested.
Archimedes lived about 100 years ater Aristotle and, of course, had the advantage of the scientiic and
mathematical knowledge of his time. Archimedes had the cumulative knowledge of the Pythagoreans,
Euclid, and others. It is a great misfortune that the cosmology and physics of Aristotle became dominant.
Clearly Archimedes’s physics was much more modern and would have been a much better foundation
for science. he advancement of science might have been more rapid if Archimedes, instead of Aristotle,
had become the standard.
he Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician, Claudius Ptolemy lived in Roman Egypt from
about 85 to 165 CE. Ptolemy set out to correct the problems of Aristotle’s astronomy but wanted to
maintain the principle of circular movement in the heavens. As we mentioned before, the planets were
oten observed to reverse their directions, something that was not possible if they were moving in circular
orbits around the Earth. However, Ptolemy found that he could correct these motions by using epicycles
that were themselves combinations of circles upon circles. (See Link 2.8.)
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Link 2.8 Ptolemy’s Epicycles
http://www.astronomynotes.com/history/epicycle.htm
Ptolemy used observations made by the Babylonians to extend the range of measurements over a period
of 800 years. He then developed mathematical models, of the type shown in the igure above, to it the
known data. By this clever combination of mathematical tricks, Ptolemy’s Handy Tables correctly predicted
the position of stars and eclipses for the next 1000 years.
he Ptolemaic system, while complex to use, provided a successful navigation aid for the Mediterranean
Sea while preserving the Aristotelian principle that the heavenly bodies only moved on circular paths.
his would seem the end of this episode; however, further discoveries in the Renaissance will raise the
question of geocentricity again and lead to the celebrated case of Galileo versus the Church.
Two medical giants of ancient Greece were Hippocrates of Kos (c. 460–370 BCE), and Galen (Claudius
Galenus) of Pergamon (129–200 CE). Both emphasized observation and Galen especially emphasized
dissection as necessary to gain medical skill and knowledge.
Galen had great dissecting skills, and let behind a copious, coherent, comprehensive, and largely accurate
body of work. Galen’s work had some major problems, however. First of all, because he did not have
access to human bodies, most of his dissections were of Barbary apes. Secondly, while Galen’s work was
well described, it was not accompanied by illustrations.
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Still, like Ptolemy’s astronomy, Galen’s anatomy generally worked. It was Galen’s physiology that was faulty.
Generally Galen thought the human body was composed of four humors, or independent body luids:
Blood; Phlegm; Yellow bile (urinary system); and Black bile (GI system). Disease was an imbalance in
these systems.
Most critically, Galen did not understand the circulation of the blood which he thought was made in
the liver and veins from nourishment cooked in the stomach. As irst suggested by Aristotle, the lungs
provided cooling air which was carried to the heart by the arterial vein. he air oozed through minute
pores in the septum of the heart, mixing with and cooling the blood in the arteries. he action of the
heart itself was a push-pull action. For those of you who may be confused about how it worked, you may
be relieved to know that Galen himself was never very clear about this.
Galen dominated anatomy and physiology for 1500 years because his system mostly worked. Not until the
16th century was Galen’s system challenged. Galen was so conident in his work that he wrote instructions
for how to be a successful doctor and claimed all you needed was his writings.
he last Greek we will discuss is Diophantus of Alexandria, considered by some as the father of
algebra. Not many details are known of his life are known. He was born between 200 and 214 CE and
died between 284 and 294. He wrote a number of books called Arithmetica that presented solutions to
algebraic equations. Diophantus advanced number theory and mathematical notation and was the irst
Greek to recognize fractions as numbers. Diophantine equations tended to be quadratics for which he
found only positive solutions. Perhaps under the inluence of Aristotle, Diophantus had no knowledge
of zero or negative numbers.
Diophantus did not use general methods but solved each problem by a separate approach. Many of the
methods he used go back to Babylonian mathematics. His work was lost during the Dark Ages and
only Arab translations kept parts of it alive. While Diophantus did not invent algebra, he provided a
foundation from which the Arab development could occur.
he rise of the Roman Empire brought an end to the remarkable advances that the Greeks were making in
mathematics, science and other areas. A Roman poet, Titus Lucretius Carus (c. 99–55 BCE), lamenting
that his Roman colleagues could no longer read Greek, translated most of Greek science in a master poem
called De Rerum Nature or On the Nature of hings. Modern translations use the title On the Nature of
the Universe. (See Appendix 8.)
Lucretius’s work is both inspiring and depressing. It is inspirational in showing the remarkable insights
of the Greeks and how many things they were able to explain without the beneit of laboratory
experimentation. It is depressing in revealing how little progress was then made for the next 1500 years.
he serious student is advised to add Lucretius to their reading list. It is a must for the well-educated.
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A Period of Stagnancy – The Dark Ages (300–1400)
3 A Period of Stagnancy –
The Dark Ages (300–1400)
3.1
The Dark Ages
Ater the fall of Rome in the 5th century CE, Western civilization collapsed. Within two hundred years,
only scraps and fragments of Aristotle’s work remained. For a time, Ptolemy was lost to the west, although
Greek astronomy was preserved and developed during this time in the Arab world. he Almagest,
Ptolemy’s work, is a 9th century Arab translation and literally means, the Greatest. Ptolemy was not
rediscovered in the West until the 12th Century – so we have a hiatus of 700 years or so. Diophantus’s
work and others were translated and used by the Arabs.
By the 12th Century, most of Aristotle (as well as Ptolemy) had been translated from Arabic into Latin
and was available in the West.
While the West sufered under the dark ages, a Golden Age arose in Arabia. Unlike the Romans, the
Arabs extended many of the mathematical and scientiic developments of the Greeks. Algebra, alchemy,
algorithm, average, almanac, aorta, and alcohol are examples of words of Arabic origin that are part of
today’s scientiic vocabulary.
From the 7th through 13th centuries, Islamic scholars made important contributions to agriculture,
astronomy, chemistry, geography, mathematics, mechanics, medicine, optics, and measurements of all
kinds. hey learned paper making from the Chinese and books and libraries became very important.
Arabic became an international language of scholarship.
he Qur’an (or Koran) required accurate measurement of time to determine the hours of prayer, and
the days of Ramadan. And, the huge empire made navigation very important especially for determining
the direction to pray to Mecca. Various Caliphs built great observatories and advanced the Astrolabe of
the Greeks to determine latitude. his led to advances in cartography.
In 946, the Persian astronomer Al-Sui (903–986) published his Book of Fixed Stars in which he
described Andromeda as a “little cloud” pre-empting the idea of galaxies. In the 11th century, a Persian
mathematician, Al-Biruni described the Milky Way as a collection of stars. (In the West, Galileo is
usually credited with this discovery in the 17th century.) Another Persian known better in the West for
his poetry than his astronomy and mathematics, Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), determined the length
of the year to be 365.24219858156 days.5 (he current value determined by the Hubble telescope is
365.242190 days. Khayyam’s value is accurate to 2 parts in 100 million.) Along with other astronomical
advances, eclipses were predicted accurately.
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In optics, the Arabs made improved glasses and developed a theory of refraction. In the 11th century,
al-Haytham published his Book of Optics in which he described the functioning of the human eye and
described sight as “visual images entering the eye.”
In medicine, Islamic doctors developed treatments for smallpox and measles. Quarantine, another word
derived from Arabic, was invented to halt the spread of contagious diseases. Surgery of the eye, ear, and
throat was developed. And, as will be discussed in Chapter IX, al-Nais of Damascus discovered the
circulation of the blood in the 13th century.
Jabir (ca 721–815, called Geber in Europe) is considered to be the father of chemistry. Typical of the
times he studied both chemistry and alchemy, as well as astronomy and astrology, and other scientiic
subjects. Jabir wrote more than 20 books on chemistry describing his discoveries and emphasizing
experimentation and practical applications.
Clearly, the most important contribution to come from the Golden Age was the invention of algebra.
While Greeks had worked with equations and solved speciic problems, it was al-Kwarizmi (ca 780–850)
of Baghdad that gave us a systematic algebra in his 830 publication Arithmetic. Al-Kwarizmi introduced
the decimal system to the Western world and he advanced Ptolemy’s work.
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he Arabs contributed to geometry, trigonometry, and spherical trigonometry as well. Al-Kwarizmi was
one of many scholars who worked in the famous House of Wisdom in Baghdad. he House of Wisdom
(which literally means library in Persian) was a major center of education and scholarship in the Arab
world. Important works in Greek, Indian, and Persian were translated into Arabic. he House of Wisdom
was destroyed by the Mongols in 1258.
he science of the Golden Age was practical and accompanied by important inventions such as the
windmill and water pumps. here were great physicians and healers. However, science was not viewed
as an explanation for natural phenomena and Aristotle’s philosophy, translated by the Arabs into Arabic
and then into Latin, was still the accepted cosmology of the time.
3.2
The Scholastic Synthesis
homas Aquinas (1225–1274 CE) integrated Aristotle’s ideas into Christian theology in his massive 12
volume Summa heologica. Aquinas accepted Aristotle’s cosmology. He starts by arguing God’s existence.
Aquinas asks: How do we know God? He answers: From history and nature. God is Lord of history
and nature – and so Aquinas achieves an integration of Jerusalem and Athens. Aquinas ive arguments
for the existence of God include the argument of design which can be simply stated as if something is
designed there must be a designer. his is the same argument used today by creationists.
Aquinas does not reject divine revelation as the source of Truth – God acting in and through history.
But it is also possible to argue for the existence of God from reason and nature. Even God cannot allow
a logical contradiction.
So, for example: as in Aristotle, motion requires an unmoved irst mover. If every efect requires an
eicient cause, Aquinas agrees, that irst cause is God. his is directly in agreement with Aristotle. For the
Christian church, a geocentric world-view works quite nicely. he scholastic world-view or cosmology
can be summed up in a model known as the great chain of being. he geocentric universe is commonly
viewed spherically as concentric spheres with the Earth at the center and the outermost Kingdom of
God at the extremity of the globular universe. (See Link 3.1.)
Link 3.1 Dante’s Paradiso
http://www.darkstar1.co.uk/Taschenp41.jpg
Dante lived in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Notice how his igure progresses from the inferno
(Hell) to Cielo Cristallino Primo Mobile (God).
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he Great Chain of Being or Ladder of Creation (see Chapter 2) expressed the hierarchical nature of creation.
From Humanity, the chain moved downward towards lower and base things. he lower one moves on the
Great Chain, the closer one moves toward formless void – or non-Being. But one can never get there. We
cannot perceive non-Being, i.e. nothing at all. As Parmenides noted, nothing-at-all has to be something.
One gets a similar result climbing up the Chain or Ladder of Creation. One can never reach or know
pure form, or pure actuality, i.e. God. God becomes the irst mover or prime mover, the irst cause or
ground of being. God transcends all individuality, both spatially and temporally. For Aquinas (as for
Aristotle), God is ultimate reality.
he Great Chain of Being is built on four great principles:
1. Plenitude: Everything that can be, is. his is the principle of the fullness of creation. Creation
is complete. God did not create an imperfect or incomplete Universe. Creation is not ongoing. In its perfection, there are no holes in the creation. hat means there is nothing new
in creation. While there is change, there is no meaningful natural history.
2. Gradation: Follows from the principle of plenitude. If the Chain is full, then the links or
steps are organized from highest to lowest in precisely graded order. All the gradation that is
possible, is. here are no missing links in the chains or missing rungs on the ladder.
3. Continuity: Restates the principle of gradation. here are no missing links in the Great
Chain of Being, or missing rungs on the Ladder of Life. Between God and humanity lie
Angels and spirits. Between humanity and Hell lie spirits, ghosts, and devils.
4. Immutability. If Creation is full, then it follows that the links are never broken and the rungs
never wear out. Stars do not fail. Species do not die. he whole of creation is full, complete,
and immutable until the day of judgment. his is a beautiful and comforting world-view.
Essentially – God is in His Heaven and all is well.
You will recall that the Great Chain of Being is very Aristotelian. Although there was apparent change
and variation in Nature, Aristotle believed the World was structured from God to inanimate world.
Beginning with plants, Aristotle envisioned a progressive chain through the plant and animal kingdoms.
Humans, of course, stood at the top of the chain because of their reasoning ability.
One interpretation of the sin of Shakespeare’s tragic character Macbeth is that he broke the Great Chain
by killing the king! Hence, he had to be punished.
his world-view is also fundamentally ahistorical. here is no evolution, geological, biological or social.
God structured the world this way at the beginning. he stage is now set for major conlict. To be against
the Great Chain cosmology is to be against God.
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4 Classical Physics and Astronomy
(1400–1600)
4.1
A New Cosmology
Despite its success, there were problems with the geocentric (Earth-centered) cosmology. In the most
general sense, astronomical observations did not squarely agree with the mathematics. And, these were
simple geometric calculations about circular orbits not some mystical higher mathematics. As mentioned
above, there were problems accounting for the retrograde movement of the planets, and for the varying
brightness of the planets. (See Link 2.4.)
he scholastics derived their knowledge of the universe from natural philosophy, observation, and
mathematics. But what seems remarkable to the modern mind is that when observation and/or
mathematics clashed with the authority of natural philosophy [Aristotle], natural philosophy prevailed.
We will see this emphatically in the trial of Galileo where the issue was not the correct motions of
heavenly bodies but whether Galileo’s scientiic conclusions (right or wrong) disagreed with scripture.
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Greek, Indian, and Muslim scholars had proposed a heliocentric (sun centered) solar system but Western
scholars continued the Aristotelian philosophy that the Earth was the center of the universe. Nicholaus
Copernicus (1473–1543) was born in Torun, Poland. His original name was Kopernik but he later
Latinized the name when he was called to Rome. Copernicus lived in Poland and worked for the bishop
as a clerk, or canon. He was educated as a mathematician and lived during the Reformation when
the Christian church became divided. (Martin Luther had nailed his 95 theses to the Church door in
1517. he Council of Trent, a reaction to the Protestant movement, was initiated just two years ater
Copernicus’s death.) Copernicus was a very unlikely revolutionary; however, the result of his insistence
of scientiic measurement as a source of truth may well have been the starting point of the coming
Scientiic Revolution.
he Julian calendar (established by Julius Caesar) divided the year into exactly 365.25 days. his is slightly
too long and caused Easter and other Holy Days to slowly drit forward. Likewise the equinoxes and the
solstices were wrongly computed. (A solstice, sun-standing-still, occurs each summer and winter when
the sun has reached its northernmost or southernmost latitude for that year. An equinox occurs each
spring and fall when the sun passes over the equator causing the length of the day and night to be equal.)
Holy days were very important to the Church and they needed to be computed correctly. Copernicus
was invited to Rome to try to produce a more accurate calendar.
he Julian calendar has three consecutive years of 365 days each followed by a leap year (each year
divisible by 4) of 366 days making the year average 365¼ or 365.25 days. he Gregorian calendar was
approved by Pope Gregory in 1582 based upon Copernicus’s calculations. (he Gregorian calendar makes
the average year 365.2425 days. See Chapter I.) When adopted, the Gregorian calendar also dropped
10 days to bring the calendar back into synchronization with the seasons as they had been in Caesar’s
(or Christ’s) time.
Copernicus efectively based his calendar upon actual observations. In efect, he ignored Aristotle,
Ptolemy, Aquinas, the Great Chain of Being, and other authorities and decided to try to get the
mathematics right based upon the experimental evidence. One of his alternatives was the heliocentric
universe. In a heliocentric universe, the heavens would revolve around the Sun rather than the Earth.
One of the greatest problems that Copernicus faced was that to get the math to work the Earth had to
have two movements, one around the sun and the other around its axis. his was contrary to Aristotle
who said that the Earth did not move and also that a celestial body could not have two movements, as
anyone could determine by looking at the Moon for several days. he same side always faces the Earth.
However, a heliocentric solar system would explain the retrogressive planetary motion, and the Earth
revolving on its axis once a day would explain the apparent motion of the ixed stars. he North Star,
which does not move at all, would then have to be aligned with the axis around which the Earth rotates.
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Copernicus ultimately published his theory and calculations in his book, On the Revolution of the Heavenly
Spheres (1543). he book was narrative followed by extensive, and complex, mathematical computations.
Ironically, Copernicus died the same year the book was published.
What kind of Revolution was the Copernican Revolution? It was certainly not overnight. Why didn’t the
superiority of the heliocentric model become immediately apparent once pointed out? (See Link 4.1.)
Link 4.1 Heliocentric Solar System
http://bit.ly/13Eh7fN
At irst glance Copernicus’s theory seemed simple – but once you got into his mathematics it was hardly
more elegant than Ptolemy. To save the perfect spherical rotation, Copernicus also had to adopt complex
models including epicycles, eccentrics, and other devices just as Ptolemy had done. (See Link 4.2.)
Link 4.2 Copernican Solar System
http://bit.ly/13PUdN8
he model gets even more complicated for each of the planets. To preserve circular motion, Copernicus
had to include more than sixty epicycles (compared to Ptolemy’s eighty). Copernicus’s model was a bit
simpler than Ptolemy, but still very Ptolemaic.
Also, Copernicus’s system did not explain some things as well as Aristotle. Copernicus had no theory
to explain the motion of heavens or the motion of the Earth. In this respect his system was signiicantly
inferior to Ptolemy’s. However, it did give him the basis for calculating a more accurate calendar.
A heliocentric cosmos raises other problems as well: 1) Where is Heaven, and where is Hell? 2) What
does this imply about an Earth centered creation? 3) What does it imply about a Christ centered religion?
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In the midst of the Protestant Reformation, Copernicus and his friends sensed that his book could cause
trouble. Copernicus died in 1543, the same year his book was published. Tradition says that he received
the irst copy of the book on his deathbed. His editor inserted an introduction stating that the Earth was
not really moving, and that Copernicus did not mean to argue that it was. His editor explained that the
only reason for the heliocentric cosmos was that the calculations were easier. At any rate, the book was
so diicult that only experts consulted it. he Copernican Revolution, was certainly a revolution in slow
motion. It was another 39 years before Copernicus’s calculations were used to deine the new calendar.
One of the early followers of Copernicus was a Dominican Friar named Giordano Bruno (1548–1600).
Bruno, an astronomer and mathematician, believed and taught that Copernicus was right. According
to Bruno the sun was just a star and there are millions of planets with intelligent beings. he Church
ordered him to stop teaching these ideas and when he didn’t the Inquisition lured him to Venice on the
promise of a job.
In Venice, Bruno was captured and tortured for 6 years but he would not recant. According to Bruno:
“Time is the father of truth, its mother is our mind.” “Truth does not change, because it is believed,
or not believed, by the majority of the people.” And, he said to his judges: “It may be you fear more to
deliver judgment upon me than I fear judgment.” Bruno was burned at the stake on February 17, 1600.
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One of the experts who was impressed by Copernicus’s work was Tycho Brahe (1546–1601). Tycho
may have been the most distinguished astronomer of his age. He was a Dane who was well funded (by
modern standards) by the King of Denmark. He built many of his own instruments. (he telescope
was not invented until ater Tycho’s death.) Tycho’s observations over thirty years were so accurate that
modern instruments and telescopes have largely conirmed his measurements. He did an extraordinary
job of mapping the heavens.
Tycho was an obsessed observer. He was a collector, with a mind not unlike Carlos Linneaus who later
tried to organize all of biological life.
Tycho made a number of signiicant observations. He saw a Super Nova, or new star, in 1572. his
discovery directly challenged Aristotelian cosmology and the Great Chain. A new star leads to questions
about immutability. If new stars can appear, can old ones disappear?
Five years later, in 1577, Tycho accurately measured the orbit of a comet, which indicated that it was
much farther away than the Moon. his also challenged Aristotle’s principle of immutability. But, Tycho
could not accept Copernicus because he did not believe that the Earth moved.
Copernicus, of course, had ofered no evidence that the Earth was moving. How could he? It is impossible
to determine the velocity of a body without an independent reference point. If you are in an airplane, or
a car, or a ship, or an elevator, you cannot tell how fast you are going without a reference point. You can
detect acceleration and deceleration (the rate of change of velocity) in a closed vehicle, but you cannot
determine the speed or velocity of the vehicle without a reference point.
Tycho realized you could not use the Sun as a reference point because you would get the same result
whether the Sun or Earth was moving. And, it was already known that one of these was true.
Tycho realized you could use the ixed stars as a reference point for both the Sun and Earth. You can
determine if the Earth is moving by measuring stellar parallax. Parallax is the apparent change in angular
position of the nearby stars which should occur if they are observed from two diferent positions in the
Earth’s orbit – that is, at diferent times of the year. (See Link 4.3.)
Link 4.3 Stellar Parallax
http://bit.ly/1731oWg
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Tycho tried to measure stellar parallax over a six-month period when a moving Earth would have had
the greatest change in position. He could not ind any angular diference. But, the reason was that he
had greatly underestimated how far away the ixed stars really are!
Light travels 3 × 108 meters/sec or 9.46 × 1015 meters per year. One second of one minute of one degree
of stellar parallax, viewed from the Earth, would amount to a distance of 3.3 light-years. Tycho could
not have measured an angle anywhere nearly as small as one second of one minute of one degree. he
Earth moves only about 4.1 × 109 meters from one side of the sun to the other. herefore, there was no
chance that he could have detected the motion of the Earth with his instruments. He probably concluded
that if the Earth is moving, stellar parallax should be observable. Tycho may have said to himself: Here
am I, the greatest observational astronomer who has ever lived, and I can’t observe it. herefore the Earth
can’t be moving.
Tycho developed his own alternative which was a combination of Ptolemy and Copernicus. he Sun and
Moon revolved around the Earth that was at the center of the universe; and the planets and stars rotate
in enormous epicycles around the sun.
Although Tycho’s attempt at compromise would satisfy no one, he had helped shake the Aristotelian
assumptions at their foundation. And, his data would be used to present the inal proof that the universe
was not structured around the Earth.
Late in his life, Tycho realized that he would not be able to analyze the vast amount of data he had collected.
He recruited Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), a German mathematician, to assist him in the calculations.
Kepler attended the University of Tübingen in Germany where he became a Copernican, and not
surprisingly, a mathematician. Kepler taught mathematics in Protestant schools before moving to Prague
to help Brahe.
Kepler was a God intoxicated man. He believed that the glory of the heavens relected the unity and
simplicity of the mind of god. And as an article of faith, he believed that one could discover mathematical
regularity in the Universe. In this sense, Kepler was not too diferent from the ancient Greeks who believed
that the perfect spherical nature of the universe relected God’s purpose and design.
For example, Kepler was thrilled to think of the cosmos in term of the trinity of the Copernican system.
he splendid harmony of the triune cosmos represented the three things at rest in the Copernican universe;
he Sun – corresponded to God the Father;
he Fixed Stars – corresponded to Christ the Son;
he Intermediate Space (Aristotle’s aether) – corresponded to the Holy Ghost.
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But Kepler also was afected by the Copernican spirit. Mathematics should correspond to experience
and observation. Kepler hoped to prove that the mathematics of the universe proved the Glory of God.
Kepler asked What makes the planets move? and What holds the celestial unity together?
According to Kepler, for both theological and physical reasons, the Sun had to play a central role in
holding the universe together. But how to prove it? For Kepler mathematics should hold the answer –
mathematics should be able to prove it.
Because of the spin of the Earth, a universe of perfect circles made sense from a geocentric perspective.
But in a heliocentric world, there is a big problem, and that problem is the planet Mars. You could
devise elliptical schemes that were close, but still irregular. Tycho wanted him to solve the problem of
the Martian orbit and thus reconcile Ptolemaic and Copernican cosmology. (See Link 2.4.)
Kepler worked ten years trying to work out the math – including calculating various epicenters – based
on Tycho’s careful observations. A degree of arc is divided into 60 minutes each of which is divided
into 60 seconds. herefore there are 360 degrees of arc in a circle, 21,600 minutes of arc, and 1,296,000
seconds of arc. Kepler was able to make the orbit of Mars circular within 8 minutes of arc but Tycho’s
observations were accurate within 4 minutes of arc. Kepler’s calculations were close, but not close enough.
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Finally he said to himself, Let’s go with the Sun. And he gave up all attempts to ind a circular motion
independent from the Sun as a center. hen he got a brilliant idea. he great Archimedes had divided
the circle into ininitely many triangles to ind the ratio between the circumference and the diameter
of the circle and π.
Presuming that Mars orbited the Sun, Kepler divided the observed orbit of Mars into triangles. hen he
calculated the time it took Mars to pass through given segments of the arc. What he discovered was that
Tycho’s data were not consistent with a circular orbit, but they were consistent with an elliptical orbit.
Given the choice between philosophy and observed motion, Kepler chose observed elliptical motion,
even if it meant giving up the age-old Platonic assumption of perfect circles.
In addition, an elliptical movement suggested that some kind of force acted on the planets; a force that
was weaker with greater distance from the Sun. Kepler’s solution was ingenious. He postulated that
the Sun rotated creating a vortex, a cosmic whirlpool, that carried the planets with it. (You have seen
pictures of great spiral galaxies).
hen he learned about magnetism and theories of the Earth’s magnetism. Kepler reasoned that if the
Earth and the other planets were large magnets, then the Sun was probably a large magnet, and thus
what held the universe together was the simultaneous attraction and repelling of the various magnets
on each other. his was certainly ingenious and followed the theological presumption of the magnetic
soul of the universe that was shared by all celestial bodies.
Kepler then assumed that one should be able to ind mathematical harmony in the great balance of the
magnets. And in searching for this harmony, he made his greatest contributions to astronomy.
Starting in 1609 Kepler published his laws of motion that he had extracted from Tycho’s data. Kepler’s
First and Second laws dealt with the elliptical motion of the planets. It was his hird Law that we believe
most excited this God intoxicated man. Using the Earth as the standard period of rotation in units of
years, T, and distance from the Sun in astronomical units (1 au = the Earth’s average distance from the
sun), D; Kepler found that for the known planets: T2/D3 = 1 in every case. i.e. he square of the orbital
time for each planet is proportional to their distance from the Sun cubed. (See Table 4.1.)
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Planet
Dist. (AU)
Time (yr)
T2/D3
Mercury
0.39
0.24
0.971
Venus
0.72
0.62
1.030
Earth
1.00
1.00
1.000
Mars
1.52
1.88
1.001
Jupiter
5.20
11.86
1.000
Saturn
9.54
29.46
1.000
Uranus*
19.18
84.01
1.000
Neptune*
30.06
164.8
1.000
Pluto*
39.26
248.09
1.017
Eris*
67.67
557
1.001
*Discovered after Kepler’s time
Table 4.1 Distances and Times of Orbit for Planets
In Kepler’s time, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Eris had not been discovered. hey are included to show
that the relationship continued to work as other planets were discovered.
Kepler believed himself to be most blessed by God. He was able to rethink God’s great design and to
have it revealed to him through his mathematics. his conirmed for Kepler the beautiful simplicity of
the divine mind and strengthened his faith in the divine order.
Kepler had shown the mathematical harmony of the solar system but only by assuming that the Sun was
at the center and controlled the motions of the planets. hus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mercury, and
Earth were all under controlled by the Sun. his was physical, scientiic proof that Aristotle’s cosmology
was mythical and ictional. Kepler had found the mathematical unity that he sought but to do so he had
to discard the Aristotelian system of cosmology.
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642 CE) was born in Pisa and initially studied for the ministry. In 1581 he started
the study of medicine but found the scholastic teaching boring. He studied mathematics on his own and
dropped out of formal education. He had been a diicult student, arguing with his professors at a time
when dialogue was not an acceptable pedagogical technique.
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In 1583 he observed the motions of pendulums, noting that the time of one swing was independent
of the height from which the pendulum started the swing. By 1586, Galileo started formulating the
laws of falling bodies and behaviors of bodies in water. It is not clear whether the story of his dropping
weights of the Tower of Pisa is historical. But he found a very clever way to investigate the speeds of
falling objects. He built inclined planes and rolled balls down them to observe their acceleration. Galileo
determined that the speed of the rolling balls was proportional to the time they fell and the distance
traveled was proportional to the square of the time. He tried diferent angles of the inclined planes and
the mathematical relationships stayed the same. (See Link 4.4.)
Link 4.4 Galileo’s Inclined Planes
http://ysine.com/maga/galtime.html
Measuring their fall directly would have been very diicult but Galileo understood that free-fall would
be equivalent to an inclined plane of 90 degrees.
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Others had already challenged Aristotle’s theory that the speed of falling bodies was proportional to their
weight – that heavy bodies would fall faster than lighter bodies. However, Galileo found quantitative
relationships between height, speed, and distance for falling objects. He not only challenged Aristotle’s
theory but gave a substitute that seemed to be supported by experiment!
It seems that Galileo began thinking about this problem as a consequence of watching hail storms. He
noted that hailstones, large and small, randomly (or statistically if you will) hit the ground together.
Galileo wrote an explanation of this phenomenon that contradicted Aristotle’s theory in a small treatise
On Motion.
Galileo’s inquisitive mind would lead him in directions that clashed with the prevailing culture. He
gave lectures in 1588 on the dimensions of Hell according to Dante’s Inferno that were not appreciated
by the Vatican. he Reformation was well under way and the Church was sensitive to criticism of any
kind, real or implied.
In 1592, Galileo obtained a chair in mathematics at the University of Padua. He patented a water pump.
hen, in 1595, he explained tidal motion in the irst clear expression of his belief in the Copernican
system of heliocentricity. And, in 1604 Galileo used parallax to show that supernovas are much farther
than the Moon and in 1608 he proved that the path of an object traveling through space is parabolic.
his was not new as Archimedes had demonstrated this mathematics and used it to aim his catapults.
But it was one thing to disprove Aristotle and quite another to ofer an alternative theory. (Remember
that the accepted cosmology was based upon Aristotle.)
Galileo learned of the invention of the telescope in Holland in 1608 and built his own, much improved,
telescope. He pointed his telescope to the stars and the results were genuinely dramatic. He made an
amazing series of discoveries. he Moon had craters, mountains, and valleys. Jupiter had four Moons
orbiting it in an equatorial plane. he Milky Way was composed of hundreds of unknown stars. Venus
had phases just like the Moon. here were dark spots on the Sun.
In 1610, Galileo published Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger). his was a charming little book that was
very popular, even with the Church in Rome. But unlike Copernicus and Kepler, Galileo was not reticent
about popularizing his discoveries, discoveries that had enormous scientiic and theological implications.
He built a number of telescopes, continuing to improve them, and oten gave them to important people
in the hope that they would conirm his observations.
Galileo’s search of the heavens virtually made untenable the Aristotelian/Ptolemaic systems. Imperfections
on the Moon and beyond challenged the idea of immutability and the perfection of the heavenly bodies.
All these factors further shook and rattled the belief in the Great Chain of Being.
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But like his ideas of motion, again, it proved one thing to criticize Aristotle, but quite another to establish
an alternative. Galileo faced many criticisms – among them were questions about whether his telescope
was accurate or if he was just seeing cracks in his lens.
Galileo’s greatest problem in ofering Copernicus’s theory as a reasonable alternative was that he could
not prove Copernicus was correct. i.e. Galileo could not prove that the Earth moves.
Galileo’s story can only be understood in terms of the times in which he lived. He lived during the high
Renaissance when Italian art, literature, and music were at their height. Italian universities were the
inest in the western world.
he hundred years before Galileo’s birth was a century of magniicent discoveries. Columbus discovered
the New World. Gutenberg invented the moveable type printing press. International banking was
established and the world shrunk in terms of travel and communication time.
he Protestant Reformation was occurring and the Council of Trent in 1543 was convened to counter the
problem. he Italian Papacy came into power. St. Peters was completed in Rome. here were Lutherans
and Calvinists in the North and Elizabethans in England. he Spanish were expanding into the New
World. he Roman Index of prohibited books was established in 1559. he Church reviewed all sorts of
books, but especially those on faith and morals.
By the beginning of the 17th century when Galileo ran into diiculty with the Church, the English
began their settlement of North America. Indeed, Galileo’s troubles and the Puritans’ founding of the
Massachusetts Bay Company happened concurrently. 1616 was the year that Shakespeare died, Cervantes
died, Pocahontas went to London, and Galileo was called to the inquisition.
Galileo’s conlict with the Catholic Church has become a symbol of the conlict between science and
religion. At the end of the 19th century (in the shadow of the Darwinian controversy) Andrew Dickson
White, the President of Cornell University, wrote a famous book A History of the Warfare between Science
and heology (1896) in which he focused on the Galileo story.
Indeed, certain facts have to be stated. Galileo was condemned by the Inquisition in 1633, was forced to
renounce his theories, forbidden to publish his books, and placed under house arrest for the remainder
of his life. Furthermore, the Catholic Church did not subsequently absolve Galileo until 1991.
But the conlict between Galileo and the Church was not as clear-cut as has oten been claimed. It should
be noted that throughout his troubles Galileo had friends and supporters in the Church. Initially, his
work was well received, even in Rome. It was exciting. If you follow the chronology of the controversy,
you will discover it takes curious twists and turns.
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In 1616 Galileo was called to Rome to defend his theories, which he did with great eloquence. In the
end, the argument went against him because he could not prove that the Earth moved. In spite of the
fact that Pope Gregory XIII, in 1582, had used Copernicus’s results to establish a new, and more accurate,
calendar, a panel of 11 theologians, appointed by Pope Paul V, unanimously convicted Galileo of heresy
for promoting the Copernican system. he two propositions for which Galileo was convicted efectively
said: 1) the Sun is the center of the world and does not move; and 2), the Earth is not the center of the
world and moves. he panel went on to call these ideas “foolish and absurd” in philosophy.6 Galileo was
forbidden to defend Copernicus’s theory publicly as scientiic fact. he issue was not scientiic truth but
whether Galileo’s teachings contradicted scripture!
In 1623 the Pope died, and Cardinal Barberini, who had been sympathetic to Galileo in 1616, succeeded
to the throne of St. Peter. Galileo asked for and received permission to re-open his case. He was told by
Cardinal Bellermine, who also admired Galileo, that he could write a balanced, impartial assessment
of the Copernican controversy. Shortly, Galileo wrote in Italian a non-technical treatise – he Dialogue
Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Aristotelian and Copernican). he Dialogue initially passed
papal censorship, was published (1632), distributed, and quickly became a best seller.
Unfortunately, Galileo ran into trouble again. he Dialogue was banned, and he was called to Rome to
face the Inquisition for the second time. He was 68, ill, and things went from bad to worse for him.
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here were two contextual issues: Galileo did have enemies, but they were mostly among scholastic
school men rather than in the Church itself. Nevertheless, the scholastic school men also had powerful
friends in Rome. hey were fearful of Galileo because Copernicanism threatened to undermine the
Aristotelian system. he Church in Rome literally felt threatened by the Protestant armies in the north
of Europe. It was not a good time to be engaged in an endeavor which might undermine the authority
of the Church itself.
Let’s look at the treatise itself. he Pope believed that he had authorized a book that would fairly represent
the arguments of both sides of the question. Instead, in Dialogue, Galileo wrote a highly partisan,
polemical book. For example: Galileo named the Aristotelian Simplicio, which could have been taken in
two ways: a) ater Simplicius, the great 6th century authority on Aristotle; or as a derogatory implication
that the Aristotelians were simpletons. Galileo compounded the problem by putting some of the Pope’s
own words into Simplicio’s mouth. It appeared that a bitter Galileo was satirizing the very pope who
sought to help him.
Galileo was a staunch Catholic and believed he was defending the Church against great embarrassment
and potential disbelief. Where observation and empirical evidence disputed authority, Galileo believed
that authority should give way, even if that authority were Aristotle, or the Church, or the Scriptures
themselves. On this point he called upon the 4th century church father, St. Augustine. (Augustine was also
a great favorite of Martin Luther, the leader of the Reformation.) Augustine, as well as others, realized
that there was much in the Holy Scriptures that was poetry, illustration and metaphor that could not
be taken literally.
Augustine believed that the Scriptures should be read literally except in those instances where reason and
sound experience indicate otherwise. Augustine’s rule was the source of some tension in determining
what is reasonable and sound experience. In orthodox doctrine, the Church hierarchy, and especially
the Papacy, is where this is sorted out.
But Galileo came to the belief that while God reveals himself in Scripture, He also reveals Himself in
Nature. Galileo believed that God’s design, purpose, order, structure, unity, and harmony of the creation
is revealed in nature as well as in scripture. his is the Two Book doctrine. God reveals himself in the
Book of Scriptures and the Book of Nature. Accordingly, Galileo had no intention of challenging the
authority of Scripture. But he did take the position that the Scriptures was not a scientiic book, nor did
God intend it to be. he God of faith and morals was revealed in the Holy Scripture. he God of science
and natural order was revealed in the Book of Nature. Where the Holy Scriptures conlicted with the
Book of Nature, the Book of Nature should take precedence!
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One can readily understand why Galileo inspired opposition in the schools and Church. Still, his ultimate
condemnation appears to have hung on a problem he could not solve. Galileo could not prove that the
Earth moves, thus demonstrating that Copernican theory was scientiic fact. A commission convicted
Galileo of heresy saying that his beliefs contradicted scripture. (Notice, this is not the same thing as
saying his beliefs were wrong.) He was placed under house arrest for the remainder of his life. He was
an old man of 68.
In some ways his defeat became a victory for Galileo. Galileo’s condemnation brought increased public
attention. His works were translated and published throughout Europe, even in Catholic France. So the
Church’s attempts to suppress his ideas backired.
He spent his last years writing Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Concerning Two New Sciences
Pertaining to Mechanics and Local Motions. Another Dialogue, this important book was written in Italian
and smuggled to Holland for publication in 1638.
4.2
The Language of Nature
he Two New Sciences, as the book was called, was fundamentally a mathematical treatise in which Galileo
set out his mature views about motion. Galileo was certainly not the irst to see a relationship between
mathematics and the natural world. As we have discussed, the Greeks, and especially the Pythagoreans,
Euclid, and Archimedes appreciated the importance of a mathematically expressed nature. Tycho Brahe,
Kepler, and others were also mathematicians who sought mathematical clarity in the natural world.
While Galileo is not unique, he came to symbolize a new world-view at the beginning of what would
be called the Scientiic Revolution. From Galileo’s perspective, mathematics not only provided the best
understanding of nature, but in many instances, the only understanding of nature. If one could not
understand the language of mathematics, one could not discourse with nature.
To put it another way: God’s revelation in the Book of Scriptures was written in the language of humanity.
God’s revelation in the Book of Nature was written in the language of mathematics. As Kepler discovered,
in order to know God’s thought and purpose in nature, it was necessary to learn God’s natural language –
mathematics.
Before Einstein, Galileo understood the principle of relativity. But we must be careful not to confuse
Galileo with Einstein, whom we will discuss later. Let’s call Galileo’s observation Ordinary Relativity. he
theory begins with an understanding that an object may have two motions, which are independent of
one another. For example, if one throws a stone – the stone has two motions: 1. Forward or horizontal
motion (which Aristotle called forced motion); and, 2. Downward motion of gravity (which Aristotle
called natural motion). In Aristotle’s frame of reference these motions were observed together. hey
would be distinguished, but not separated one from another.
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Galileo understood in Ordinary Relativity that the motions are not only separate and distinct from one
another, but under certain circumstances, cannot both be observed from a given position.
Example: On a moving ship, a cannon ball is dropped from a mast. If observed from the shore, the
cannon ball will have two motions – a forward motion provided by the ship, and a downward motion
caused by gravity. If observed from the ship, the cannon ball will have only one motion – the downward
motion caused by gravity. hose on board the ship will not be able to observe the forward motion of
the cannon ball because they are moving forward at the same rate. From the shore, the falling cannon
ball describes a parabolic arc before hitting the deck. From the ship, the cannon ball falls in a straight
line, hitting the deck in the same spot observed by those on shore. Which is the true event? It depends
upon one’s relative position of observation or frame of reference. (See Link 4.5.)
Link 4.5: Galilean Relativity
http://faraday.physics.utoronto.ca/PVB/Harrison/Flash/ClassMechanics/Relativity/Relativity.html
In thinking about the ship and cannon balls, Galileo published in the Two New Sciences “…a new and
successful law for the free fall of bodies, the light of projectiles, and the mathematical demonstrations
he had been seeking.”7
This e-book
is made with
SETA SIGN
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PDF components for PHP developers
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In experiments rolling balls down inclined planes, Galileo was able to measure their speeds and show
that the velocity was a function of the time. He also showed that the weight of the rolling ball was
unimportant. His conclusion was, it is not the weight or the distance traveled but the time that is the
measure of free fall.
With the study of projectiles, we come back to the concept of two independent motions very like our two
independent motions considered in our discussions of ordinary relativity. In the case of a cannon ball,
we have uniform horizontal movement of the cannon ball, and accelerating gravitational movement of
free fall. Galileo calculated the uniform horizontal motion while gravity bends the light of the cannon
ball downward until it hits the Earth.
Mathematically, what he demonstrates is that the two independent motions combine to produce a
curved trajectory – a parabola. Furthermore, as later demonstrated, the ideal elevation of the cannon is
45 degrees to achieve maximum range. (It turns out that this is the same for the javelin, shot put, or a
rock-throwing contest with your teenage son.)
Galileo’s calculations not only demonstrate the centrality of mathematics, but also the end of Aristotelian
physics based on inherent qualitative properties of nature. One should not conclude that Galileo was
disrespectful of the ancient Greeks anymore than that he opposed the church or divine revelation.
Indeed, he airmed the Platonic ideal that Nature is rational, structured, and ordered. At the same time,
he airmed the Aristotelian belief that knowledge of the material world required careful observation
of nature.
Where Aristotle had been qualitative in his analysis of nature, Galileo was quantitative. Of course, Galileo
had the advantage of better measurement devices and more advanced mathematics.
he transition was underway to experimental science. It was a transition that did not happen quickly but
was punctuated by important technological developments such as the invention of the telescope and the
microscope and accurate devices for measuring temperature, pressure, and time. In addition, increased
knowledge of mathematics also played a role in the development of experimental science.
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Experimental Science and Knowledge: The Scientiic
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The Evolution of Modern Science
5 Experimental Science and
Knowledge: The Scientiic
Revolution and The
Enlightenment (1500–1700)
5.1
The Scientiic Revolution
Following are the characteristics of the Scientiic Revolution. here was a belief in natural law and the
purposefulness of nature; a strong rejection of authority, especially scholasticism; a commitment to
observation and experimentation; a conviction that mathematics was the language of Nature; and a
belief in a mechanistic cosmos. here was the establishment of international communities of scientists;
he Royal Society of London (1662) and the Academie des Sciences de Paris (1666).
In addition, there occurred an information revolution in the 16th-17th century. With the improvement
of printing technology, books, treatises, and pamphlets became less expensive, more plentiful, and
were widely distributed. It became increasing diicult for governments to control the dissemination of
information, scientiic or otherwise, as was the case in Galileo’s Two New Sciences.
his brings us to a brief consideration of the relationship between science and technology. he importance
of printing technology for the Scientiic Revolution is virtually self-evident. But the relationship between
science and technology is oten not clear. Frequently, technology seems to develop independently of
science and run well ahead of our scientiic understanding of the technological processes. Example,
as we shall see in the 19th century, steam technology developed well ahead of any understanding of
thermodynamics. At other times, technological innovation clearly lays the foundation for scientiic
discovery. his was especially evident at the beginning of the Scientiic Revolution in terms of the
invention of certain instrumentation.
As we have already discussed, one of the most important inventions was the telescope. Galileo’s telescopes
were crude, and almost anyone who wanted one had to make their own. Even today, scientists actually
spend a good deal of their time making their own instruments. It should be noted, however, that Galileo
had no theory of optics to explain, or understand, how his telescope worked. hat would come later.
Basically, the telescope expanded an already known world. (See Link 5.1.)
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Link 5.1 Galileo’s Telescope
http://astronomy.wikia.com/wiki/Telescope_Construction
he microscope was a very diferent matter. It was developed in the early 17th century but, unlike the
telescope, provided very poor images. Not until the 1660s were improved instruments available. he
microscope became somewhat of a curiosity and toy of Royal Society – it was used to look at leaches,
mold, gnats, spiders, and lice in human hair. he Italian Malpighi used the microscope to discover
capillary blood vessels, thus providing the last bit of evidence to substantiate Harvey’s theory of the
circulation of the blood. (See Link 5.2.)
Link 5.2 Microscope
http://inventors.about.com/od/mstartinventions/a/microscope.htm
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In comparison to the telescope, which expanded a familiar universe, the microscope opened up whole
new worlds of existence never before contemplated. While the telescope expanded the upper limits of
the Great Chain of Being, the microscope revealed unexpected realms of animate and inanimate being
which did not it obviously or easily into the Great Chain. Having never experienced the microscopic
world, it was diicult to begin to comprehend it.
For example, a Dutchman, Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), proved skilled in making
microscopes. From a pail of lake water, he discovered scores of animalcules, a thousand times smaller
than creatures he had discovered on cheese, mould, and lour. In his own saliva, he reported: “I now
saw very plainly that these were little eels or worms, lying all huddled up together and wriggling; just
as if you saw, with the naked eye, a whole tubful of very little eels a-squirming among one another;…”8
In his semen, he discovered similar creatures, very active and alive.
He had discovered protozoa, bacteria, and sperm. But it would not be until the 19th century that
Leeuwenhoek’s discoveries would lead to major advances in biology and medicine. he reasons for this
were multiple and quite revealing about the history of science:
1. Leeuwenhoek was not a scientist, but was an amateur and artisan, who published no books
or papers, and was not associated with a university or scientiic society. So he was outside
the scientiic community.
2. His research, if we can call it that, was not in the mainstream of the scientiic agenda of
his day. In fact, he was not in a stream of research at all. he scientiic societies knew of his
work, but considered it a curiosity at best.
3. No one else was as skillful and clever as he was in making microscopes, and no one
surpassed him in the skill or acuity of his observations. hose who tried repeatedly failed
in replicating Leeuwenhoek’s experiments. His microscopes were so good (magniied 300×
with resolution to 1 millionth of a meter), no one else succeeded in making such a powerful
instrument until the 19th century.
4. Most importantly, he was not very good at drawing, or reporting, what he saw. People
simply did not have a frame of reference from experience to understand the world that
Leeuwenhoek tried to describe. his is a lesson in discovering something truly new. he
importance of the work can go unrecognized because others do not have mental reference
points.
Leeuwenhoek’s great discoveries would ultimately be recognized, but not in his lifetime, although his
discoveries may have inspired Swit in his 18th century satire on Gulliver’s Travels.
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In the 1630s, an Italian, Torricelli, irst working with water columns and then working with mercury,
determined that the height of the mercury is always the same, regardless of the size or cross-section of
the tube that contained it. hen he discovered slight day-to-day diferences in the height of his mercury
column. his led him to the theory that the weight of the air (or air pressure) afected the height of the
mercury column. his was conirmed in a famous experiment by the French mathematician Pascal who
carried a mercury column to a mountain top, leaving an identical instrument at the foot of the mountain.
As anticipated, the column of mercury in the barometer became shorter as he climbed the mountain
and the barometer was born. (See Link 5.3.)
Link 5.3 Barometer
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wbaromtr.htm
Air pump experiments with the barometer raised questions about what happened in the space above the
mercury or water in the weather glass. Aristotle denied the possibility of empty space or vacuum. So what
happened to the air in the enclosed glass? Experiments were conducted in Germany in the 1650s with
an air pump and two separate hollow hemispheres which could be put together and taken apart easily by
hand when they were illed with air. But when evacuated by the air pump, sixteen teams of horses could
not pull them apart. (Note: a tornado does not suck the roof from a building. Simply by lowering the
pressure on the roof, the roof is thrown into the sky by the pressure of the air trapped in the building.)
his led to a number of vacuum experiments by Robert Boyle, distinguished member of the Royal Society,
on lames, birds, mice, and the transmission of sound.
he Pendulum Clock was invented by Dutchman Christian Huygens in the 1660s. Before this, there
was no accurate way to measure short time intervals. Galileo had worked out the mathematics of the
pendulum earlier. To be able to measure with the precision of the pendulum was itself almost miraculous.
(See Link 5.4.)
Link 5.4 Pendulum Clock
http://www.britannica.com/clockworks/pendulum.html
Other instruments developed during this time included the thermometer, slide rule, and other calculating
devices that made possible quantitative observation and measurement rather than simple description.
5.2
A Mechanistic World
In the 17th century, scientiic giants dominated the age. Rene Descartes (1596–1650) is best remembered
for his contributions to mathematics, but in the 17th century he was one of Europe’s leading scientists
and philosophers. He was the leading spokesman for French Rationalism, and is oten called the founder
of modern philosophy.
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Descartes came from a well-to-do noble family from central France. Educated by Jesuits, with whom he
broke in later years, he was especially gited in mathematics. As an adult, he had to seek refuge in Holland,
which tolerated his unorthodox beliefs. With many others, he shared the belief that it was pointless to
argue with the church about the science in the Bible, or about the structure of the universe. Descartes
wanted to obtain independence for both science and philosophy from theology.
You will recall that Galileo, Kepler, and other mathematicians still worked rather cumbersomely with
Euclidean geometry. Descartes’ greatest contribution to mathematics was the invention of analytical
geometry. It is said that one day Descartes contemplated a ly buzzing around a colleague’s study. It
occurred to him that the position of the ly in space was always a point that could be intersected by
three lines which amount to the coordinates for the ly’s position in the room. In other words, you could
plot the light of the ly on a graph.
he importance of Descartes’ development of analytical geometry for the history of science cannot
be overemphasized. Analytical geometry allows all forms of motion to be analyzed mathematically,
or theoretically. For example, a trajectory can be plotted on a graph with y as the vertical and x as the
horizontal. he equations for the curve of any trajectory can be plotted and manipulated mathematically
by assuming a change in charge and weight of the projectile, or in attitude of the cannon. With Descartes’
analytical geometry, one can test a new cannon on paper, with a high degree of accuracy, before actually
iring the cannon in outside ield tests.
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As Descartes realized, one can envision an ininite number of points in space, with an ininite number
of lines running through those points. he relationship between and among these points or coordinates
can all be expressed by an equation. hus any geometric igure [or problem] can be studied algebraically.
Descartes became the founder of Systematic Rationalism – and his major contribution in rational
philosophy is that he began with himself, rather than God. His Discourse on Method (1637) introduced
the so-called Cartesian method.
Descartes asked the question, what can we know reliably in this world of sense experience? God? he
Material World? Rigorously, Descartes rejected both. We begin with doubting. And what we can’t doubt
is that we are doubting. Consequently, we airm that we exist. And Descartes summed this up with
Cogito Ergo Sum, I think therefore I am.
Descartes deduced the existence of God from his own perception of God. Either he created himself, or
he was created. If he had created himself, he would have bestowed upon himself ininite perfection. But
since he wasn’t perfect, and since he had the idea of ininite perfection, that could not have come from
his parents or another inite cause. Descartes viewed God as eternal, ininite, immutable, omniscient,
omnipotent, and the Creator of all things which are outside himself.
Descartes stated that: 1. he material world is completely illed – there is no void. 2. A material body in
the material world has extension – it can be located at point. But the point always occupies a space, a
coordinate. 3. he coordinate can be expressed in two dimensions by two axes. A third axis gives three
dimensions and a solid shape. One can add an ininite number of axes. herefore, all material existence
can be expressed mathematically.
Change in the coordinate, or Cartesian, system is Motion. And as we have already established by plotting
the parabolic curve of a projectile in motion, all motion can be expressed mathematically. Motion is the
transference or transportation of bodies or parts of bodies in their relation to one another. his motion
is essential to the material world – which is illed. God, of course, is the Prime Mover. (But that does
not mean that God is actively pushing people around like a child playing with toy igures).
Descartes’s Laws of motion
1. (law of inertia) – Everything remains in motion unless otherwise altered by outside cause.
2. (law of motion) – Bodies tend to move in a straight line. If circular, bodies tend to move
away from the center.
3. A body coming into contact with a larger body, loses nothing of its movement, but moves
of in a diferent direction. But if it meets one less strong, it loses as much motion as it
imparts to the other body.
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Like Aristotle, Descartes could not envision action or force across space. All space is illed with matter
which is constantly in motion. Action across space is the result of tiny particles or corpuscles of matter
pushing or banging against one another. (here is really no action across empty space).
Descartes posits a strictly mechanical explanation of nature and the universe. In common with the Greek
Democritus and other atomists, Descartes leaves no room for an imminent God.
Descartes’s cosmology follows from his views of Earthly physics. he whole material universe is illed
with particles or corpuscles of matter in constant motion. Around the Sun, and other Stars, there whirl
great vortices of matter that carry the planets and the heavenly bodies. he whole motion of the Universe
is seen in terms of the interaction of gigantic whirling vortices. Other than playing the prime mover, God
has no role in this cold, mechanical world.
his was deductive logic. Descartes claimed to have deduced the mechanical structure of the universe
from the mechanical principles of machines. He noted in Principia Philosophiae: “I have been greatly
helped by considering machines. he only diference I can see between machines and natural objects is
that the workings of machines are mostly carried out by apparatus large enough to be readily perceptible
by the senses…whereas natural processes almost always depend on parts so small that they utterly elude
our sense…”9
5.3
The Scientiic Method
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) lived almost contemporaneously with William Shakespeare. He became the
English champion of inductive science. Bacon was not entirely a modern man. He lived on the boundary
of the medieval and modern age. He clung to the geocentric cosmology. He believed in astrology and
the portent of dreams. And apparently he was not a very nice man, nor was he highly regarded by his
contemporaries. He was present in the court of Queen Elizabeth I, served a long term in Parliament, and
became Lord Chancellor of England under James II. But like a lot of high placed oicials with intellectual
pretensions, Bacon was not highly regarded as a great philosopher by his contemporaries.
But Bacon was thoroughly modern in his belief that knowledge is utility. he purpose of acquiring
knowledge is not to learn about the nature of God and God’s purposes, but to: improve human life;
achieve happiness; and mitigate human sufering. In this sense, Bacon can be regarded as a humanist.
It followed that the goal of scientiic investigation was not to achieve perfect contemplation of the Ideal,
or Form, or Unity, Truth, or Perfection – but to gain control of nature. Bacon thought this was attainable.
His book, he New Atlantis, is perhaps the irst scientiic utopia.
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here has been a great deal of debate about Bacon’s contribution to the Scientiic Revolution. His
discussions of method outlined in the Novum Organum (1620) are not particularly original. Descartes
and Newton, among many others, were also much concerned about method at this time.
Bacon was not a scientist. He was a politician, a raconteur. He is important because his represents a habit
of mind which became identiied with English Empiricism in contrast to French Rationalism.
In common with the French, his secular view of sciences helped lay the foundation for the Age of Reason
and the following Scientiic Revolution. In contrast to Descartes’ deductive logic, Bacon emphasizes the
inductive method, which ideally begins with observation and experimentation. his became the English
Way. Ideally, hypotheses and theories are derived solely from observation and experimentation. he
scientist, as John Locke might suggest, approaches the subject Tabula Rosa, with a blank mind.
Of course, this was ideal. In practice, it is impossible to approach any scientiic problem without some
prior ideas. To the extent that they believed they were radical empiricists, the English no doubt were
deceiving themselves; just as the French who believed that they always reached their scientiic conclusions
through deductive logic were also self-deceiving.
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In fact, the interplay between inductive and deductive science was dramatically illustrated by the most
famous scientist of the age, Sir Isaac Newton. And as we shall see, both inductive and deductive logic
could lead to a mechanistic universe – the hallmark of the Scientiic Revolution.
However, we identify the modern scientiic method more with Francis Bacon than any other individual.
5.4
Space and Time
Isaac Newton (1642–1727 CE) was born on Christmas Day at Woolsthorpe. He was premature,
posthumous, and the only child of an illiterate farmer of Lincolnshire, England. Not much is known of
his childhood. He was a solitary child, largely raised by his grandmother. (Interestingly, Newton was
born the year that Galileo died.)
He was a curious, but dreamy child who built sundials, water clocks, windmills, and kites. It is said he
cleverly used a tail-wind to help him out jump other boys. His mother took him out of school to learn
farming, but he had little interest in agriculture. Finally, an uncle arranged for him to attend a school
to prepare to attend Cambridge University. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1661 at 18, a little
older than most students, and probably not as well prepared.
1660 was the end of the Glorious Revolution that had begun in 1649 with the beheading of Charles I.
Charles II was restored to the throne ater eleven years under the Puritan Commonwealth of Oliver
Cromwell. his was a time of great upheaval and troubles in England, including at the universities.
When Newton arrived at Trinity College, the curriculum was still dominated by scholasticism and had
not changed much since the 14th century. he core curriculum was still based on Latin or Greek texts
of Aristotle and the various medieval and Renaissance commentators. In addition to Aristotle, young
Newton studied rhetoric, mathematics, theology, and morals – the traditional liberal arts.
he intellectual climate at Cambridge ater the Restoration was pretty dismal. Professors, like the Church
hierarchy, frequently held their positions from patronage. Masters (the real teachers) disdained the
curriculum. Disdain led to neglect, apathy, laxity, and low standards. In turn, this meant that Cambridge
students largely were let to fend for themselves.
Although Cambridge was intellectually absolutely dismal, it turned out to be ideal for a student like
Isaac Newton, who, let to himself, had a grand time pursuing his own intellectual inclinations. He
studied mainly math (geometry), but also the new mechanical philosophy of Descartes and others. His
student notebooks indicate that he became a corpuscularian, meaning that he accepted that all matter
was comprised of corpuscles or particles which were not ininitely divisible. hus he became an atomist
of sorts, as well as a mechanist.
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here were positive inluences at Cambridge, however. Although the Commonwealth was gone, Puritan
values continued to dominate Cambridge and inluenced young Newton. Puritan values preached the
stewardship of Creation; believed the study of creation (including observation and experimentation)
promoted the Glory of God; airmed interest in nature as the second book of God’s Revelation; promoted
educational reform; and, emphasized public service and hard work
In sum, Newton was heir to the new astronomy of Copernicus and Galileo, the empiricism of Bacon,
the mechanistic philosophy and mathematics of Descartes, and the morality of English Puritanism.
Newton graduated in January 1665, but by June he was forced to return to Woolsthrope by an outbreak
of the bubonic plague, an epidemic known as the Black Death, which had irst ravished Eastern Europe
in 1348–1349. Cambridge University was closed for almost two years until the spring of 1667. During
this terrible time it seemed like God’s wrath was being visited on the English. In London alone 100,000
out of 450,000 died.
Newton, age 23–24, enjoyed a brief but incredible outburst of intellectual creativity known as his Annus
Mirabilis (wonder year). During these 18 months, he: 1. Invented both diferential and integral calculus,
which he called his luxions; 2. Discovered that white light was composed of the colored rays of the
spectrum; and, 3. Found the mathematical law of gravity as it applied to the motion of the moon and
bodies on the Earth.
Also remarkable, Newton published nothing about these discoveries at the time. (How diferent from
Galileo who would have shouted his discoveries from the housetops.) Instead, ater the plague he
returned to his studies in Cambridge where he was accepted as one of the Masters of Trinity College.
While self-efacing, his work obviously attracted attention. In 1669, when his professor Isaac Barrow
resigned, Newton, just 26, succeeded him as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. (Stephen Hawking was
the Lucasian Professor from 1979 to 2009.)
Before we begin our discussion of Newton’s science, I should note that while he had an enormous capacity
for work and little need for sleep, as Lucasian Professor at Cambridge Newton did not spend most of
his time and energy on math and science – at least math and science as we understand it. Instead, he
devoted much more of his time to alchemy, church history, theology, prophecy, and ancient history and
philosophy.
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Unfortunately, we know little about Newton’s extensive work in non-scientiic ields. When Newton died
without leaving a will in 1727, his papers and possessions passed to his niece and later her descendants.
A few of his papers were published, but most were considered not it to be printed and packed into
boxes. Two hundred years later the family inally ofered Newton’s papers to Cambridge University, who
appointed a committee of distinguished scholars (all of them scientists) to review the collection. he
science committee screened the Newton papers and selected manuscripts in mathematics and natural
sciences, which today comprise the Portsmouth Collection at Cambridge. he remaining, by far the bulk
of the collection, were returned to the family and sold at public auction in 1936. he auction scattered
the Newton papers around the world. Some papers ended up in the hands of private collectors, but most
went to research libraries, and are available for study. Only recently has our modern, and more accurate,
portrait of Newton emerged. Ater we consider his contributions to the history of science, we will return
to Newton’s larger vision for the Unity of Knowledge.
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From his papers, we know that Newton began his serious study of mathematics in 1664 during his last
year at Cambridge. At a Cambridge fair, he purchased a book on astrology (or perhaps astronomy) which
he could not understand because he did not know trigonometry. So he bought a book on trigonometry,
which he could not understand because he had never studied Euclid’s Elements. So he next purchased
Euclid and began what was largely a self-education in mathematics. (Remember, however, he did study
with Isaac Barrow). Ater he mastered Euclid, Newton read modern mathematicians, including Kepler
and Descartes. His work on luxional calculus began in the fall of 1664, and continued at Woolsthrope
in the spring of 1665.
Newton’s luxions, which became known as calculus, solved the problem of ininities. For example, when
we drive 50 miles in one hour we know we averaged a speed of 50 mph. But, we also know that we drove
faster some of the time and slower some of the time. We can get the average speed by calculating the
diference in position (∆y) and diference in time (∆t) and solving for ∆y/∆t. So if we drove 100 miles in
2 hours, ∆y/∆t = 100 miles/2 hours or 50 mph. But what do we do when the time interval gets shorter
and shorter and then is inally 0? In the appendix, we show how to solve the problem of diferentiation
by calculating a limit when the denominator goes to zero. (See Link 5.5.)
Link 5.5 Newton’s Diferential Calculus
http://bit.ly/19wjksO
he above curve shows the distance (y) driven by an automobile as a function of the time (t). For this
trip, we can estimate the speed of the car (dy/dy) over an interval by determining the change in distance,
Δy, and the change in time, t. For example, the car was at mile 43 at 50 (t1) minutes and mile 71 at 80
minutes (t2), so Δy = (71-43) miles = 28 miles and Δt = (80-50) = 30 minutes. he average speed over
that interval, Δy/Δt = (28/30) miles/minute = 0.933 miles/minute = 56 miles per hour. As the interval
because shorter, the estimate becomes closer to the instantaneous speed. Newton showed up how to
determine the diferential, dy/dt, when the interval becomes zero. (See Appendix 5.)
When Newton returned to Cambridge in 1667 his irst lectures were not on mathematics, but on optics.
While at Woolsthrope, he had conducted his famous experiments with prisms and mirrors on the wall
of his study.
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According to Descartes the light we see from the sun is simply the result of pressure on the aether. Using
the analogy of a blind person’s walking stick, Descartes argued that just as the pressure on the end of
the stick is transmitted instantly to the hand, so the pressure from the sun transmits light directly to the
eye. Newton believed that this could not be true. For example, at night, he reasoned, one should be able
to improve one’s vision by running forward to create pressure on the air and aether against the eye. But
is does not work so Newton concluded that Descartes was wrong.
Newton adopted a particulate (or corpuscular) deinition of light, believing that light must travel from
the object to the viewer. Newton’s transmission theory, of course, assumed that light had a velocity.
Later, as you know, it was observed that light has wave-like qualities. Newton also noted these wavelike qualities, but assumed that the waves were produced incidentally to the movement of the extra-ine
light corpuscles through the aether. Ultimately, Newton’s corpuscular or particulate theory was rejected
when more precise measurements of light in the 19th century demonstrated unquestionable wave-like
properties. (But in the early 20th century, we will see that other experiments led Einstein to conclude
that light has particle properties.)
his was one of the few ideas of Newton that was totally rejected by the scientiic community. he irony,
of course, is that by the 20th century, quantum theory partially rehabilitated Newton’s corpuscular theory.
We now know that under certain circumstances light appears as quanta, (tiny particulate packets of
energy), while under other circumstances light behaves according to wave properties.
Concerning colors, Newton was correct. In the 17th century the color spectrum was generally explained
as weakness of white light. hat is, as light moved across the spectrum from red to blue-violet, it became
increasing weaker as it moved from white/bright to blue-violet/darkness. Chief among the proponents
for this view was Robert Hooke (1635–1703), prominent in the Royal Society, and well known for his
Micrographia (1665), a book which explored the wonders of Leeuwenhoek’s microscopic world. Newton’s
analysis of white light with his prism and mirror experiments challenged one of Hooke’s chief claims
to scientiic expertise.
As we know, Newton discovered that if a ray of white light passes through a prism at a 45 degree angle,
the light is split into the colors of the rainbow. Each color acts as an independent ray and has its own
precise and speciic angle of refraction. He also demonstrated that they either retained their identity if
passed through a second prism, or that they could be recombined into white light again. hus the colors
of the spectrum did not represent weaknesses of white light, but rather components of white light. (See
Link 5.6.)
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Link 5.6 Newton’s Prism Experiment
http://bit.ly/14Z9HEX
When Newton sent his papers on optics to the Royal Society, however, it raised the opposition and enmity
of Hooke and others. Newton was appalled and being shy and wanting to avoid public controversy, he
withdrew his papers, and did not ultimately publish his famous work on Optics until 1704 – almost
thirty years ater his initial studies.
We know Newton best for his work on gravity. As the story goes, one day while he sat in his garden at
Woolsthrope during his annus mirabilis some apples fell to the ground nearby. his got him to thinking
about the power of gravity and speculating whether gravity might extend as far as the Moon. If so, what
kept the Moon from falling towards the Earth?
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Remember, at this time, Newton accepted Descartes doctrine of the mechanical aether as the cause of
gravity – including Descartes theory that the Moon was caught in a vortex – an aether whirlpool – that
held it in place as it revolved around the Earth. At irst, he thought of the gravity problem only in terms
of the Earth and Moon, and he did not consider how gravity related in general to the universe as a whole.
From Kepler’s hird Law (T2/D3) Newton deduced that the force that keeps the planets in their orbits
must be inversely proportional to the squares of their distances from the center of the sun. Newton
began to ponder this and Cartesian mechanics. At this time (1666), Newton recognized the fundamental
importance of Kepler’s hird Law and easily converted it into his own formula, the famous inverse-square
law, which was to become the cornerstone of universal gravity. In Newton’s scheme, Kepler’s distance (D)
become the radius (R) of the circle: then it follows that the tendency to recede decreases in proportion
to the square of the radius (1/R2). Newton’s Law of Gravity is:
F = m1m2G/r2 where m = mass, G is a constant, and r = distance
his is still not a theory of gravity because Kepler’s Law explained the Moon or a planet’s tendency to
recede or move outward (or centrifugal force). Gravity dealt with attraction, which is quite the opposite
of centrifugal force. What Newton realized was the Kepler’s hird Law, and his inverse square law, one
explaining receding bodies and the other explaining attracted bodies, added up nearly to the same thing.
How was the puzzle solved? Enter the infamous Hooke once again. Hooke wanted to renew his
correspondence with the great Newton, and did so by asking Newton questions about his mechanics.
While Hooke was asking the right questions, and intuitively understood the problem, he lacked the
mathematics to work out the solution.
In 1680, assuming Kepler’s Law, Hooke asked Newton to calculate the curve a body would describe if
acted upon by an inverse square law attractive force. he answer, of course, is an ellipse. But Newton
was so ofended by the tone of Hooke’s letter that he refused to answer.
Edmund Halley (1656–1742), the discoverer of Halley’s comet, was also trying to solve Hooke’s problem
and went to see Newton and learned that Newton had solved the problem and much more. Newton had
determined that the path of a planet would be an ellipse if gravity decreased as the square of distance.
hus began the writing of the Principia Mathematica, Newton’s great work that represents the culmination
of the Scientiic Revolution and is basis for modern science. Halley, Newton’s faithful friend, very much
became the mid-wife of Newton’s magnum opus.
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Newton ultimately came to understand that gravity must be explained in terms of two motions that
belong to the Moon. First, the Moon is constantly falling towards the Earth, and second, the Moon has
an inertial tendency to continue in a straight line. Together, gravity and inertia keep the Moon in orbit
around the Earth. (See Link 5.7.)
Link 5.7 Moon Orbiting Earth
http://bit.ly/1731yNo
he Moon travels around the Earth in a roughly circular orbit. For this discussion, we will consider it
perfectly circular. (It makes the math easier and would please Aristotle a great deal!) he Moon is a
massive body moving through space and, according to Newton’s irst law of motion, a body in motion
tends to continue in a straight line unless acted upon by an outside force. (See below for Newton’s three
laws of motion.) he Moon is, however, acted upon by the Earth’s gravity. Gravity accelerates the Moon
towards the Earth and causes its path to curve. he combination of these two motions causes the circular
motion of the Moon around the Earth. (And the Earth around the sun, and so forth.)
Using the inverse-square law, one may calculate thus: the distance from the Earth to the Moon is 60
times the Earth’s radius, so the attraction of the Earth should be 1/602 (1/3600) of the attraction of
gravity at the Earth’s surface, which Galileo had shown to be 16 feet per second. he Earth, therefore,
should be attracting the Moon away from her inertial path out into space at a rate of 16/602, or .0044
feet per second. Subsequently the calculation of the Moon’s orbit showed Newton to be correct. From
this principle, Newton can generalize to other motions both on Earth and in the heavens.
Still, there were problems. For example, how to explain the attraction of the planets over empty space,
and how to account for the ordinary movement of the Earth. Also, when two objects collide, one is at
rest, the other is in motion, what happens? Is there a transfer of force? How does that work? Or if one
object is in motion and hits two at rest, is the force divided? How? Finally, if God set the universe into
motion with one BIG PUSH, how does the push continue? he assumption is that God’s PUSH does not
get any less pushy, but somehow the push, or force, or energy, gets transferred and passed around from
object to object in a passive material nature.
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In the Principia, Newton arrives at three fundamental laws of motion, which difer in an important fashion
from Descartes’s laws: Law 1. [Inertia] “Every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in
a right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.” Law 2. “he change
of motion is proportional to the motive force impressed; and is made in the direction of the right line
in which that force is impressed.” Law 3. “To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction: or,
the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts.”10
Newton gave, in the Principia, a complete theory for the universe. Newton’s gravitational law was universal,
that is, it applied everywhere in the universe, e.g. on the Earth, on the planets, and eventually on the
stars. Aristotle’s theory was, of course, universal but it was based on untenable assumptions such as
heavenly bodies being perfect and all orbits being circles. Aristotle’s theory did not agree with scientiic
observations. Newton’s theory, however, built on Brahe, Kepler, Galileo, and others and was the result of
scientiic observations. Newton, by giving a plausible theory for the structure and motion of the universe,
had legitimized and authenticated Copernicus and Galileo
he full title of Newton’s book is he Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. Notice, Newton is
saying that the behavior of nature is based upon mathematical principles. his is a totally materialistic
view of natural phenomena which is the foundation of modern science. Of course, the book was written
in Latin and is typically referred to by the abbreviated Latin title of Principia Mathematica or just the
Principia.
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Newton’s Principia restored a comprehensive world-view, which had been lost with the collapse of
Aristotelian cosmology and physics. he Principia Mathematica stands at the pinnacle of 17th century
science because it: provided the underpinning for Copernicus’s system; explained Kepler’s laws of
planetary motion; airmed and expanded Galileo’s work on terrestrial motion and projectiles; and,
completely superseded Descartes’ Principia Philosophica. Principia Mathematica is one of the most
important books ever written. It is probably the most important book in science.
homas Kuhn says in he Copernican Revolution “[Newton’s] mathematical derivations were without
precedent in the history of science. hey transcend all other achievements that stem from the new
perspective introduced by Copernicanism…. From Newton’s inverse-square law and the mathematical
techniques that related it to motion, both the shape and speed of celestial and terrestrial trajectories
could be computed for the irst time with immense precision. he resemblance of cannon ball, Earth,
Moon and planet was now seen, not in a vision but in numbers and measurement. With this achievement
seventeenth century science reached its climax.”11 Newton, writing in a letter to Robert Hooke in 1676,
let us with the following ot-repeated quote: “If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of
giants.”12
he 18th Century, known as the Age of Reason as well as he Enlightenment, did not begin with a
blinding lash of light and revelation from Newton’s Principia. he power of the book was undeniable
for those who could read it and understand it, but its acceptance was slow. One reason was that very
few people, even today, can understand Newton’s mathematics. he Principia will not be found on cofee
tables or night stands. Like Einstein in the 20th century, Newton’s science gained acceptance through the
work of interpreters, popularizes, and disciples who championed what became known as the Culture of
Newtonianism.
But there were serious problems with the Principia. Regardless of its brilliance, Newton no longer could
provide a mechanical explanation for gravity. his was a serious problem in a mechanical age. Remember
that Descartes had developed a mechanical explanation for celestial movement to avoid invoking spirits,
magic, the occult, or hidden, secret, non-physical actions over empty space. Cartesians accused Newton
of reintroducing the occult to explain gravity because Newton culd not explain the action of gravity by
physical principles.
5.5
Newtonianism and The Scientiic Revolution
Newtonian mechanics are known for establishing the concept of absolute space and time. Matter was
corpuscular, and motion was described by the three laws. Force changes motion, rather than causing
acceleration, a change in the rate of motion. When we speak of Newtonian mechanics, we refer to a
world of Absolute Space and Time. his means that space and time exist independently of matter and
motion. Matter in motion occupies both space and time – but neither the matter nor the motion alter
or afect space and time. In this sense, space and time are eternal and immutable.
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But, problems remained for Newton. How did matter hang together; what was the principle of cohesion?
Did he actually propose attraction at a distance as his explanation for gravity?
A mechanistic world-view suggests that nature works more like a machine than like a living organism.
One of the questions related to atomism is where is spirit or soul in an atomistic, mechanical world?
Ultimately, the question becomes what role, if any, does God play in relation to his creation. If God is the
Great Engineer, does He have a further role ater building and setting the World Machine in motion? Or,
if God is the Great Tinkerer, that is if he must interact with the world to adjust and correct, what does
God’s tinkering say about God as Creator? It suggests God is a faulty creator. How reliable then could
Natural Law be if it required periodic amending, constant action by the Creator?
Newton, a profoundly religious man, was deeply troubled by the atheistic implications not only of
Descartes, but also of his own work and that of other mechanists. It is only in this context that we can
understand his otherwise inexplicable devotion to the study of alchemy.
For Newton, physics came easily, quickly, and profoundly when he was less than 30 years old. he basic
structure of Newtonian mechanics was laid down before his return to Cambridge. On the other hand,
his study of Alchemy, to which he devoted more than thirty years, came with a great diiculty ater a
protracted struggle, and, in the end, with no signiicant results.
Normally, in the history of science, scholars focus on a scientists’ discoveries and contributions. Almost
never do we explore their failures. But in Newton’s case, his failure in the study of alchemy is of great
historical interest.
Alchemy implied transmutation, the Philosopher’s Stone, the Fountain of Youth. he Great Chain of Being
implied immutability. Was it possible for spirit, or soul, or life force, to move up and down on the Great
Chain of Being?
here are ancient stories and legends of transmutation: Snow White; Sleeping Beauty; Cinderella; Beauty
and the Beast; King Arthur; the Frog and the Princess; werewolves; and genie stories. All involve the
spiritual world, magic, spells, and the supernatural. Alchemists searched for the rules of transmutation
as a branch of natural philosophy. In this sense, alchemy was a close cousin of science.
With the triumph of the Age of Reason, it became increasingly fashionable to spoof and ridicule alchemy.
Alchemists were best known for searching for the Philosopher’s Stone, or the Elixir of Life, or the secret
of transforming base metals into gold or silver.
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But Alchemy had a very serious side to it – as if turning lead into silver and gold was not serious enough.
Alchemy searched for the boundary between the animate and the inanimate. Or, as Newton perceived
it, the boundary between disorganization and reorganization: the boundary between order and chaos;
the boundary between life and death!
How did inanimate stuf become living stuf ? Where does the vital agent in matter irst occur? (For the
materialist this is an irrelevant question.) Where is spirit? Where is vitality? Where is God? Leibnitz
talked about living force. here developed a theory called Vitalism that all living matter had spirit that
caused non-living matter to become living through a process called assimilation. We will discuss this
theory further in the 19th century as chemistry divides into two branches, organic (living) and inorganic
(non-living).
Vitalism, then, was at the heart of alchemy, as it is in most nature religions. Newton believed in the
existence of a vital agent difused through all things. And this became the central issue in Newton’s
philosophy/science. Newton asked how and why matter organizes itself which gets back to the question
of cohesion and change within systems.
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Newtonianism explained mechanical motion within systems, but it did not explain teleological change
within systems. hat is, the Newtonian universe was a static universe and did not explain systems that
were not static. Mechanical action could not explain assimilation. Initially, Newton called the vital
agent the mercurial spirit, then the fermental virtue, or the vegetable spirit, and, ultimately, the force of
fermentation. Newton was searching for the natural agent that God used to organize matter and put His
will into efect in the natural world.
Newton’s distinction between mechanical and vegetable chemistry is crucial to his solution of the
theological problem posed by Cartesian materialism. Mechanical chemistry can be explained by the
laws of motion. But in vegetative chemistry, we must look for some further cause. And for Newton,
ultimately that cause was God. hrough the vegetative principle, God constantly molded the universe
to His providential design, producing all manner of generations, resurrections, fermentations, and
vegetation. In summary, the secret animating spirit of alchemy kept the universe from being the closed
mechanical system for which Descartes argued.
Consequently, Newton had to work out his own theology, as well. He spent an enormous amount of
time reading scriptures, prophesy, commentaries, and other materials. Like Aristotle, he tried to develop
a Uniied theory for the natural and spiritual world.
Newton’s choices were: Religious Orthodoxy (Trinitarianism); Materialism – in which spirit is irrelevant;
Atheism – which rejects the existence of God completely; or Deism – in which he might believe that
God created the world, set it in motion, and let it to run by itself.
But none of these were satisfactory to Newton. And that is why he researched in alchemy – Newton
wanted to ind a vital God. In the course of his search, he rejected orthodox Trinitarianism, and adopted
a personal theology more akin to Unitarianism. He did not reject Jesus, but he did reject the idea of the
incarnation – that Christ was God.
his created a small problem for him as Lucasian Professor. One of the requirements was the Lucasian
Professor be ordained in the Church of England. He knew that in good conscious, he could not subscribe
to the Nicene Creed, and thus could not keep his chair with hypocrisy. Newton asked for a permanent
dispensation, which was granted.
Why did he fail? Given what he hoped to gain – a uniied theory of creation – it is understandable why
he worked so long and hard on his alchemy projects. he problems were more diicult than his physics
problems. Newton’s struggles with the religious and spiritual questions, which were central to his work,
would prove uninteresting and forgettable to his followers. But not his physics.
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Newton inspired a legion of disciples in the 18th century – irst in England, and subsequently in Europe,
especially France, and ultimately in America. Newton’s Principia became like a testament of Nature’s
Bible for those who believed that God revealed himself in Two Books: His Word was revealed in the
Holy Scriptures; and His Work was revealed in nature.
According to Richard Bentley (1662–1742), an Anglican clergyman who became an inluential follower
of Newton, Newtonian mechanics demonstrated design and order, thus conirming God’s existence. (his
is like Aquinas’s argument from design.) Bentley’s famous eight sermons, he Folly and Unreasonableness
of Atheism were based on an apologia of Newtonian mechanics.
For English Protestants, Newton ofered a home grown appeal. he Anglicans having renounced Rome
as a source of religious authority, Bentley and his followers could claim that the validity of religious belief
now was based on evidence drawn from science. Newton probably did not share this belief.
Newton, of course, had much greater impact among scientists than he did among the clergy. By the mideighteenth century Newtonianism itself had become a new scientiic orthodoxy. he most inluential
Newtonian, however, was not English but rather was French.
Voltaire [Francois Marie Arouet] (1694–1778) became the most famous of the promoters of Newton.
Voltaire was also France’s best known philosopher in the 18th Century and maybe the most famous igure
of the entire Enlightenment.
Voltaire, while he was in England, exiled from France, attended Newton’s funeral in Westminster Abby.
In his book, Letters Concerning the English Nation (1733), he devoted four chapters to Newton and his
ideas. Later he published Elements of Newton’s Philosophy (1738).
he acceptance of Newton was augmented by two remarkable women scientists of the 18th Century. he
Madame du Chatelet (1706–1749), Voltaire’s lover, maintained an important salon, or gathering place
for scientists. Her Institutions of Physics (1740) became the most important interpretation of Newtonian
mechanics of the time, and her translation of the Principia into French remains the only French version
of that great work. Chatelet, along with Laura Bassi (1711–1778) of Italy, were two of the most important
women scientists of the 18th century.
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Bassi was also an early Newtonian, and is credited to carrying Newtonianism to Italy. She was the irst
woman to be ofered a regular teaching post at a European university, and she made Bologna a major
center of Newtonian studies and experimentation. She irst taught Optics, and later the Principia. homas
Jeferson carried Newton to North America and one of the great scientists of France, Pierre-Louis Moreau
de Maupertuis, irst advocated Newtonian theory to the French Academy of Sciences. Maupertuis
anticipated Euler’s law of Least Action by asserting that all action is always least action. God’s economy
was sublime proof of God’s existence. In one of the most famous experiments of the 18th century, in
which he traveled to the arctic and the equator, Maupertuis used Newtonian gravitational theory to
determine the shape of the Earth.
One of the major premises of this book is that science is a cultural artifact. he assertion that science as
we deine it and practice it is a major western cultural phenomenon. In this age of multiculturalism, we
think primarily of ethnic and religious cultural programs. But science, itself, is also a culture.
A culture as a common world-view has: shared values; common membership (status, initiation, rite of
passage, accomplishments, and aliction); shared history (we-consciousness); and, a common language.
Languages can be: verbal, written, symbolic (math), non-verbal (body), spatial (architecture), fashion
(uniform), art and music, signage (sight, sound, and smell). Languages have vocabulary, context,
grammar, and syntax. he Scientiic Revolution was a revolution in language and culture, as well as a
new understanding of nature or the natural world.
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Antoine Lavoisier, the founder of modern chemistry, wrote Elements of Chemistry (1789) which was
translated into English by Robert Kerr in 1790. Lavoisier quoted the Abbe de Condillac: “We think only
through the medium of words. Languages are true analytical methods. Algebra, which is adapted to its
purpose in every species of expression, in the most simple, most exact, and best manner possible, is at
the same time a language and an analytical method. he art of reasoning is nothing more than a language
well arranged.”13 In other words, Lavoisier is arguing that it is impossible to separate the nomenclature
of science from science itself.
Science produces facts; ideas represent the facts; and words express the ideas. Lavoisier concludes: “…we
cannot improve the language of any science without at the same time improving the science itself; neither
can we…improve a science, without improving the language or nomenclature which belongs to it.”
hose who participated in the Scientiic Revolution shared a new cultural bond which emancipated them
from old cultural bonds, primarily allegiance to church, nobility, and King. And, they became members
(perhaps even citizens) of an international community of scientists.
Among the intelligencia and scientists, one of the most popular organizations to emerge in the 18th
century was the Ancient Order of Freemasons. he Masons may have had their roots in the old guilds
of working stone masons, but the organization ultimately became a secret fraternity of the educated and
literate. Here Newtonians could gather to worship God as the Great Architect of Nature.
Masonry tended to be Deist, foster religious tolerence, support science, promote self-government, and,
not the least, provide a venue for sociability. he Lodges, which spread to every major city in England
and France, express a dramatic attempt of the 18th century to fashion a new cultural center independent
of the church, court, guild, or social estate. he Masonic Lodges gathered in men (and women) who
read science, bought books, attended lectures, and believed that society could be ordered as a Newtonian
universe. As Lodges do, the Masons fostered a new, secret fraternal vocabulary of signs and symbols.
In America, Franklin, Washington, Jeferson, Adams, and Hamilton were all members of the Masonic
Order. Look at the back of a U.S. dollar bill. On the let you will ind NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM – a
New Secular World – underneath a Masonic symbol, the pyramid and the eye. (Notice the hedge In God
We Trust.) he Scientiic Revolution became counter-cultural.
he irst encyclopedia (Encyclopedie) was edited by Denis Diderot (1713–1784) and Jean D’Alembert
(1717–1783). A massive collection of knowledge was published in 17 volumes between 1751 and 1765.
Most of the famous writers and philosophers of the 18th century contributed in one way or another.
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he idea of the Encyclopedie was to compile a summary of all useful and pertinent knowledge for the
educated person. It included essays on all manner of arts, sciences, literature, and customs. here were
essays, of course, on Newton and Newtonianism, but also on social, political, philosophical, and religious
topics. Topics included Natural Rights, Reason, Government, History, the Bible, Atheists, and even the
Encyclopedie itself! he Encyclopedie became a vehicle for propaganda as well as for the propagation of
science and learning. It provided up-to-date information on scientiic topics, essays on rational thinking,
and applied critical analysis to the problems of human society.
Diderot, D’Alembert, and their colleagues assumed that through the Encyclopedia they could produce a
summary of all knowledge. his relects a faith that reason would overcome the vast regions of human
ignorance, irrationality, and superstition. In a very real sense, the Encyclopedie became a secular substitute
for Scriptures. It is the book of knowledge that will show you how reason, rather than faith, leads to social
redemption.
You can readily appreciate that from the perspective of religious and government authority of the ancient
regime in France, the Encyclopedie movement represented a threat. From the perspective of the King and
the Church, it was subversive in that it undermined their authority. In the sense that it challenged church
and state; it was a radical document. he Encyclopedie envisioned radical, structural change to the society.
Given its radical nature, religiously and governmentally, it is ironic that, scientiically, the Encyclopedie
was a conservative document. hat is, the editors did not envision any radical, structural change to
science itself. While the political and social revolution was yet to come, the Scientiic Revolution had
reached its climax in Newtonian mechanics.
Diderot wrote in 1754: “We are at the present time living in a great revolution in the sciences…. I feel
almost certain that before 100 years are up, one will not count three great geometers [mathematicians] in
Europe. his science will very soon come to a stop where the Bernoullies, the Eulers…and D’Alamberts
have let it. hey will have erected the columns of Hercules. We shall not go beyond that point…. When
we come to compare the ininite multitude of phenomena of nature with the limits of our understanding
and the weakness of our sense-organs, can we ever expect from our work…anything but a few broken
pieces, separated from the grand chain which unites all things. Even if experimental philosophy should
be at work during centuries and centuries, yet the material it amasses, having become incomparable
through sheer size, will still be far from exact enumeration.”14
Diderot claimed that the development of mathematics had come to the end point. In other words, we
have learned God’s vocabulary. So that while we will continue to gather data – which we will convert
into additional information – Diderot doubted that there is much more to learn about the fundamental
structure of the universe as discovered through mathematics.
We know this was not true – but we wanted to emphasize the fundamentally conservative nature of this
vision from the Enlightenment. Newton became the deining moment.
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5.6
The Enlightenment and the Idea of Progress
Many scholars consider the Scientiic Revolution and the Enlightenment as a single period of history.
I believe we should make some distinction between the two. he Scientiic Revolution was a cultural
event usually associated with Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, and Newton as the leading igures,
supported by a host of others. he seventeenth century began the Scientiic Revolution and the eighteenth
century completed it. he Scientiic Revolution completed the overthrow of the Aristotelian system,
both in cosmology and physics. Mathematics, this new language, was its greatest revolutionizing force,
and astronomy and cosmology, its principal subjects of concern. In general, the Scientiic Revolution of
the 17th Century was not a movement of empirical experimentation as championed by Bacon, although
observation and measurement played a major role, as we have seen in optics.
To the French, the 18th Century was the century of light, the Siecle des Lumieres. he Germans used the
term Auklarung, which was devised by Immanuel Kant. For the English, it was simply he Enlightenment.
18th Century philosophers envisioned that reason, as the new scientiic spirit, could also improve politics,
morals, manners, the arts, literary criticism, and even public speaking. Remember that rhetoric was one
of the original liberal arts. In a sense, the Enlightenment grew out of the Scientiic Revolution where
reason had been so successful.
As you recall, the Greeks and Aquinas also airmed reason. But there was a diference now. In Greek
philosophy, reason was represented by Perfect Intelligence. In the Newtonian Culture, reason was
embodied in the Law of Nature. hroughout the 18th Century, especially in France, reason and nature
together were extolled as the keys to human prosperity. he 18th Century talked about Natural Law as
it applied both to physics and to politics, to science as well as to government.
Emancipating God from Nature might seem as a move in the right direction, especially if this made the
objective study of science possible. But separating God from Nature created two paradoxes for the 18th
century that were never satisfactorily resolved.
1. Natural Law, as discovered by observation and experimentation, was purely descriptive, but
not normative. Natural law revealed what is in nature, but not what ought to be. Natural law
told us how nature worked, but provided no insights on how one could derive ethics from
natural science. Natural law described how nature behaved, but not how we ought to live.
But the philosophers of the Enlightenment hoped for more from nature. hey hoped they
could ind moral imperatives in the laws of nature.
2. he second paradox came out of the irst. One goal in discovering natural law was to be
able to predict the future, totally and accurately. (his was later conirmed in the exciting
prediction of the return of Halley’s comet in 1759, 1835, 1910, and 1986). Natural law was
linked with a search for greater determinism in nature.
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At the same time, discovery of natural law was regarded as emancipating when applied to human afairs.
Natural law conferred individual rights, freedom, and liberty from arbitrary authority such as church
and king. he inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as extolled by Jeferson in
the Declaration of Independence, were, ater all, supposedly rooted in natural law.
Yet there is a contradiction between natural law that determines events in nature, but at the same time sets
humanity free. his is especially a paradox if humans are regarded as a part of nature, not transcendent
of nature.
hese paradoxes were not easily resolved. Here in the 18th century we see already the tension between
natural law and moral law – between science and humanity.
One resolution to the 18th Century dilemma described above was to create a new, secular faith. We have
already discussed this by identifying the Principia as the New Testament, and the Encyclopedie as the new
Scriptures of the enlightenment. In attacking the Aristotelian cosmology and physics, the enlightenment
also brought the Great Chain of Being crashing down. he consequences for religious authority and
for civil law and order were great. Prior to the 18th century, all of Europe lived in a hierarchical society
which was divinely established. Authority in the society lowed from the:
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Pope
|
Kings – Divine Right
|
Estates of the Realm
|
Lord of the Manor
|
Lord of the Loom
|
Father as Lord of
the household.
A hallmark of the enlightenment was the rejection of authority, irst religious and then secular.
Nonetheless, another characteristic of social change is the persistence of old ideas in the culture,
especially the ideas (and vocabulary) of Plenitude, Gradation, Continuity, and Immutability. Despite the
collapse of the Great Chain of Being, we are going to discover how tenaciously old ideas hang on. his
is an interesting phenomena in the history of ideas – how gradually we give up old ways or categories
(or vocabularies) of thinking.
What happens if we lay the Great Chain of Being on its side? We get a temporal dimension that did not
exist before. Is the world getting better or worse? is a classic debate between ancients and moderns. he
Idea of Progress makes history truly possible. Voltaire’s Essai sur les Moeurs says that despite cruelty and
the awful inluence of Christianity, society does make progress. Marquis de Condorcet (1743–1794 CE)
wrote Historical Progress of the Human Mind, while he was in hiding from Robespierre in 1793. His
work sketches ten periods of history, the last which lies in the future. Condorcet believed that mankind
continuously makes progress moving towards a utopian state.
he 18th century believed that reason was the basis of progress. It was the Age of Reason and one can
establish rational laws and institutions by applying reason through natural law. Belief in reason can be
optimistic or pessimistic. he optimistic belief is that human nature is fundamentally good and the
pessimistic belief holds human nature is basically bad. Historically, since the 18th century, I think these
have generally deined liberal versus conservative.
How do you know what is socially good versus bad? How can you deine the public interest? One way
is to get perspective on the society in space and time. Utopian or travel literature was important in the
18th century. e.g. Voltaire’s Essays on the English (1778); and Jonathan Swit’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726).
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In he Social Contract, Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1718) describes the Noble Savage tradition. “Man
is born free and everywhere he is in chains.”15 Rousseau believes nature is good and pure but is ultimately
ambiguous about the progress of civilization. (A modern statement of the same idea is Michael Blake’s,
Dances with Wolves [1990].) Rousseau was very popular in the 18th century.
he idea of progress is the basis of our modern view of history. he 18th century is the seed-bed for the
modern social sciences, although it will not be until the 19th century that social sciences as we know
them were developed.
John Locke (1632–1704) was an English Philosopher. (homas Jeferson believed that Bacon, Newton,
and Locke were the three greatest men of the Scientiic Revolution.) Locke is central to understanding
American political philosophy and you may know him best from his Two Treatises on Government
(1680–1690) which underpins many of the beliefs of not only the Declaration of Independence, but
also the U.S. Constitution.
Locke was fundamentally optimistic about human nature and human institutions and government
which derived from a State of Nature. In challenging the Divine Right of Kings, Locked argued that the
rights of the governed and governors are deined by the law of Nature, not the law of God. His vision of
government was Newtonian – the familiar systems of checks and balances – very mechanical – in which
the constituent parts of the society are engaged in machine-like harmony.
Locke’s most important work was his Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690). Locke believes that
all knowledge comes from experience, a posteriori, rather than a priori. He rejects a gloomy, Calvinistic
view of human nature, and especially the doctrine of original sin. To Locke, humans are not inherently
wicked or evil.
he Mind is born Tabula Rasa – that is a blank slate. We have no knowledge, or ideas, apart from
our experience. here are no innate ideas, such as love, beauty, justice. We know nothing apart from
experience, including our idea of God. his is a nurture-over-nature argument in the extreme.
But, if the mind is a blank slate, how can we know anything? If the mind is like a computer, what keeps
the information from becoming a vast meaningless jumble? A chaos? he chief and dominant human
faculty is reason. How do we know right from wrong? he Scottish Moral Sense philosophers such as
Shatesbury stated that we have a moral sense.
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Experimental Science and Knowledge: The Scientiic
Revolution and The Enlightenment (1500–1700)
Baron de Montesquieu (1689–1755) is an important forerunner to modern sociology. Like Voltaire, he
lived in London for a while, and was even elected a member of the Royal Society. Montesquieu’s major
book was L’Esprit des Lois, or the Spirit of the Laws (1748). Montesquieu wanted to know why societies
varied so in government, culture, custom, religion and laws. Among other things, Montesquieu noted
that climate, soil, and matters we do not call geography, can have a profound efect on social structure.
(Auguste Comte, a 19th century scholar, is usually called the founder of sociology, a term he devised for
the study of society).
In his survey of human history, Montesquieu discovers that there are fundamentally three kinds of
government: despotic; monarchical; and, republican. Each kind relected the customs, manners, economy,
and laws, in sum the culture of the people governed by the systems. Montesquieu relects that the Romans
at diferent times enjoyed each kind of government. hus his analysis is not inevitably progressive.
But he is not ambiguous in his assessment that the English are better governed than the French. His
political system essentially agrees with Locke – that liberalism and the balance of powers are desired in
the republican state. Balance of power guarantees moderation of power, and harmony and equilibrium
within the society. In turn, harmony and equilibrium promote maximum enjoyment of life, liberty, and
property. hese are the constant themes of the Newtonian worldview as applied to government. As you
no doubt recognize, they are also the principal themes of the United States Constitution.
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The Evolution of Modern Science
Adam Smith (1723–1790), a Scotsman, was a student of mathematics and literature and professor at the
University of Glasgow. In 1776, he wrote An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
he Wealth of Nations developed three major ideas.
1. Historical analysis. Like Montesquieu, Smith studied history, including ancient Rome, to
discover patterns of economic activity, including the origins of money, the price of goods
and labor, and theories of rent and interest. In this way, Smith blazed the trail for other
economists such as Karl Marx, whose analysis was also based on extensive studies of
economic history. One could say that Smith is the founder of economic history.
2. Division of Labor. In terms of his analysis, Smith believed that wealth was enhanced by
the division of labor. In the old guild system, the cratsman – such as the smith, or candle
maker, barrel maker, etc. – would fabricate the entire item. his can be over emphasized
because there was always some division of labor. But Smith sees how manufacturing can
be made more proitable if the laborers are assigned speciic and limited tasks. [His famous
example is taken from pin manufacturing which he believed could be made cheaper if
manufacture of pins was broken down into its component parts, and each laborer allocated
one of the tasks]. Obviously, Smith’s division of labor is describing the factory system
adopted widely during the industrial revolution. According to Smith, it is the division of
labor which increases the overall wealth of nations, and thereby raises the standard of living
of capitalists and workers alike.
3. he invisible hand. Finally, Smith posited a profound idea that the general or public good
is the product of individual activity to maximize proit and minimize loss. According to
Smith, society’s overall economic health is most enhanced by the unregulated separate
actions of individuals, gaining and losing, but in sum, achieving maximum productivity.
More concretely, he applied his theory to creating a price system. How does one establish
the correct, or optimum, price for goods and services? Smith envisioned a Newtonian
mechanism of natural checks and balances – which he called supply and demand. Economic
laws, the invisible hand, are the best regulators of economic activity. Smith thus promotes
laissez-faire economic policy, that the state should avoid interference in the economy except
to ensure order, justice, and some limited public works such as roads and bridges.
Smith, like Newton, a had deep personal belief in a benevolent God. Again, like Copernicus, Kepler,
Galileo, and Newton, Smith believed that nature was regular and harmonious – and he extended this
principle to human society. Like the mechanical order of the natural world, Smith believed that human
society was also governed by economic natural laws. From Smith’s perspective, laissez-faire economic
policy did not favor the rich over the poor. Rather, laissez-faire, which did not bind the invisible hand
of economic law, maximized economic beneit for the whole society.
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The Evolution of Modern Science
5.7
Preface to the Industrial Age
he period from about 1700–1900 CE is known as the Industrial Age. Because of the foundations of the
Scientiic Revolution and the Enlightenment, important discoveries were made in all areas of science.
he next six Parts of the book will address the areas of classical Chemistry; Electricity and Magnetism;
hermodynamics; Natural History and Geology; Biology; and the Social Sciences. To maintain continuity
of discovery in a given area we will treat each of these topics separately and chronologically. But, it should
be realized that discoveries were occurring simultaneously in the diferent areas and oten discoveries in
one area were helping the progress of another. To gain an overall understanding of this period it would
be helpful to return and review each section ater all six have been studied.
During the industrial age, not only was science being used to make material progress but scientiic
discovery was happening at an unprecedented rate. Modern universities were founded that joined in
research activities and the industrial world realized the economic advantages of research. Nowhere was
this truer than in the irst of the next topics, chemistry.
.
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6 Classical Chemistry
(1700–1900)
6.1
The Foundations of Modern Chemistry
Astronomy and physics, to this point in time, dealt with large objects and processes that could be
observed. Newtonian science had thus far only been successfully applied to mechanics. We move now
to the microscopic world, the world of chemistry and chemical reactions.
he origin of alchemy is not completely known. It may have been an ancestor of chemistry but so were
practical processes: tanning of leather; making of bronze and glass. Chemistry has many roots from the
making of useful products such as dyes, paints, and medicines to cosmetics and embalming. Like early
mathematics, chemical procedures were discovered and then applied with no basic understanding of
the science involved.
When we talk of history on a large scale, we see the huge inluence of materials. We speak of the Stone
Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age recognizing that the progress of civilization was limited by the available
materials for tools. Stones are natural but only a few metals occur pure in nature: gold, silver, platinum,
tin, mercury, copper, lead, and a few more. All of these metals are very sot in their pure states.
he discovery of metals probably occurred by accident as rocks containing a pure metal were let in a
campire to produce, ater the ire was over, a shiny, metallic residue. At irst, metals were used primarily
for ornaments. Pure copper and tin had some practical applications but not until the discovery of bronze
was there a material hard enough to replace the stones that were used for warfare. Bronze can be made
by alloying copper and tin, but other elements can be used as well. he earliest tin-alloy bronzes have
been dated to the 4th century BCE. Tin and copper do not usually exist in the same geographical area
so trading is involved for a society to develop the use of bronze. Bronze utilization occurred at diferent
periods in diferent areas. Bronze is very useful for making weapons and shields and as a building material.
Iron oxide occurs widely in nature but a vigorous chemical reaction is required to reduce it to the metal.
he red clays that are found in many places contain iron oxide. Iron is much harder than bronze and can
also be machined to make small, but strong, parts for machines. Since only iron ore is needed to make
iron, it can be done in a single area without trading. Traces of iron have been found as far back as the
5th century BCE in Scandinavia and iron replaces bronze somewhere between 1300 BCE and 400 CE
depending upon the geographical area.
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From the 16th century forward, there was an increasing metallurgical culture. his formed the basis of
the Industrial Revolution (late 18th and early 19th centuries) that established economies based on coal,
iron, copper, and mercury.
By the time of the Enlightenment (18th century), however, Chemistry, was without a scientiic basis; it
was neither quantitative nor had a useful language or fundamental theory. You will recall the Ancient
Greeks believed that everything was made of four elements: earth, water, air, and ire. his belief remained
essentially unchanged up to the eve of the Scientiic Revolution. here was a good deal known about
many of the earths (ores) and many modern elements had been identiied: gold, silver, lead, mercury,
and well as many non-elements: salt, potash, and others.
he irst major discoveries between 1770 and 1800, involved the nature of ire, or combustion. From
these explorations about ire, came discoveries which established the nature of two more of Aristotle’s
elements – air and water. Together, this remarkable thirty-year period laid the foundation for modern
chemistry.
Paracelsus (1493–1541) was born Philip von Hohenheim. He later expanded his name to Philippus
heophrastus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim and then added the title Paracelsus. (Celsus was a
famous Roman physician and Paracelsus meant above or greater than Celsus. Note: this is not the Celsius
of temperature fame.)
On June 24, 1527, at Basel (Switzerland) Paracelsus threw Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine into a bonire.
He announced: “Your Galen, your Avicenna, and all their followers know less than the buckles on my
shoes!”16
Paracelsus was a philosopher, alchemist, and surgeon who travelled Europe healing, practicing a mixture
of medicine and mysticism, and even lecturing in German instead of the traditional Latin. His explanation
was that his students understood German better. Here we have another radical. And, at the time the
Church and King did not welcome those challenging authority. (Remember, this was just a few years
ater Martin Luther had nailed his 95 theses to the church door.)
Paracelsus burned books because he believed that patients were not cured by theories but by experiments!
He may have been the irst medical scientist! (Even at the beginning of the 20th century there were German
physicians who did not sterilize instruments because they believed a doctor could not harm a patient!)
he human body, to Paracelsus, was a chemical factory. his chemical machine ran upon incorporeal
essences determined by vital spirits. From Paracelsus the iatrochemists were born. (hese were chemists
that tried to cure people with chemicals. Notice, in England the pharmacist is still called the chemist.)
Basically, Paracelsus was the irst to look at the human body from a chemical point of view.
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Paracelsus accomplished little science or medicine, but his voice was a wake-up call that gave considerable
impetus to the study of chemistry and medicine, as we shall see.
Robert Boyle (1627–1691), President of the Royal Society, author of he Skeptical Chemist (1661), did
not believe in either Aristotle’s elements or Paracelsus’s principles. Boyle was a faithful Newtonian who
believed in a mechanical world made up of corpuscular particles. But, like Newton, he lacked theory and
experimentation to pursue a truly scientiic chemistry.
Without theory, he plunged into experiments. He noted relationships between ire and air. He reported
on many reactions and believed matter was conserved. Boyle is credited with establishing the relationship
between the volume and pressure of gas. hat is, the volume of a gas is inversely proportional to the
pressure exerted upon it. (See Link 6.1.)
Link 6.1 Boyle’s Law
http://bit.ly/14hzk0V
Boyle’s Law of Gases states that as pressure increases, volume decreases proportionally and vice versa.
Mathematically this means PV = c where P = pressure, V = volume, and c is a constant. All gases behave
according to Boyle’s Law. he graph shows volume as a function of pressure. (Temperature must be held
constant as it also afects pressure and volume.) Clearly inding such a quantitative relationship says
something fundamental about the nature of gases.
About 1670, J.J. Becher proposed that when something burned, it gave up a substance. Becher’s follower,
George Ernest Stahl, named the substance Phlogiston. Phlogiston was hypothesized to be an oily, moist,
material that gave matter its taste, odor and combustibility. Phlogiston could do anything. Fire (i.e.
Phlogiston) should rise to the top of the universe and become part of the heavens. Becher thought
phlogiston was a substance that could be found and measured. Notice that his is an investigative attitude
that Aristotle would not have had.
Phlogiston was supposedly released when wood burns and when metals rust. Air carried away phlogiston
and plants absorb it from the air. Combustion does not occur in vacuum because there is no air to carry
away the phlogiston. When metal is burned it becomes heavier, but, of course, phlogiston, contains levity
and when leaving metals makes them less buoyant. (If you replace the word phlogiston with energy,
you can go a long way with many of these arguments. But, eventually, you get into contradictions as
Phlogiston came to be used as an explanation for all sorts of properties.)
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In the 18th century, the study of gases became important. In 1756, Joseph Black (1728–1799), Professor
at Edinburgh and inventor of the analytical balance, showed that solids like magnesium carbonate and
limestone (calcium carbonate) lost a common gas, CO2, when heated. He called this gas ixed air, because
it seemed to be ixed in solids and it did not support combustion. Black showed he could make ixed
air by passing air over heated charcoal. He also found the gas in exhalation exhaust. (He was right on
the edge of a major discovery.)
he most important thing about pneumatic chemistry, or the study of gases, is that it allowed measurement,
you could get numbers. Weight, pressure, volume, and temperature were now quantiiable. Henry
Cavendish (1731–1810), in England, a wonderfully eccentric and independently wealthy experimenter,
found that several metals dropped into acid released a gas. He found this gas had weight and that it
would burn with common air and make dew. (He was combining hydrogen with oxygen.) He believed
he had discovered phlogiston.
Ater further, very careful experiments in 1783, Cavendish made perhaps the most important
pronouncement in chemistry prior to Lavoisier and Dalton. Cavendish had determined that water was
made up of two gases, phlogistonated-air (hydrogen) and dephlogistonated-air (oxygen) and that they
combined in 2 to 1 volume proportions.
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Joseph Priestly (1733–1804), from the North of England, was a dissenter clergyman, who ultimately
publicly embraced Newton’s Aryanism, i.e. that Christ was exceptionally good man and prophet, but no
God. His main work was the study of gases, or airs. Priestly undertook to study all airs and experimented
with carbon dioxide, hydrogen, nitric oxide, nitrous oxide, hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide, and other
gases. He rarely weighed his materials so his work was mostly descriptive.
Of course, his most famous work was the discovery of oxygen. (here is some argument that Scheele
and Lavoisier also deserve some credit for this discovery.) Priestly discovered that he could heat the
calx of mercury (mercuric oxide) and the gas produced burned very brightly and supported the life of
a mouse long ater common air would not. his was an old experiment but others had not investigated
the gas that was produced. Priestly had made a discovery of immense importance. He had found the
active substance from air that combined with other materials and referred to it as dephlogisticated air.
However, he did not appreciate the nature of his discovery. hat would come from Antoine Lavoisier.
(Still, today, we call combining with oxygen – other substances that readily assume a negative charge,
e.g. luorine – oxidation and the reverse processes reduction.)
Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794) was the son of a French nobleman and, in fact, a nobleman himself. He
studied all areas of science. Lavoisier carried out many quantitative chemical reactions and believed heat,
as well as mass, was conserved. he key to Lavoisier’s chemistry was the analytical balance. Balances
have been known since antiquity but Joseph Black had recently developed the much more sensitive
instrument that Lavoisier used.
He summed up his many experiments in his Elements of Chemistry (1789). Lavoisier wrote, “We must
lay it down as an incontestable axiom that in all the operations of art and nature, nothing is created; and
equal quantity of matter exists both before and ater the experiment.”17 his principle becomes known as
the conservation of mass. In efect it says that matter is neither created nor destroyed in chemical reactions.
(See Link 6.2.) (However, matter can be converted to energy and vice versa in nuclear reactions.)
Link 6.2 Conservation of Mass
http://bit.ly/18IKoEj
Lavoisier observed that there were quantitative reactions involving heat and thought that heat was a
substance which he named caloric. For example, heat added to water gave steam.
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Lavoisier decided that air was a mixture of gases. In 1774 Priestly visited Lavoisier in Paris. here is
no record of their conversations but it is reasonable to assume they compared experimental results
and theories. Lavoisier discovered that air reacting to make calx lost 1/6 its volume. (Air is about 20%
oxygen. Calx is a term sometimes used to mean calcium oxide but oten as a general term for metallic
oxides. Hence mercury calx would be mercuric oxide.) Lavoisier concluded that air is not an element but
that it contains an element (oxygen) that supported combustion, life, etc. Lavoisier named Cavendish’s
phlogiston hydrogen. Lavoisier concluded that the reaction of hydrogen with air to make dew was actually
the combining of hydrogen and oxygen to make water. In efect, Lavoisier killed the phlogiston theory
but Priestly never accepted Lavoisier’s conclusion.
Lavoisier also showed that burning diamonds and graphite produced the same gas. (his was Black’s
carbon dioxide, CO2.) his was the irst example of allotropism. Allotropes are diferent crystal structures
of the same element. Diamonds and graphite, whose properties are so diferent, are actually just diferent
crystal structures of pure carbon. Another example of allotropism was a problem that had bothered
churchmen of medieval times. Tin, used to make organ pipes, while machined into shiny, smooth
surfaces, would slowly become grainy, dull and crusty, breaking into powder. his was called tin disease
and some attributed it to an attack by the devil on the church. It was eventually shown, however, that
tin has a diferent crystal structure to which it slowly transitions in the cool temperatures that were
common in un-heated European churches.
Recall that Black had shown that the gas we exhale is carbon dioxide. Lavoisier experimented by having a
person working on a treadmill and measuring the oxygen he required. Lavoisier concluded correctly that
we burn organic matter and produce the by-product of carbon dioxide. his was the irst step towards
understanding metabolism and realizing that we obtain our own energy by burning organic matter, i.e.
that we are heat-engines.
Lavoisier has been called the Father of Modern Chemistry. Lavoisier’s work changed chemistry so much,
that he and his followers perceived the need for a new, and modern system of chemical names and
nomenclature to sweep away the dead language, and pseudoscience of alchemy. In his Method of Chemical
Nomenclature (1787), Lavoisier wrote: “hat method which it is so important to introduce into the study
and teaching of chemistry is closely linked to the reform of its nomenclature. A well-made language, a
language which seizes on the natural order in the succession of ideas, will entail a necessary and even a
prompt revolution in the manner of teaching. It will not permit professors of chemistry to deviate from
the course of nature. Either they will have to reject the nomenclature, or else follow irresistibly the road it
marks out. hus it is that the logic of a science is related essentially to its language.”18 Lavoisier provided
the naming system for chemistry that we still use today. For example, when metals such as mercury,
copper, or iron react with oxygen, the products are all called oxides, e.g. iron oxide.
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Lavoisier supported the French revolution by making gunpowder for the Republic’s army. But, he had
also been a tax farmer and aristocrat. Lavoisier had criticized Jean Paul Marat’s studies of ire and was
executed by the Revolutionary Council in 1794.
6.2
Chemistry Becomes a Science
hree advances were necessary to give chemistry Revolution a irm, scientiic foundation. We have
discussed the irst two.
1. Chemists needed a breakthrough to determine that Aristotle’s Fire, Water, Air, and Earth
were not the fundamental elements of matter;
2. A modern, universal nomenclature was essential so that chemists everywhere could share
and compare results; and,
3. Chemistry had to be established as a mathematical science, with a plausible, theoretical
basis.
Enter a self-educated Quaker named John Dalton (1776–1844). Dalton was an unlikely hero of the
Scientiic Revolution. Unlike Cavendish and Lavoisier, Dalton was relatively poor. He had to make his
own living as a tutor, largely teaching arithmetic in the city of Manchester.
Dalton did not establish his own lavish laboratories, nor did he have access to advanced facilities or wellstocked libraries as did Cavendish, Priestly, and Lavoisier. Dalton did only a little experimental work.
He traveled around England taking air samples and recording meteorological data. He analyzed the air
samples and found that samples from diferent places had the same proportions of gases.
Dalton is one of the irst theoretical chemists who, using Newtonian mechanics and his own sense of
physical reality, developed an esthetics of science. Dalton’s theories were compelling because of their
beauty in terms of their logic, symmetry, and simplicity. Indeed, more than any other scientist to date,
Dalton was a picture drawer, he thought visually – he would be at home today where no chemistry
lecture is complete without view graphs and illustrations.
Dalton did not believe that experimentation was the be-all and end-all of scientiic research. his is not
to say that Dalton was not a superb observer. His primary interest was the atmosphere and climate. He
took careful and copious notes of his daily observations.
In Spain, Joseph Louis Proust (1754–1826) believed the composition of chemical compounds did not
vary from compound to compound. Rather, Proust proposed that elements which combined to form
compounds did so in deinite, ixed and reliable proportions.
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here was controversy whether this was actually the case, and Proust through careful, repeated experiments
determined that it was true. “he stones and soils beneath our feet, and the ponderable mountains, are
not mere confused masses of matter; they are pervaded through their innermost constitution by the
harmony of number.”19
As Dalton contemplated the atmosphere and its composition, he ultimately asked the same question
about matter that Newton posed. What was the principle of cohesion? What held the gases together in
the atmosphere? Dalton determined that the composition of the atmosphere was universally the same
(for all intents and purposes). Well versed in Newton, Dalton contemplated a corpuscular, or particle
chemistry in which each of the atoms (if we may call them that) were treated as real things. He even
made small wooden beads to represent the atoms. He then envisioned how atoms combined to make
diferent compounds. Now the big question. Were all the atoms of the same size and weight? Here was
the big theoretical breakthrough, a complete departure from the ancient Greek atomists.
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Dalton postulated that atoms of the same element were alike, but atoms of each element difered one from
the other in size and weight. his is a remarkable conceptual breakthrough. Here is an excerpt from a
paper read by Dalton in November, 1802. It was a paper on the Proportion of the Gases or Elastic Fluids
Constituting the Atmosphere: “he elements of oxygen may combine with a certain portion of nitrous
gas, or with twice that portion, but with no intermediate quantity.”20 here is some possibility that this
sentence was added ater he read the paper and before he actually published it in 1805. (Little does it
matter whether he was announcing his idea in 1802 or 1805. Most histories state that Dalton presented
his atomic theory in 1803.)
Dalton concluded that Newton’s atoms difered in weight from one element to the other. But, for
composition of compounds to be constant, the atoms of a given element must all weigh the same.
Dalton concluded, in 1803, in his law of Multiple Proportions, that atoms must combine in simple, small
number ratios to form compounds. He developed a system of symbols that would last until Berzelius
simpliied it further.
Dalton, of course, could not determine the size and weight of any atom, but as everyone now realizes, he
could determine the relative size and weight of the atoms. And taking hydrogen, the lightest, and giving
it arbitrarily the number one, you could calculate the relative weight of oxygen, or any other element in
a compound. (See Link 6.3.)
Link 6.3 Dalton’s Symbols and Atomic Weights
http://bit.ly/13EeQRy
If you look at the igure closely you will see that Dalton gave oxygen a weight of 7 compared to hydrogen
being 1. his is because Dalton selected the simplest ratios for compounds and concluded water was
HO not H2O as we know now. If water was HO the relative weights of oxygen to hydrogen would be 8
to 1. We can assume Dalton got 7 to 1 because of inaccuracy in weighing the two gases in the reaction.
here is a lot of chemistry to be done ater Dalton, but we now have a irm mathematical foundation
for it. he Law of Deinite Proportions established chemistry as a mathematical science, and further
airmed that nature was mathematical as established by Galileo, Kepler, and Newton.
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In 1803, John Dalton provided the key to making chemistry a science. here were elements that did not
change, each element had atoms of a particular weight, the atoms combined in a great variety to make
compounds. (Later we will use the term molecule for combinations of atoms.)
To be able to do proper chemistry, we need to know the relative weights of atoms so that we can combine
them in proper ratios. Bernard Jafe, author of Crucibles: he Story of Chemistry From Ancient Alchemy
to Nuclear Fission (1930) said about Dalton: “Dalton’s Atomic heory remains today one of the pillars
of the ediice of chemistry – a monument to the modest Quaker of Manchester.”21 I personally think we
should change the word chemistry to science or even the Enlightenment. And, it is clearly not “one of the
pillars…of chemistry”, it is the foundation.
Here, for the irst time, is a logical theory of the microscopic. Remember, Aristotle’s Elements were
really the three common physical states plus energy. Certainly, Aristotle’s concept was a good basis for
describing the physical properties of matter, but those states were by no means immutable and he must
have known it. And, Aristotle certainly gave not even a hint of understanding chemistry.
At this point, I want to insert a thought from the anthropologist Joseph Campbell who says that our
mythology, the origin of metaphysics, began with the observation of nature and man’s logical extrapolation
of himself to create gods. his mythology was used to explain nature. According to Campbell, because of
science we have developed much better observational abilities, both of the macroscopic and microscopic
worlds.
But, we have enshrined in our traditions a 2000 (or more) year-old-mythology. Campbell says this is the
basis for the apparent conlict between science and religion. I ind Campbell’s arguments compelling as I
notice that the conlict so oten revolves around literal interpretations of scriptures. For example, Joshua
stopping the sun. I have stood at the archeological dig in Jericho and could readily believe that a day
might seem a week under those harsh, desert conditions. Especially with an enemy army surrounding
you. Further, to a geocentric culture with no way to measure time other than the sun, it is very easy to
imagine even a casual statement becoming a time honored myth.
Physics books at the turn of the 20th century stated that clouds could not rise above 20,000 feet and
gave good arguments for this fact. When people started climbing to higher altitudes, the books changed.
Biology books used to state that the Mexican Fruit Fly could ly faster than the speed of sound. A physicist
in the 1960s constructed model lies and found out they disintegrated at speeds greater than about 10%
of the speed of sound. (he speed of sound at sea level is about 670 mph.) He also pointed out that his
models became impossible to see at about 60 miles an hour. he writer ultimately traced the original
publication to a biologist who went to Mexico in the 1920s. As he stepped of the train a fruit ly hit
him in the face, producing a bloody welt. When he asked what hit him, his host said it was a fruit ly
and they lew so fast you could not hear them. he biologist recorded in his textbook that fruit lies ly
faster than sound and this erroneous fact was copied from book to book for half a century.
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Ater Dalton’s theory of atoms and elements, the search was on to make sense of the atomic weight
scale. Because of Lavoisier’s quantitative chemistry, accurate work could now be done. However, as we
shall see, it will be about 1920 before we can truly measure atomic weights. In fact, we will measure the
dimensions of the nucleus, before we can measure atomic weight directly.
An indication of the importance of the chemical industry of this time, was the establishment of a chemical
company in Newark, Delaware, by Pierre du Pont de Nemours, in 1804. Du Pont had emigrated to
America with his sons to avoid the fate of Lavoisier. Du Pont opened a chemical factory initially making
gun powder to sell to Napoleon. One important aspect of the rapid growth of the chemical industry was
the research that was fostered by the commercial success of chemistry. Besides medicine, chemistry was
the irst area of science to become a major industry and to attract industrial funding. he irst patent
issued by the U.S. Patent Oice was in chemistry.
J.J. Berzelius (1779–1848) analyzed thousands of compounds to ind accurate relative weights. He also
invented the modern notation of chemical compounds that results in the chemical algebra which is
called stoichiometry. For an example of the archaic alchemical versus Berzelius notation, see Crucibles:
he Story of Chemistry, Jafe, Bernard, Dover, New York, 1930, p. 109.
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Gay-Lussac and others brought evidence to support the theory that equal volumes of gases, at the same
temperature and pressure, contain equal numbers of atoms. But, why should this work if equal weights
do not contain equal numbers of atoms? his was the major complicating factor in determining the
nature of chemical compounds and reactions. he anti-atomic argument continued into the beginning
of the 20th century.
he invention of electric battery or pile by Volta, allowed Davy and his protégé Faraday to discover
new elements by electrolysis. (Some element can only be isolated that way.) (In 1800, Nicholson, an
engineer, had electrolyzed water to produce hydrogen and oxygen.) In spite of the puzzles of atomic
weights, evidence accumulated to support the atomic hypothesis. Also, when salts like sodium chloride
were melted and an electric current was passed through them, the metal always collected at the negative
electrode (cathode) and the other element at the positive electrode (anode).
Berzelius concluded that electrical forces must be involved in chemical ainity. Probably, this conclusion
was the most important idea, next to Dalton’s atoms, to come from 19th century chemistry. Berzelius
thought that every atom had both a positive and a negative charge, one of which was greater than the
other, and only oxygen was totally negative. He thought the attraction of atoms was caused by the
negative end of one atom attracting the positive end of another. But, if this were true, there could be no
molecules of two atoms of the same kind.
he secret to solving the atomic weight problem, however, lay in the hypothesis of Amadeo Avogadro
(1776–1856). In 1811, Avogadro proposed that equal volumes of gas contained equal numbers of
molecules. And, with reactions such as hydrogen gas and chlorine gas producing hydrogen chloride that
implied both hydrogen gas and chlorine gas had molecules of at least two atoms each. As we will see later,
this proposal was a key to determining correct atomic weights and molecular structures. (See Link 6.4.)
Link 6.4 Avogadro’s Hypothesis
http://bit.ly/17NwUpD
But, where was God in all this chemistry? God still existed in the formation of organic compounds
in that vitalist theory efectively said that organic compounds contained vital spirit and could only be
made by nature, not by man. his is the closest to a Great Chain that chemistry would ever come. But
in 1828, Wöhler synthesized urea, a well-known compound found in urine. his was a scientiic disproof
of vitalism but it didn’t persuade the vitalists.
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hen, in the middle of the 19th century, two more developments catapulted chemistry as a science in the
true Galilean sense. First, in 1859, Bunsen and Kirchof, German chemists, developed the spectroscope.
Various elements were known to give discrete spectra when heated. hat is, by placing the element in a
ire, the light produced, when broken up by a prism, consisted of only a few spectra lines instead of the
continuum of a rainbow. And, these line spectra were ingerprints of the elements.
Bunsen and Kirchof made a combination telescope and prism that could be pointed at a light source to
see the spectrum. By dipping a platinum wire into a solution containing an element and then placing it
in a lame, they characterized the spectra of known elements. Others looked at stars and could determine
their elemental composition. Later in sunlight the spectrum of hydrogen was seen along with a new
spectrum of an element not yet found on Earth. hey realized the sun contained an unknown element
and named it helium ater the Greek Helios for sun. (See Link 6.5.)
Link 6.5 Spectroscope
http://scitechantiques.com/spectroscope_move/
Franklin had measured the lightening in the sky, but Bunsen & Kirchof had reached all the way to the
heavens and analyzed the chemical content of the stars!
hrough the irst half of 19th century, arguments went back and forth as to the number of atoms in each
compound. An obscure chemistry teacher in Turin, Amedeo Avogadro, had proposed the term molecule
and had hypothesized that the number of molecules in a given volume of gas, no matter what the gas,
were the same.
his was complicated by the fact that Berzelius’s bonding theory would not permit two atoms of same
element to bind together to form a molecule. Furthermore, the great Dalton believed the simplest structure
would always be correct and had claimed that water was HO.
By 1860, there was chaos with the argument over what were the basic ratios of the atomic weights of
elements. Many reactions were known but arguments abounded as to which were the correct assignments.
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he First International Chemistry Conference was held in Karlsruhe, Germany in 1860. Most of the
leading chemists attended and Stanislao Cannizaro (1826–1910) proposed they reconsider the Avogadro
hypothesis. By the end of the Conference all were in agreement and a table of atomic weights had been
established. Using Avogadro’s equal volumes assumption:
1. Vol H + 1 Vol Cl = 2 Vol HCl
H2 + Cl2 = 2 HCl
2. Vol H + 1 Vol O = 2 Vol’s water
2H2 + O2 = 2H2O
And, so forth.
he concept of the molecule was accepted and a consistent set of formulas and atomic weights was
inally established!
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By this time, chemistry was a vast confusion of thousands of compounds that underwent tens of thousands
of reactions with no rhyme or reason. hen, enter Dmitri Mendeleev (1834–1907) who observed the
periodic nature of the elements. As one started up the table of elements, in order of their atomic weights,
every so oten their properties started to repeat. In 1869, he made a table of repeating periods. When an
element didn’t seem to be similar in properties to the one above it, he skipped a position.
he result was that similar elements like sodium and potassium, beryllium and magnesium, carbon and
silicon, etc., lined up above each other. But there were six blank spaces, such as below aluminum and
Mendeleev predicted these elements were unknown elements that would eventually be found. hey were
all found, although the last technetium, which is radioactive, was not found until half way through the
20th century. (See Link 6.6.)
Link 6.6 Mendeleev’s Periodic Table
http://yiancs.tripod.com/CHEM4U/mendeleev.gif
Gallium (called eka-aluminum by Mendeleev) was found only 5 years later, in 1874. Mendeleev’s table
became a unifying concept in chemistry! (See Link 6.7.)
Link 6.7 Modern Periodic Table
http://www.ptable.com/
Lavoisier, Dalton, Berzelius, and Mendeleev remain today as the four greatest names in the development
of chemistry as a science.
Svante Arrhenius (1859–1927) is perhaps the irst physical chemist. Certainly, many scientists of the
period contributed to both chemistry and physics. (As we shall see later, Faraday was a particularly
major scientist in both arenas.) But, Arrhenius brought physics and chemistry together in a way that
no one had done before.
Arrhenius attended the University of Upsala as had his hero, Berzelius, 80 some years earlier. Arrhenius
proposed to develop a theory of conductivity in solutions for his dissertation. His professor rejected his
proposal but Arrhenius persisted and his thesis was rejected by the faculty at Upsala. But, they granted
him a doctoral degree anyway because of his brilliance as a student! (his was the same university that
had rejected Berzelius’s proposal for a modern way of representing chemical reactions! Arrhenius went
on to win the Nobel Prize in chemistry as Berzelius likely would have if the Nobel Prizes had existed
during his lifetime.)
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Pure water does not conduct an electric current and neither does a salt like sodium chloride (NaCl). But
salt dissolved in water conducts electricity while sugar dissolved in water does not! Arrhenius’s theory was
that some molecules dissolved in water forming a solution that had charged particles or ions. (NaCl →
Na+ + Cl-. Postive ions are called cations and negative ions, anions.) It was these ions that conducted the
current from one electrode to the other. his irst successful theory of solutions would not be supplanted
until the twentieth century.
Arrhenius also proposed the irst theory of acids and bases. Acids, according to him were compounds
that produced H+ in solution and bases produced OH-. he two ions reacted to produce water. For
example, hydrochloric acid, HCl would react with sodium hydroxide, NaOH to produce water and a salt.
According to Arrhenius: the following reactions would occur in water:
HCl → H+ + Cl-
NaOH → Na+ + OH-
H+ + OH- → H2O
Na+ + Cl- → NaCl
In summary: HCl + NaOH → NaCl + H2O
Arrhenius initiated the study of chemical kinetics and the actual mechanisms of chemical reactions. By
mechanism, we mean the individual molecular reactions that add up to the overall reaction. Arrhenius
gave us the concept of activation energy for a reaction around 1888. Arrhenius determined that an
energy barrier – the diference in initial energy of reactants and the necessary higher energy that must
be reached at some point in the reaction – controls the rate of a reaction. Arrhenius actually gave a
quantitative formula for determining activation energies.
6.3
Organic (living) Chemistry
In 1800, organic chemistry was very crude. A small number of organic compounds were known such as
waxes, fats, oils, acetone, sugars, oxalic acid, urea, and alcohol. According to the vitalist theory, organic
compounds had to be found in nature, they could not be made in the laboratory. Even the great Berzelius
supported this theory. Organic compounds had to be extracted from nature and then studied in the
laboratory. Chemists that did this kind of work became known as natural product chemists.
Lavoisier made the irst systematic studies of organic composition in 1786. He deined organic chemicals
as combinations of oxygen with radicals that contained carbon and hydrogen. If of animal origin, they
could also contain nitrogen and phosphorus. Lavoisier determined carbon content by combustion.
Gay-Lussac and Louis henard made improvements in 1810 and Berzelius further reined methods of
elemental analysis from 1814 forward. Berzelius tried to determine molecular formulas.
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During the period 1811–1817, Berzelius analyzed a suicient number of organic compounds to prove
that they obeyed the same laws as inorganic compounds. He further developed his bonding theory
based upon radicals.
Gay-Lussac and henard found that the ratio of hydrogen to oxygen in sugars, starches, woods, and gums
was the same as in water, namely two hydrogen atoms for each oxygen atom. he other main component of
these compounds was carbon. Hence, they acquired the name carbohydrates. Carbohydrate is misleading
because hydrate means a compound containing water. And, while the ratio of hydrogen to oxygen was
the same as in water, these compounds did not contain water units as do some inorganic hydrates.
Justus von Liebig in 1823 published the analysis of silver fulminate and Friedrich Wöhler in 1824 of
silver cyanate, two strikingly diferent compounds with the same percentages of silver, carbon, nitrogen
and oxygen. his suggested that there were diferent chemical compounds with the same composition
which, in turn, implies they must have diferent arrangements of the atoms to have diferent structures.
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Friedrich Wöhler (1800–1882) was a young German chemist who set out to make organic compounds in
the laboratory. He wished to disprove the Vitalist theory. And, in 1828, by heating inorganic ammonium
cyanate (NH4CNO) Wöhler produced the natural product Urea ((NH2)2CO) which had previously been
crystallized from urine. By now, Berzelius was considered the greatest authority on chemistry. Wöhler
wrote to Berzelius saying: “…I can prepare urea without requiring a kidney of an animal, either man or
dog.”22 Berzelius conirmed that Wöhler had succeeded. (See Figure 6.8.)
O
||
NH2 – C – NH2
Urea
[NH4+][CNO-] ĺ
Ammonium cyanate heat
Figure 6.8 Synthesis of Urea
Urea is found in mammalian urine. (It is produced by mammals to remove excess nitrogen.) At that time,
chemists characterized chemical compounds by elemental analysis, color, crystal form, melting point,
boiling point, taste, smell, and elemental analysis. When ammonium cyanate is heated, it rearranges to
urea that has a melting point of 132.7º C. While the elemental analysis gives the same formula (CH4ON2),
the properties of the two compounds are quite diferent.
Supporters of the Vitalist theory claimed urea was sort of an in-between compound, not really organic.
But the door had been opened.
By 1860 Bertholot claimed the total synthesis of organic compounds. (Amino acids, even proteins are
synthesized today.)
A theory for the structures of organic molecules was needed. Dumas and others proposed various
radicals such as etherin (ethylene, -C2H4-) that could have things added to them to become compounds
such as ethyl alcohol, ethyl ether, ethyl acetate, ethyl chloride, and so on. While the etherin theory was
not complete, it came very close by proposing such correct reactions as: C2H4 (ethylene) + H2O (water)
= C2H6O (ethyl alcohol or ethanol). In fact, this very reaction is used today in an industrial process for
making ethanol.
In 1837, Auguste Laurent (1807–1853) developed the nucleus theory in which there was a three
dimensional structure in the form of radical cubes with atoms added to or removed from the faces to give
diferent properties. his allowed such exchanges as chlorine replacing hydrogen without a change the
geometry. It was also the beginning of modern stereochemistry. he French chemist, Charles Gerhardt,
was a strong supporter of Laurent and carried the idea much further in the 1840s.
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Berzelius and the establishment strongly opposed Laurent and Gerhardt making them essentially outcasts.
Laurent had actually been the irst, in 1846, to propose that elementary gases such as oxygen and nitrogen
were diatomic molecules. As we mentioned earlier, by 1860 the idea of diatomic gases was accepted.
Wurtz was a classmate and friend of Gerhardt who supported him also. In 1849 Wurtz discovered
methylamine and ethylamine and suggested that these were molecules of ammonia with one hydrogen
atom replaced by a methyl (CH3-) or an ethyl (CH3CH2-). August von Hofmann then isolated secondary
and tertiary amines which led further support to Wurtz and, hence, Laurent. In 1853 Laurent proposed
a comprehensive theory of type compounds. Laurent died in 1853 and Gerhardt in 1856, both on the
verge of great success.
Organic chemistry was organized around classes of compounds but there was still no coherent theory
of structure. In 1856 William Henry Perkin attempted to synthesize quinine and made, instead, a new
dye that was named mauveine. he dye produced the very diicult to obtain royal purple color and at
one point was worth more per pound than platinum.
Organic chemistry was progressing at a very rapid rate. Friedrich Kekulé (1819–1896) in 1858 dreamed of
carbons forming a chain and the idea of the carbon skeleton to make organic compounds was discovered.
Carbon could have four bonds (valence) and could connect to itself or to other atoms to make organic
molecules. A few years later Kekulé would dream again, this time about snakes eating each other’s tails,
and gain insight into the structure of the unusual molecule benzene. Benzene gives rise to an important
class of compounds that are called aromatic molecules. (See Figure 6.9.)
| |
|
|
–C–C–C–C–
| |
|
|
Carbon Skeleton
H
H
H
H
\
/
\
/
C –––– C
C === C
/
\
//
\\
H–C
C– +ļ+– C
C– H
\
/
\\
//
C === C
C –––– C
/
\
/
\
H
H
H
H
Benzene
Figure 6.9 Kekulé’s Carbon Skeleton and Benzene
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Kekulé made two huge contributions to early chemistry. In the irst case, he suggested that organic
compounds had a carbon skeleton with other atoms connected to the remaining carbon bonds. his
proposal correctly describes many classes of organic compounds. he idea was completely empirical but it
gave a starting point for describing the thousands of organic compounds known at the time. In addition,
the carbon skeleton with various function groups attached, starts to give an explanation for the variety
of properties seen in organic compounds. For example, all alcohols have an oxygen between a hydrogen
and a carbon while all ethers have and oxygen between two carbons. he second great contribution of
Kekulé was a proposed structure for benzene which had the unusual formula of C6H6. Benzene, and
related compounds, had unusual properties such as distinctive smells. For this reason, they had been
called aromatic (aroma producing) compounds. Aromatic compounds are much more reactive than
simple hydrocarbons (containing only hydrogen and carbon) like butane (C4H10).
Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) was also a friend and supporter of Laurent. Laurent suggested to Pasteur
that he study the salts of tartaric acid to determine their properties, especially their optical activity.
(Certain compounds rotate polarized light.) Pasteur observed that half the crystals were oriented in an
angle to the right and the other half to the let. He also found that they rotated light accordingly and
that mixtures that did not rotate light were equal mixtures of the two forms.
In the 100 years, from the late 18th century to the late 19th, chemistry had become a science and made
remarkable progress. Following Dalton, all knew there must be a mechanism to chemical bonding, that
is, to what held the atoms together.
At the same time, another great cosmological barrier loomed, the Vitalist theory that separated organic
from inorganic chemistry, terms we still use today. Wöhler, in a purposeful search to synthesize a natural
product succeeded and only the dogmatists could continue to claim that a part of nature could be created
only by the gods and that spirit was required for assimilation of inorganic into organic materials.
In 1839, Salicylic acid (aspirin, the irst wonder drug) was extracted from the leaves of the spirea plant.
Ultimately the German chemist George Bayer patented aspirin, the irst wonder drug, in 1889.
Spurred on by a growing major economic frontier, the chemical industry, the 19th century was to know
hundreds of thousands of new compounds synthesized in the laboratory by organic chemists. And,
theories of bonding, which would both explain and predict chemical compounds and properties, were
sought. Again, the empirical and theoretical thinking brought logical models which would be the mainstay
of chemical understanding.
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It would be in the 20th century, with irst the discovery of subatomic particles (particularly the electron)
and later the development of quantum mechanics that chemists would have our modern theories of
chemical bonding. Two American chemists, who both spent most of their careers in California, G.N.
Lewis and Linus Pauling would be the central igures in the development of bonding theory. Pauling’s
he Nature of the Chemical Bond and the Structure of Molecules and Crystals (1939) is a comprehensive
treatise on early theories of chemical bonding. We will discuss chemical bonding in Chapter 16.
If Newton stood on the shoulders of giants, then, he, along with Descartes, Galileo and others, gave
birth to numerous more giants who would push back the frontier of the molecule and the structure of
all material, living and non-living, of which the universe is made.
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7 Classical Electricity, Magnetism
and Light (1700–1900)
During the Enlightenment and the hundred years that followed it, while chemistry was becoming a
science, Newtonianism and the scientiic method made progress in understanding and utilizing electricity
and magnetism. hese developments also advanced our understanding of light. And the physics of
electricity was important to understanding chemistry.
With the help of the great mathematicians, Euler, Lagrange, and Laplace, Newton’s laws became deeply
entrenched in the 19th century. Newtonianism became the dominant paradigm. he great French
mathematician and astronomer Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749–1827) postulated the mechanical Universe
based on Newton’s laws. Laplace believed that is you knew the position and momentum of every particle
in the universe, you would be able to calculate all the future positions and momentums. i.e. Laplace
believed that physics had shown the universe to be totally determined and operate like a machine.
(Quantum mechanics would later prove Laplace wrong but his was a very attractive idea to scientists.)
A dramatic conirmation of Newton’s laws was the discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846. William
Herschel had discovered the seventh planet, Uranus, in 1781. Astronomers calculated Uranus’ orbit
using Newton’s laws of motion and gravitation as outlined in the Principia. But, when Uranus’ orbit was
actually observed and carefully measured, it it the Newtonian predictions–with the exception of a slight
wobble about 1.5 minutes of arc in twenty years. Could there be errors in observation? Could there be
errors in calculation? Or, could there be another reason?
Simultaneously in 1845, two theoretical astronomers, Urbain Le Verrier in France and John Couch Adams
in England, used Newton’s laws to calculate the position and size of a new planet beyond Uranus that
could cause such an aberration. Adams’ supervisor lacked conidence in the calculations, so they were
not published. Le Verrier, who had published his calculations, asked the German astronomer Johann
Galle to look for a new planet at given coordinates in the sky. On the very evening that he received
Le Verrier’s instructions, September 23, 1846, Galle looked and discovered Neptune. (In retrospect, it
turned out that Adams had not only anticipated the discovery, but that the English on three occasions
had actually observed the planet but had not known it!) Newton’s laws work remarkably well and Pluto
was discovered in 1930 using similar calculations on the orbit of Neptune.
In the 19th Century science tried to achieve a uniied theory of physical phenomena. “We are near a
complete understanding of physical phenomena.” One physicist remarked. “Particles of matter in motion,
governed by forces, strictly determined, and expressed in mathematical formalism.” Many thought that
astronomy had proven Laplace’s Mechanical Universe!
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At the beginning of the industrial age, electricity, magnetism, heat, and light were mysteries. Although
the 19th century did not achieve a uniied mechanical-mathematical theory, it laid the foundations for
electro-magnetism, thermodynamics and kinetics, and wave theory of light. Newton (and Descartes)
believed that the material world was made up of particles. Dalton’s atomic theory conirmed that the
elements indeed were comprised of atoms and molecules. But science still did not understand the principle
of cohesion. And electricity and heat seemed to behave like luids, not like particles.
7.1
Electrical Phenomena
William Gilbert (1544–1603), court physician to Queen Elizabeth I studied the properties of magnetism.
He concluded that the Earth was a gigantic magnet with north and south poles. He also believed that
magnetism had something to do with holding the universe together.
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) demonstrated that lightning and electrical efects were the same. he
Leyden jar, which could store an electrical charge, had been invented in 1745 by Pieter van Musschenbroek.
(Today the Leyden jar is called a capacitor or condenser.) Until this time, experiments with electricity
could only be done by producing sparks and any kind of quantiication of electrical efects was not
possible. With the Leyden jar, however, it was possible to store a charge and use it later. (See Link 7.1.)
Link 7.1 Leyden Jar
http://bit.ly/14UvczE
here is uncertainty about whether Franklin actually conducted his kite experiment. It was logical to
think that lightening might just be static electricity on a large scale. (In fact, the Ancient Greeks had
speculated this.) he sparks created by rubbing diferent materials together certainly look like small
lightning bolts and they give shocks and can even start ires like lightning bolts.
Franklin speculated that large amounts of electrical charge were generated in storm clouds. his again
was logical as lightning results from storm clouds once they are mature. What is known for sure about
Franklin’s experiment was that he later wrote that he lew a kite, with a silk string and with a key on the
string connected, by wire, to a Leyden jar, into growing storm clouds. he Leyden jar built up a large
electrical charge during the experiment.
It is unlikely that lightning actually hit the kite because Franklin would have likely been killed. However,
the friction in rapidly moving clouds builds an electrical charge and the experiment as described
would have worked. Many pilots have heard static buildups on their radios as they lew through storm
clouds and numerous airplanes have been hit by lightening. Franklin’s experiment was crucial to the
characterization of electricity.
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Luigi Galvani (1737–1798) was an Italian physician who lived in Bologna. Around 1773 he was dissecting
a frog on a bench where he was also conducting electrical experiments. A scalpel touched to a severed
leg of a frog created sparks and caused the muscle to contract and leg to kick. Presumably, the scalpel
had picked up a charge from other items on the bench.
Galvani concluded that animal electricity was produced by the frog and carried by the muscle to the nerve
causing the relex. Galvani promoted the idea that all life was electrical. A life-long argument as to the
source of electricity developed between Galvani and the next individual in our story. he argument was
advanced through their publications and lectures and those of their students and associates.
Galvani’s protagonist was Count Alessandra Volta (1745–1827). Volta irst studied chemistry and then
became a professor of physics at the Royal School at Como, Italy. His knowledge of both disciplines served
him well. Among his discoveries is the important chemical compound methane (CH4). He developed
the law of capacitance that shows that voltage and charge are proportion in a given capacitor.
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In 1791 Volta studied Galvani’s animal electricity and found that he could replace the frog’s leg with
a salt-soaked piece of paper between two diferent metals and generate an electrical current. Volta
concluded that the frog’s leg was a conductor of electricity, not the generator. In 1800, Volta made his
greatest contribution by the invention of the Voltaic pile, a series of two diferent metals separated by
brine solutions. He used zinc and silver to construct a Voltaic Pile, what we now call a battery. (A battery
is a series of a electrochemical cells although it has become common to call even a single cell a battery.)
(See Link 7.2.)
Link 7.2 Voltaic Pile (Battery)
http://bit.ly/14hzy8l
By placing alternately silver and zinc metal sheets, separated by paper wetted with brine (salt water
solution), Volta generated a large electrical current that could be used for quantitative experiments. A
single cell (one sheet of silver and one of zinc separated by paper wetted with brine) produces a current
by itself. However, the force of this current, which will come to be called its voltage, is increased with
a series of cells.
Volta’s battery gave scientists, for the irst time, a constant and reproducible source of electric current. It
was now possible to study electricity in a reproducible and quantitative fashion. Within a decade of Volta’s
invention, both electrolysis and electroplating were discovered. We will say more about the former soon.
We wanted to discuss Galvani and Volta together because their competing theories about the production
of electricity were crucial to many developments. Simply put, Galvani thought electricity was produced
by animals (organically) and Volta thought it was produced by inorganic materials. he irony, of course,
is that they were both right. Electric currents are produced by electrochemical cells and biological cells
themselves oten have electrochemical properties. hese properties are essential to the functioning of
nervous systems.
In between the times of the two Italians’ great discoveries, another scientist, this time French, made one
of the most fundamental discoveries about electricity. In the 1780s, Charles de Coulomb (1736–1806)
quantiied electric charge. Coulomb invented the torsion balance which allowed much smaller quantities
of force to be measured accurately. (See Link 7.3.) (An English geologist, John Michell also had made
a torsion balance about 1750.)
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Link 7.3 Coulomb’s Torsion Balance
http://bit.ly/1cZr8Im
It was known that opposite charges attracted each other and like charges repelled each other. Coulomb
was able to determine the mathematical relationship between charge and force to be:
F = -q1q2K/r2 where q = charge, K is a constant, and r = distance
he force, whether attractive or repulsive, decreases with the square of the distance between the two
charges. his relationship bears a remarkable similarity to Newton’s Law of Gravity:
F = m1m2G/r2 where m = charge, G is a constant, and r = distance
At this point in history, science knew of two forces and both varied proportionally to a property of the
objects (mass or charge) and inversely proportionally to the square of the distance between the two
objects. With Coulomb’s law it was possible to apply mechanics to charged bodies in the same way that
Newton’s law allowed the application of mechanics to massive bodies.
Two other important events in developing an understanding of electricity and magnetism should be
mentioned. In 1817, Andre Ampere, a French physicist, discovered that parallel electriied wires in which
the current ran in the same direction repelled one another. Also, in 1821, Hans Christian Orsted, a Danish
chemist and physicist, electriied a platinum wire causing it to glow. More importantly, the needle of a
near-by compass focused on the wire as if it were a magnet. Orsted determined that the electriied wire
was surrounded by a magnetic efect. Orsted devised the galvanometer, which is essentially a compass
with a bent needle to measure magnetic delection caused by an electrical current. he galvanometer
became an important device for accurately measuring current. (See Link 7.4.)
Link 7.4 Galvanometer
http://www.tpub.com/neets/book16/33NP0033.GIF
Electricity was magnetic. Was the opposite true? We will see shortly that Orsted’s discovery led to other,
very important developments.
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7.2
Classical Electricity, Magnetism and Light (1700–1900)
Volta’s Cell Applied to Chemistry
he same year that Volta’s cell was announced (1800), a British civil engineer passed an electric current
through water producing hydrogen at the cathode (negative electrode) and oxygen at the anode (positive
electrode). his reversal of the well-known process of making water from hydrogen and oxygen added
important evidence in support of Dalton’s atomic theory that would be announced only three years
later. (See Link 7.5.)
Link 7.5 Electrolysis of Water
http://www.instructables.com/id/Separate-Hydrogen-and-Oxygen-from-Water-hrough-El/
When two electrodes are placed in water, and a voltage is applied across them, water is broken up into
hydrogen and oxygen. Oxygen gas bubbles up from the positive electrode and hydrogen gas bubbles
up from the negative electrode. he terms positive and negative were arbitrarily assigned. However,
researchers realized that the charges were opposite so the terms positive/negative are appropriate
In addition, both Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829), one of England’s most distinguished chemists, and
the great Berzelius in Sweden used electrolysis to isolate various elements. Many elements such as sodium
and luorine were isolated for the irst time by electrolysis.
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Berzelius believed that electricity was the force that held atoms together to form molecules. his would
explain why some atoms would be attracted to the positive electrode and others to the negative electrode.
If atoms were oppositely charged, then these atoms should bond together as do oxygen and hydrogen
and many other pairs.
7.3
Electricity, Magnetism and Light
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) was perhaps the greatest experimentalist of the 19th century. Faraday’s life
is a rags-to-riches story. He had little education, and a notorious aversion to mathematics. Faraday was
the son of a blacksmith. His family was too poor to keep him in school so at 13 he became an errand
boy for a bookstore. he owner apprenticed Faraday as a bookbinder (a term of seven years) for books
that came into the shop.
Faraday not only learned to bind books, but he also read everything that came his way, including the
Encyclopedia Britannia. While still working at the bookstore, he attended the lectures of Sir Humphry
Davy, built his own Voltaic pile, and independently discovered electrolysis by running current through
solutions of silver nitrate, copper sulfate, and aluminum chloride, noting that the metals were deposited
on the negative electrode.
Faraday sent Davy a report on his own scientiic experiments, and a copy of Davy’s own lectures inely
bound. Davy wondered what to do about Faraday and asked the advice of one of the Governors of the
Royal Institution of Great Britain, of which he was Director. he Governor advised: “Let him wash bottles!
If he is any good, he will accept the work; if he refuses, he is not good for anything.”
Faraday accepted and remained at the Royal Institution for 45 years, irst as Davy’s assistant, then as
his collaborator, and eventually as Director. Despite his general ignorance of mathematics, Faraday had
remarkable skill in envisioning how nature worked. As Davy’s apprentice, he showed great skill, intuition
and creativity.
Davy and Faraday repeated both Orsted’s and Ampere’s experiments. Faraday pressed on, and conducted
two experiments that may seem obvious and simple today, but which required great ingenuity.
In 1821, Faraday designed a remarkable experiment that became the basis for the electric motor. A
permanent magnet was set in a bowl of mercury. A battery was connected to the mercury and also to
a wire suspended above the bowl and just touching the mercury. (See Link 7.6.) When the current was
applied, the hanging wire rotated around the ixed magnet.
Link 7.6 Original Faraday Electric Motor
http://www.sparkmuseum.com/MOTORS.HTM
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In 1831, Faraday conducted a set of electrical and magnetic experiments. He passed a magnet through
a coil and generated an electric current. (See Link 7.7.)
Link 7.7 Magnet Generating Current in Coil
http://bit.ly/12nrOjX
When the magnet stops moving, the current stops as well. By this experiment, Faraday had proven that
mechanical motion could be converted into an electric current.
Likewise, when Faraday passed an electric current through a coil, it generated a magnetic ield that
attracted an iron bar. (See Link 7.8.)
Link 7.8 Current Generating Magnetic Field
http://bit.ly/13EijA
When the current stops, the iron bar stops moving as well. Faraday had proven that an electric current
could be converted into mechanical motion. his is the basis of all electric motors.
Faraday had invented both the electric motor and the electric generator. Others, primarily Joseph Henry,
an American Scientist who was the irst Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, improved and developed
the electric motor and generator into practical devices. he Industrial Revolution would now move from
steam to electricity as it driving force. Electricity had great advantages. For example, electricity could be
moved over great distances by wires and it could be switched on and of conveniently. (See Link 7.9.)
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Link 7.9 Electrical Switch
http://www.123rf.com/photo_264323_vintage-electrical-switch.html
It was quickly learned that metals conduct electricity and most other materials do not. So, switches were
made by simply screwing two metal clips to a block of wood and connecting a metal strip to one of the
clips. With wires connected to the clips, when the lexible strip is pushed against the contact, the current
lows. When the lexible strip is released, and allowed to break the connection, the current doesn’t low.
Later, Faraday wrapped iron rings with copper wire and determined that he could create an electrical
induction from a charged ring to the uncharged ring. hus the transformer was invented. By analogy
to the mechanical advantage of levers and gears, transformers could change the voltage of an electric
current by having diferent numbers of turns in the two coils. (See Link 7.10.)
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Link 7.10 One Coil Generating Current in Another
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformer
he voltage ratio between the two coils is the ratio of the number of turns in each coil. In other words,
if the irst coil has 50 turns and the second coil 100 turns, when 5 volts are passed through the irst coil,
a 10 volts is generated in the second coil. (his does not, however, mean that you are getting something
for free. While the voltage is doubled in the second coil, the current produced is only half and the actual
energy, which is proportional to the product of voltage and current, remains the same.)
Finally, Faraday determined that electricity and magnetism were virtually identical in his famous, but
elegantly simple experiment, of passing a magnet through one of his electrical coils. Faraday determined
that it did not make any diference whether the magnet was moved or whether the coil was moved:
either action produced an electrical current. Of this famous experiment, Faraday wrote: “he mutual
relation of electricity, magnetism, and motion may be represented by three lines at right angles to each
other, any one of which may represent any one of these points and the other two lines the other points.
hen if electricity be determined in one line and motion in the other, magnetism will be developed in
the third; or if electricity be determined in one line and magnetism in another, motion will occur in the
third. Or if magnetism be determined irst then motion will produce electricity or electricity motion.
Or if motion be the irst point determined, magnetism will evolve electricity or electricity magnetism.”23
In Faraday’s own words is the heart of the theory and practice of electromagnetism. From these principles,
one can in efect create an electric motor. And also from these principles came the development of the
dynamo, or generator, which powers our electric civilization.
Faraday did not know it at the time, but he had just taken the irst step towards Einstein’s theory of
relativity. We have already discussed ordinary, mechanical relativity known to Galileo and Newton.
Faraday had discovered a new relativity. Electricity at rest (at least relative to the observer) is called static
electricity. Electricity that is moving (relative to the observer) is called current. Faraday determined
that the electromagnetic phenomena were the consequence of relative motion of the apparatus – not
the absolute motion of any part. hat is, the same electromagnetic efect was achieved whether one
moved the magnet up and down in the coil, or moved the coil up and down over the magnet. It made
no diference. But, the amount of current that was produced was dependent on the relative speed of the
magnet and coil to each other. An observer sitting at a galvanometer has no way to tell how the equipment
is moving – there is no absolute state of rest that can be measured to tell us whether the magnet or the
coil is moving – all he can observe is that they are moving relative to one another!
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Place the magnet and coil in a car, train, or airplane, and there is no way to determine the absolute speed
that the vehicle and its electrical equipment are moving. Again, only the relative motion of magnet and
coil can be determined in a speeding vehicle. Faraday was intrigued by the discovery that absolute motion
cannot be determined by electromagnetic experiments – only relative motion can.
Faraday was much more than a clever inventor and experimenter, however. He was also a brilliant theorist.
As we have already stated, electricity raised questions about corpuscular or particle theory. Electricity
seemed to behave like a luid afecting an area or ield rather than a particular point or place. When a
drop of water hits the rug, it spreads out to form a wet area. he drop loses its particular identity, while
the area or ield becomes continuously damp. he basic elements of matter (in this case our drop of
water) are discrete or they are continuous in nature – they cannot be both at the same time.
Faraday did not question the particular or atomistic theories being developed by Dalton and Berzelius
at this same time, but he believed that particular matter inluenced other matter through the action of
the imponderables. Further, Faraday proposed that the imponderables – electricity, magnetism, gravity,
and light – were continuous entities that occupied ields in space and time.
Faraday began with the famous experiment of the magnet, bits of iron ilings, and paper, that demonstrates
the efect of a magnetic ield of force. Once again, we have the problem of explaining action at a distance.
Faraday asked, what is more fundamental: the action of the iron ilings, or the lines of force that appear
to be aligning them? (See Link 7.11.)
Link 7.11 Lines of Force
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/magnet0873.png
Faraday believed the lines of force were more fundamental – without the lines of force, there would
not be a magnet. Faraday no doubt believed the force ield was the basic entity. And he believed that
magnetic force ields and electric force ields were related to one another in some way.
It was evident to Faraday that the magnetic force ield caused the iron ilings to align according to the
lines of force. But what about the force ield itself? Did it occupy space, or did it change space? Here
we have the irst questioning of Newton’s idea of absolute space. Did electrical or magnetic force ields
afect space itself?
If space is not bending or curving as a consequence of electromagnetic efects, then what is? In what
medium do the electromagnetic phenomena occur? Faraday’s only alternative was to propose that the
force ields acted in an electromagnetic aether.
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Ater Faraday concluded that an electrical ield was equivalent to a magnetic ield in motion, he speculated
that his electromagnetic force ields might be similar to Newton’s gravitational force ields. hus Faraday
spent the last years of his life trying to work out a uniied general ield theory that would reconcile the
imponderables electricity, magnetism, and gravity. Faraday was puzzled by a problem that continues
unresolved. If electromagnetic ields of force are interchangeable with gravitational ields of force, why is it that
electromagnetic forces are both attractive and repulsive, but gravity as experienced in nature is only attractive?
Faraday thought that Newton’s theory of gravitational action-at-a-distance was incompatible with
his theory of the continuous force ield of electromagnetism. To understand Newton better, Faraday
studied Newton’s mathematical calculations, and concluded that it was Newton’s calculations that made
gravitational theory appear to be valid.
In addition to his brilliance as an experimentalist and theoretician, Michael Faraday was noted for his
excellence as a lecturer. He was famous for explaining diicult concepts to school children. Whenever it
was announced that Faraday would lecturer at the Royal Institution, both Charles Darwin and Charles
Dickens always came. Dickens even encouraged Faraday to write popular books on science.
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James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) lived only 48 years, but along with Faraday produced some of the
most brilliant physics of the 19th century. Maxwell has two claims to fame: irst, he founded the Cavendish
Laboratory at the Cambridge University, which became one of the leading laboratories for atomic and
nuclear physics; and second, he developed the mathematical synthesis for establishing electromagnetic
theory.
Maxwell, a Scot, was virtually the antithesis of Faraday. Maxwell was from a wealthy family, he was a
mathematical prodigy, and enjoyed the best of education and contacts.
Maxwell’s great contribution was to take Coulomb’s electrostatic work, Faraday’s electromagnetic
theory, Gauss’ study of magnetism, and Ampere’s research, reduce each to comparable equations,
and then produce synthetic equations which were equivalent for electrical ields and magnetic ields.
Mathematicians immediately recognized that Maxwell’s equations were variations of the standard wave
equation – whether it is water waves or sound waves. In other words, Maxwell’s equations stated that
there was a new kind of wave involving electrical and magnetic ields – this would later be known as
electromagnetic waves. (See Link 7.12.)
Link 7.12 Electromagnetic Wave
http://bit.ly/181QIV0
As the igure shows, the electric and magnetic ields are at right angles to one another and at right angles
to the direction of propagation of the waves – just as Faraday had described. But Maxwell discovered more!
In 1849, Armand Hippolyte Fizeau (and later in 1862 Jean Foucault) calculated the velocity of light using
similar devices. he experimental apparatus took advantage of inference patterns. By passing beams of
light through moving water, with one beam going in the director of the water low and the other going
against the water low, the resultant inference pattern can be used to calculate the speed of light. (See
Link 7.13.)
Link 7.13 Measurement of Speed of Light
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Speed_of_light_(Fizeau).PNG
Later, in 1887, using a similar apparatus, Michelson and Morely determined that light had a constant
speed in a vacuum. We will return to this when we discuss Einstein’s Special Relativity.
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More importantly, earlier in the century, homas Young and Augustin Fresnel independently developed
theory and experimentation which demonstrated the wave theory of light, in conlict with Newtonian
hypothesis of the corpuscular nature of light. All of the imponderables now seemed to moving along on
waves: heat, light, electricity, and magnetism. (In the next section we will discuss heat.)
Maxwell, then, not only established the wave theory of electromagnetism, but he also predicted that
electromagnetic waves would propagate at the speed of light. Maxwell concluded: “he velocity of
transverse undulations…agrees so exactly with the velocity of light…that we can scarcely avoid the
inference that light consists in the transverse undulations of the same medium which is the cause of
electric and magnetic phenomena.”24
Obviously, we are approaching a uniied ield theory based on the propagation of electromagnetic and
light waves through some sort of aetherial substance.
7.4
Electrical Technology
he development of electrical technology provides an excellent case study of the relationship between
science and technology, engineering and industry, in which science leads the way in theory, observation,
and experimentation. he work of Faraday, Maxwell, and others, established a irm foundation for
electrical technology.
Of course, the age of steam was well underway by this time, as was gas lighting in streets, homes, and
factories. By 1825, over 50 English towns were lit by gas.
In his early experiments concerning induction, Faraday determined that electricity not only had a positive
and negative aspect, but that it also could be switched on and of. his on-of aspect of electricity obviously
could be incorporated into communications. he irst application of this principle was the invention of the
telegraph in 1837 used for railway signaling. With the development of the Morse code and cables laid under
the English Channel in 1850, and across the Atlantic in 1866, a world-wide communications revolution
was underway. In 1844 Samuel Morse, tapped out the irst telegraphic message from Washington, DC to
Baltimore, “What Hath God wrought.”25 he telegraph aided governments, armies, and businesses. he
telegraph allowed instant communications between customers and stock markets, and inlamed public
imagination about the progress of technology. (See Link 7.14.)
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Link 7.14 On/Of Switch and Telegraph
http://bit.ly/17322TZ
Using an On/Of Switch a magnetized coil could be used to move a metal rod against a plate at the other
end of a wire creating a signaling device. he telegraph was irst used on railroads for signaling when
railroad track switches had to have their positions changed. It was, however, only a short time before
communications were sent by telegraph. Such instant communications over a long distance creating a
brand-new world of commerce.
Maxwell wrote to Faraday in 1857: “You are the irst person in whom the idea of bodies acting at a
distance by throwing the surrounding medium into a state of constraint has arisen…your lines of force
can weave a web across the sky and lead the stars in their courses without any necessary immediate
connection with the objects of their attraction.”26 How prophetic.
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In 1886–88, Heinrich Hertz in Karlsruhe, Germany succeeded in producing and directing Faraday’s and
Maxwell’s invisible electromagnetic waves across space, just as Maxwell had predicted. Using a simple
apparatus (an electrical oscillator and a spark detector), Hertz produced electromagnetic waves, which
today we know as radio and TV broadcast waves. he electromagnetic waves that Hertz produced travelled
at the speed of light, just as Maxwell predicted, and had all the properties of Maxwell’s equations. Hertz,
like Maxwell, died young, and Marconi and others perfected the technology that led to wireless and
radio communication. (See Link 7.15.)
Link 7.15 Hertz Apparatus
http://www.sparkmuseum.com/BOOK_HERTZ.HTM
he most signiicant economic use of electrical power, however, was in the development of electric motors
and dynamos. Early battery powered electric motors were technically sound, but hopelessly outclassed
by steam engines. Ater Faraday’s discovery of the principle of the generator (dynamo), however, large
scale use of electrical power became possible. Electricity did not become economically competitive
with steam until ater Edison invented the incandescent ilament light bulb in the 1870s. Electric lights
provided the economic basis for the growth of the electrical industry.
In 1882, New York and London built central power stations, with dynamos driven by steam. Berlin’s
power station began operation in 1888. By the 1890s electric lighting was quickly displacing gas lighting.
Concurrently, in the late 1880s and 1890s, electric trams and electric railways began operation in the
cities. In 1890, London opened its irst underground tube line, which is still in operation today as part
of the Inner Circle. Electricity was produced at Niagara Falls in 1896.
As we have seen, the electrical industry was dependent on scientiic progress. he same was not the
case for steam technology, which provided power for mills, factories, and the railroads. We will explore
steam technology and thermodynamics in the next chapter.
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Thermodynamics (1700–1900)
8 Thermodynamics (1700–1900)
8.1
The Rise of Steam Technology
In the previous chapter, we saw an example in electricity and magnetism where scientiic discovery led
to technological application. In the case of heat (and steam), the technological development came irst
and the scientiic discovery followed.
You will recall that Lavoisier thought that heat was a substance, which was very far from a valid
explanation. Steam engines were built and applied without any basic science to support them. his did
not, however, stop the Industrial Revolution from changing the world.
You will recall that ordinary pumps, which worked by removing air from the top of a pipe and letting
the air pressure on the water force it upwards, could only lit water about 30 feet. One of the irst steam
engines was built in 1698 by homas Savery who used the steam pressure developed in an iron boiler to
help pump water from mines. Savery’s steam pump could raise water about 150 feet. Because mines were
being dug deeper and deeper in search of coal and metal ores, Savery’s steam pump was an important
invention.
homas Newcomen developed an improved steam pump in 1712, safer because it employed a piston and
did not depend on high pressure steam which oten caused accidents. By 1769, James Watt improved the
Newcomen steam engine, increasing the eiciency three-fold. Watt’s new and eicient source of constant
power attracted mill owners who had been dependent on the low of streams turning water wheels for
power. By the time of the American Revolution, Watt and his partners were manufacturing about 20
industrial steam engines a year. (See Figures 8.1 and 8.2.)
Link 8.1 Newcomen Steam Engine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/homas_Newcomen
Link 8.2 Watt Steam Engine
http://www.humanthermodynamics.com/watt-engine.jpg
Steam engine eiciency increased so dramatically that by the time of the American Civil War in 1861,
steam engines were applied to manufacturing and transportation in the form of trains and railroads and
ships. he Industrial Revolution was powered by steam.
he best known early American adaptation of steam technology was Robert Fulton’s steam boat, which
in 1807 cut travel time between New York City and Albany (about 150 miles) from more than four days
to 32 hours. (See Link 8.3.)
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Link 8.3 Fulton Steam Boat
http://bit.ly/176lwFj
By the 1840s coal had replaced wood as the primary fuel. 1815–1860 has been called the golden age
for steamboats in the United States. For the most part, the advance of western industrialization was an
economic revolution driven by new technologies, not by innovations in basic sciences.
8.2
Heat and Energy – the First Law of Thermodynamics
Of course, scientists were interested in the scientiic basis for the new steam technology. But the nature
of heat was not understood until the 19th century. Galileo and others tried to measure or quantify heat.
Modern thermometers and measuring schemes were developed by the 18th century.
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Thermodynamics (1700–1900)
In 1714, German Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the mercury thermometer and the Fahrenheit
temperature scale. In 1742, a Swedish astronomer, Ander Celsius, developed the Centigrade or Celsius
scale of temperature that ultimately replaced the Fahrenheit scale everywhere but in the U.S. he Celsius
scale is based on water: 0 degrees is deined as the temperature at which water freezes and 100 degrees
as the temperature at which water boils. (Today’s scientists use another scale: 0 degrees Kelvin equals
absolute zero, the lowest possible temperature. Kelvin degrees are the same as Celsius degrees so you can
add 273.15 to the Celsius temperature to get Kelvin. We will discuss the determination of absolute zero
later in this chapter.) It is not coincidental that Celsius based his scale on water since heat was believed
to be an imponderable luid. (See Link 8.4.)
Link 8.4 Fahrenheit vs. Celsius
http://www.fahrenheit.org/
On the Fahrenheit scale the freezing point of water is deined as 32 oF and the boiling point of water as
212 oF. On the Celsius the freezing point of water is deined as 0 ºC and the boiling point of water as
100 ºC. he two scales are compared on the graph above. Each can be converted to the other by using
the following formulas: Fº = (9/5) × Cº + 32; and Cº = (Fº -32) × (5/9).
You will recall that Lavoisier coined the term caloric to distinguish heat from Aristotle’s ire which was
not a basic constituent of matter. It was also noted by Lavoisier that heat, like light, did not have weight,
but appeared to low in and around matter. he calorie (Latin, calor, heat) is deined as the amount of
heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius. (he calorie content of foods
is actually given in units of kilocalories, that is, the amount of heat required to raise 1 kilogram of water
1 degree Celsius.)
Like other sciences, much of the early study of heat was descriptive and qualitative. Radiant heat, for
example, seemed to possess many of the same qualities as light, and early experiments by William Herschel
and others, suggested that heat and light might be explained by a common theory. his was before heat
was regarded as a form of energy. Before 1820, physicists still held to Newton’s particle theory of light
and heat was also thought to be comprised of particles, rather than motion – suggesting, of course, that
something particulate was hot.
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he equivalency of heat and energy was irst suggested by Benjamin hompson (1753–1814), Count
Rumford. (hompson was a colonial turn-coat who ultimately fought for the British in the American
Revolutionary War.) Watching cannons being bored in Munich, Rumford noted how hot the metal
became. Buckets of water were poured on the metal to cool it during the boring process. he standard
explanation would be that the boring action had liberated the caloric luid in the metal. Rumford
concluded, however, that the heat was the consequence of work produced by the motion of the boring
apparatus. (See Link 8.5.)
Link 8.5 Cannon Barrel Boring
http://www.clemson.edu/caah/history/facultypages/PamMack/lec122sts/inve
ntion6.htmlIn the 1840s, Englishman James Prescott Joule (1818–1889) established that mechanical
work could be converted into heat quantitatively. In a number of careful experiments (the paddle
wheel being the most famous), Joule determined that work converted to heat at a deinite, measurable
rate of conversion, i.e., 4.2 Joule equal 1 calorie. (See Link 8.6.)
Link 8.6 Joule Experiment
http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/35600/35657/joule_35657_lg.gif
Joule also determined that an electrical current passed through a certain resistance gave a speciic amount
of heat. Joule is credited with the discovery of the First Law of hermodynamics: DE = H + W where:
DE is the change of energy in a system, H is the heat added to the system, and W is the work done on
the system. Obviously any of these parameters can be negative. For example, when the system cools H
is negative and when the system does work on the surroundings W is negative.
he First Law of hermodynamics is another way of stating the Law of Conservation of Energy.
Historically, the problem of heat played a major role in the development of the Law of Conservation of
Energy. Gravitational energy and kinetic energy were obviously related, but the idea of heat as energy
was not quite so obvious. Conservation of Energy is another way of saying: You can’t get something for
nothing. (Many perpetual motion machines attempt to produce energy by some scheme such as water
lowing downhill through a turbine-generator that turns an electric motor that powers a pump to pump
the water back up into the reservoir.) (See Link 8.7.)
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Link 8.7 Perpetual Motion Machine
http://bit.ly/1d3NMOZ
A German physician, Julius Robert Mayer (1814–1878) is generally credited as the irst scientist to
propose that all natural forces (electricity, magnetism, gravity, heat, mechanical work, etc.) are equivalent.
Mayer suggested that the term force was vague and ambivalent, and he proposed using the term energy,
instead. Mayer, and later Hermann von Helmholtz, saw that all forces – animal heat and mechanical
work – were convertible, yet conserved.
From the perspective of physiology, Mayer perceived that all forms of energy are equivalent, meaning
that energy can be transformed from one form to another providing that the total amount of energy
remains constant.
In 1848, Scottish physicist William hompson (1824–1907), who would become Lord Kelvin, arrived
at a fascinating conclusion based upon Charles’s Law of Gases. Charles’s Law states that the volume of
a gas is directly proportional to its temperature. Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac published this relationship in
1802 based upon unpublished work of Jacques Charles from around 1787.
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hompson had observed that gases expand or contract about 1/273rd of their volume for each 1 degree
(Celsius) temperature change around 0ºC. hompson extrapolated the volume to zero at -273º C. He
concluded that -273º C must be the lowest possible temperature. Kelvin’s absolute zero became the basis
for the Kelvin temperature scale. Many chemical properties are a function of the absolute temperature.
Kelvin’s value was amazingly accurate for the crude apparatus of the 19th century. (he current value for
absolute zero is -273.15º C. On the Kelvin scale, the freezing point of water is 273.15 K and the boiling
point is 373.15K.) (See Link 8.8.)
Link 8.8 Extrapolation to Absolute Zero
http://bit.ly/1d3NPKy
By plotting the volume of a gas in ordinary temperature ranges, and then extrapolating the temperature
lower, Kelvin realized that the data predicted the gas would have zero volume at -273º C. Of course, zero
volume would make no sense but it did suggest to Kelvin that there was a lower limit to temperature.
Joule, as we have already discussed, also saw the relationship between heat and work. And so it followed
that there is a relationship between energy and work. he First Law of hermodynamics is a special
case that applies to the transformation of heat to mechanical work. Joule put Mayer’s theory on a irm
foundation of physical theory. Energy is the capacity to do work. he study of heat and work became
known as thermodynamics. (In thermodynamics, thermo refers to heat, and dynamics refers to motion
or work.)
he Law of Conservation of Energy brought a sense of unity concerning physical forces in nature, but
it also set limits to the age of the Universe. According to the Law of Conservation of Energy, the sun
cannot create energy out of nothing. Consequently, the sun cannot continue to shine forever, radiating
heat and light into the solar system. he sun is a inite system with a limited amount of energy.
In 1863 Lord Kelvin, based on the Law of the Conservation of Energy, estimated that the sun could not
be more than 100 million years old. Consequently, the Earth could not be more than 100 million years
old. A number of physicists tried to lengthen the age of the sun by suggesting that its energy was regularly
supplemented by meteors crashing into the sun. But Kelvin rather easily delected these arguments.
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Kelvin’s calculations created a serious crisis for the uniformitarianism school of geology, and inferentially,
for Darwinism as we will discuss later. here was not enough time for geological or biological evolution.
In addition, the idea that the sun itself has inite life, scientiically raised a point that religions had always
addressed: that there were limited supplies of energy in the solar system, and that the universe itself
was mortal.
Lord Kelvin’s recognition that the sun had a limited lifetime was a very important 19th century insight.
But his actual estimate of the lifetime of the sun was much too low because he did not know about
nuclear energy, which increased the life of the sun by a large factor. (Instead of 100 million years the
sun is actually about 4.5 billion years old. his age will allow enough time for uniformitarianism and
evolution. In Chapter 19 we will discuss how the age of the Earth and sun are determined.) Nevertheless,
Kelvin’s insight still stands – the sun has not always shined, and will one day burn out.
8.2
Entropy – The Second Law of Thermodynamics
he First Law of hermodynamics (conservation of energy) raises an important question about the
universe. If energy is conserved, why does your soup grow cold, or your ice cream melt? Why does
smoke ill the room, but never gather in a corner? Why do ice cubes placed in warm water melt cooling
the water? Why doesn’t the resulting solution ever turn into ice and warm water. More profoundly, why
does nature’s time low forward, but never backward?
Sadi Carnot (1796–1832), a French army oicer, began to contemplate such questions in 1824 as he
thought about James Watt’s steam engine. Carnot realized that the essential principle of the steam engine
was the temperature diferential created between the steam boiler and cooling condenser. Carnot made
an analogy between the steam engine and the common water wheel. Falling water produced work in
the waterwheel, falling temperature produced work in the steam engine.
By the Law of Conservation of Energy, of course, heat transferred to work is energy conserved. Carnot
noted that the principles of the steam engine were little understood, and in a brilliant thought experiment
he worked out the theoretical maximum eiciency of one of Watt’s steam engines.
7+7&
(IILFLHQF\ [
7+
where TH is the temperature (in Kelvin units) of the hot body and TC is the temperature of the cold body.
Notice that 100% eiciency can only be achieved if the temperature of the cold body is absolute zero.
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In a frictionless, reversible engine (like a water wheel) wouldn’t heat be ideally conserved? Envisioning
such a frictionless, reversible engine, Carnot placed similar engines side by side in his thoughts – one
of them slightly more eicient than the other. In Carnot’s mind, the more eicient machine drove the
other machine in a reverse cycle. Because the irst engine was more eicient, however, that engine would
also produce some useful work.
Carnot had just imagined a perpetual motion machine which he realized was an impossibility! But he
died of cholera before he could fully work out the answer to this question. And ater the fashion of
his time, most of his papers were burned so that little was let for him to contribute to the history of
science. But his ideas provided important insight into what would become known as the Second Law
of hermodynamics.
What was wrong then, with Carnot’s frictionless engine models? Rudolf Clausius (1822–1888) in
Germany provided the answer. Carnot’s heat low was sound; Joule’s idea that heat was converted to
energy was sound; what had to be given up was the idea of the conservation of heat. Energy, Clausius
realized, is conserved, but some heat is converted to work and some passes to a lower state.
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What Clausius established is that certain natural processes low in one direction, and only in one
direction. From hot to cold, but not from cold to hot. his universal tendency he called Entropy, which
is the basis for the Second Law of hermodynamics. Said Clausius: “We can express the fundamental
laws of the universe which correspond to the two fundamental laws of the mechanical theory of heat
in the following simple form: 1. he energy of the universe is constant. 2. he entropy of the universe
tends towards a maximum.”27
Entropy is associated with an increase in disorder in a system. Order and disorder are deined relative
to the degree of probability of states in a system. A highly improbable coniguration is highly ordered. A
highly probable coniguration is highly disordered. Because isolated systems evolve in the direction of a
more probable coniguration, they naturally become more disordered with time. hus entropy increases.
A good example would be shuling a deck of cards. here are many combinations with red and black
cards in mixed order but far fewer combinations with all the red cards ahead of all the black cards. When
we shule a deck it is very unlikely that all 26 red cards will precede all 26 black cards.
Consider two gases in neighboring containers. When you open the door between them, the gases become
intimately mixed. hus, disorder, or entropy, increases. Maxwell, who we met in the previous chapter,
developed the mathematics of thermodynamics with thought experiments of his own. he most famous
of Maxwell’s thought experiments involves a hypothetical demon. (Maxwell’s demon seems to provide
a constant source of energy with no source! he fallacy in Maxwell’s proposition was not discovered
until the 20th century.)
Maxwell, along with the Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann (1844–1906), developed a kinetic theory
of gases and went on to invent statistical thermodynamics. In some ways, it is easier to understand the
concept of entropy thinking statistically. (See Link 8.9.)
Link 8.9 Gas Molecules in Box with Partition
http://bit.ly/1dqNO1X
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In part c of the igure two gases, A (blue) and B (red), are placed in the two chambers of a container
with a wall between. Temperature and pressure are maintained the same in both containers. When the
wall is removed, in a short period of time there is a mixture of both gases in each chamber. his natural
mixing, which increases the disorder of the container, is called entropy.
Consider the mixing of two gases as we described above. Ater the door is opened between the two
containers, each molecule moves freely about the entire area. Let’s work out the case of three molecules
(A, B, and C) distributing themselves between the two containers (1 and 2). he following table gives
all the possible arrangements of the three molecules in the two containers.
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he total number of conigurations is 8. he number of conigurations with 3 molecules in one container
and zero in the other is 2. he number of conigurations with 2 in one container and 1in the other is
6. Since the molecules move freely around the two containers, the probability at any time that all the
molecules will be in one or the other container is 2/8 = 1/4 or 25%. he probability that two molecules
will be in one container and one in the other container is 6/8 = 75%. Clearly the more disordered state
of 2 molecules in one container and one in the other is the higher entropy and most likely state.
Expanding to 4 molecules gives 16 possible states. here will be 2 conigurations of 4, 0; 8 conigurations
of 3, 1; and 6 conigurations of 2, 2. Now the probability of all molecules being in one container is only
2/16 or 12.5%. Statistical mechanics and statistical thermodynamics works well with molecules because
the numbers are so large under most circumstances. For example, a liter (slightly more than a quart)
of a gas at standard temperature and pressure contains about 3 × 1022 molecules. (1022 is ten thousand
billion billion!)
Maxwell died of stomach cancer in 1879 at the age of 48. Boltzmann continued to make important
contributions in theoretical physics but had bitter disputes with other scientists of the era. hinking
himself a failure, he committed suicide in 1906 at the age of 62. At his request, Boltzmann’s gravestone
contains the equation for entropy as derived by statistical thermodynamics: s = k log W where s is
entropy, k is a constant and W is the number of microscopic states.
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8.3
Thermodynamics (1700–1900)
Entropy and Civilization
Perhaps the oldest idea in western civilization is the idea of an eternal, static, and unchanging universe.
We discussed this idea irst in relationship to the Greeks, especially Aristotle. If humans and the world
were mortal, at least the heavens, illed mostly with divine aether, were eternal.
Copernicus demoted the Earth from the center of creation, but the creation itself still enjoyed divine
perfection. Of course, because of friction in the system, Newton, a deist, had seen that from time to time
God would have to give creation a kick-in-the-pants to keep the world from running down.
By the 19th century, scientists were no longer conident that God would so graciously intervene to wind
up the clock again. Lord Kelvin and others began to talk gloomily about the heat death of the universe.
As we have discussed, energy can be converted to work only if there is a temperature diference. Because
the Second of hermodynamics inexorably moves to equalize all temperatures, at some point a closed
system will have the same temperature throughout and will be incapable of doing work. In the end, all
closed systems are supposed to sufer such a heat death.
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Will the universe, all life, civilization, and purpose then end in a whimper? In 1862, Lord Kelvin, one of
the discoverers of the Second Law of hermodynamics, rejected the idea that the universe would sufer
a heat death. Lord Kelvin wrote that “it is impossible to conceive of a limit to the extent of matter in the
universe; and therefore science points to endless progress…[rather] than to a single inite mechanism,
running down like a clock, and stopping forever.”28
Others were not as optimistic as Lord Kelvin, and the Second Law of hermodynamics, with its pessimistic
forecast of inevitable disorder and heat death of the universe, inspired dread and dismay among many
19th century intellectuals who once optimistically celebrated the idea of progress.
Entropy introduced a new sense of time in western science and civilization. Never before had Europeans
had the sense of time running out. We all have a sense of initude, of course, but the Second Law of
hermodynamics forced western society to think about the end of time itself. Could one continue to
believe in Newton’s Absolute Time, if entropy extinguished time?
One other, very important, cosmological concept that arises from the Second Law is that if the universe
must have an end, then it must have had a beginning. he fact that the universe has not yet reached its
temperature equilibrium, to which it continues to progress, means that the universe cannot have existed
forever. his will be important as we move to the cosmology of the 20th century.
In concluding this part of our discussion on thermodynamics, we should add that the 20th century will
give us the hird Law of hermodynamics: a perfect crystal at absolute zero would have zero entropy.
his law gives a reference, or starting point, for entropy.
Pessimistically we can describe the three laws of thermodynamics as follows:
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Natural History – Taxonomy and Geology (1700–1800)
9 Natural History – Taxonomy and
Geology (1700–1800)
9.1
Foundations of Natural History
From Ancient Greece until well into the 18th century, natural philosophy (not biology) placed all animals
and plants along the Great Chain of Being. Starting with the simplest plants, you trace plants up the
Great Chain to animals, and eventually to humans. Aristotle classiied animals into red-blooded and
non-red-blooded animals, and viviparous (live-bearing) from egg laying animals. In general, the Greeks
(e.g. Aristotle) were much better at gross anatomy than physiology. hat is, they would observe and
describe structures much better than biological functions.
Galen and Hippocrates had both emphasized observation, and Galen particularly emphasized dissection.
Galen let behind a copious, coherent, comprehensive, and largely accurate body of work but with some
major problems. He thought that the lungs provided cooling air that was carried to the heart by the
arterial vein. he action of the heart itself was a push-pull action.
Galen had dominated anatomy and physiology for 1500 years. His shortcomings, of course, were well
known, especially in the medical schools in Italy that had grown up with the Renaissance. In the medical
schools, the physicians would read from Galen, while surgeons cut the cadaver. (Surgeons/barbers were
from a lower class–they were like technicians and helpers, not well respected.) Sometimes they blamed
the translation or the surgeon, but not Galen. It was Andreas Vesalius who actually challenged Galen.
Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564), the founder of modern anatomical science published his great book
De Humani Corporis Fabrica (On the Construction of the Human Body) in 1543, the same year that
Copernicus published De Revolutionibus.
Vesalius as a young man was professor of medicine at the great University of Padua. He received a regular
consignment of corpses of executed criminals from the Padua court, and made great progress in the
study of anatomy. Unlike the bombastic Paracelsus, Vesalius, cautiously, politely, but irmly, corrected
Galen’s anatomy.
Although De Fabrica did not win over the entire medical community, Vesalius’ descriptions, accompanied
by wonderful illustrations drawn by a student of Titian (the great Renaissance artist), steadily won over
the students in Italian medical schools in Padua and Bologna. (See Link 9.1.)
Link 9.1 From De Fabrica
http://vesalius.northwestern.edu/
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Vesalius’ insisted that physicians and students do their own dissections. It was imperative, he argued, that
every medical student make their own observations and discoveries. With Vesalius as Europe’s leading
anatomist, Padua’s fame was such that it attracted students from all over Europe, including Englishman.
William Harvey (1578–1657) was an unlikely scientiic rebel. He admired Aristotle and Galen. Harvey
graduated from Cambridge and then studied medicine at the University of Padua, from 1600–1602.
(Galileo was on the faculty.) He returned to England for another medical degree at Cambridge and
then went into practice. Harvey became royal physician to King James, and continued as physician to
Charles I, remaining with the King during the English Civil War.
At Padua, Harvey studied with Hieronymus Fabricius, discoverer of the valves in the veins. Fabricius
concluded that the valves prevented blood from falling in the lower extremities. About the same time,
anatomists at Padua discovered the lesser circulation between the heart and the lungs by identifying the
pulmonary artery.
But anatomy was learned from cadavers whose organs were not functioning. Back in England, Harvey had
the good fortune of observing the laborious beating of a dying heart. He realized that the heart was not
beating push-pull-push-pull as Galen supposed, but was beating push-rest-push-rest (systole-diastole)!
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Harvey observed that the heart was working with the mechanical motion of a pump, like pushing water
through a pipe. he function of the valves in the veins was also clear, it was to return the blood to the
heart. Harvey envisioned a mechanical hydraulic system for general circulation of blood in the body. He
described the circulatory system as a large mechanical system of pipes and valves connected to a pump,
the heart. He still did not know about capillaries, which weren’t discovered by Marcello Malpighi until
1661 – shortly ater Harvey’s death. (Malpighi found the capillaries using a microscope.) Harvey published
An Anatomical Study of the Motion of the Heart and of the Blood in Animals in 1628. (See Link 9.2.)
Link 9.2 Harvey’s Blood Circulation
http://bit.ly/13PVOCy
Harvey made three contributions: 1) He advanced medicine and life science on a irm basis of direct
observation and experimentation. 2) He introduced quantitative reasoning in the study of anatomy and
physiology. Harvey’s mechanical model could be diagrammed and measured. Harvey calculated that the
heart pumped about 400 pints of blood through the aorta in 24 hours. He estimated that the normal
body had about 10 pounds of blood and the heart pumped about this much in a little over ½ hour. Galen
thought that blood was manufactured by either the heart or the liver but the body could not possibly
manufacture 400 pints of blood each day. 3) Most important was Harvey’s discovery of the circulatory
system. He created a single circulatory system with a single center (the heart) to replace the multiple
systems of Galen. His achievement can be compared to Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo. However, his
modern theories cost him many patients.
Note: While medicine advanced little in the West during the dark ages, it rose to considerable heights
among the Arabs. In the 13th century, Ibn al-Nais of Damascus, while living and working in Egypt,
advanced the theory of pulmonary circulation. Some of Al-Nais’s work was translated into Latin in 1547.
It is not clear whether Padua had this information at the time of Harvey’s tenure there. Nonetheless,
Harvey stands as a giant among medical scientists for observing and then promoting the theory of blood
circulation.
James Ussher (1581–1656), Archbishop of Armagh, was Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College in Dublin
(protestant). he 16th and 17th century Europe sufered an information overload. Newly discovered
animals, plants, and peoples, raised questions about the creation story and the subsequent Great Flood
as mentioned in the Bible.
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Where did all this extra creation come from and how did it it into Holy Scriptures and the Great Chain
of Being? Was the creation story in the Bible incomplete? Had God made mistakes? Was the process
of creation still continuing? Did the apparent disorder of nature contradict the rational mechanical
Newtonian system?
he new discoveries were not necessarily contradictory to Scriptures. Christianity is principally a religion
about human history, but it also had much to say about natural history – especially the age of the Earth.
In 1650, Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, calculated the age of Earth tracing
backwards through the chronology of the Bible which he supplemented with other sources. Ussher
published Annals of the Old Testament, Deduced from the First Origins of the World in 1650. Ussher
believed he could precisely date creation at October 23, 4004 BCE, making the Earth less than 6000
years old. Ussher’s calculation became part of the authorized English Bible in 1701 and remained there
until 1950. (See Link 9.3.)
Link 9.3 Authorized English Bible showing Age of Earth
http://christianity.wikia.com/wiki/Dating_creation
Ussher did not comment about natural or geological history – but the implications of his date for the
age of the Earth were very important. All changes in God’s creation, either in animal species or geology,
would have had to occur very rapidly over a narrow time frame. he rise of mountain ranges would have
to have been incredibly violent and quick.
Notice that Ussher, the opposite of being a fundamentalist, wanted to show that Irish institutions also
had great scholars. His use of the Bible to calculate the age of the Earth was a scholarly process itself.
However, this raises the fundamental question as to whether the Bible is a history book. he rise of
modern geology, and then evolutionary biology, dramatically challenged Ussher’s assumption.
Biology is an artifact of the 19th century. But the irst major attempt to bring order and system out of the
vaste biological data collected since the time of Columbus was initiated by the great Swedish naturalist
and taxonomist, Carolus Linnaeus (Carl von Linne) (1707–1778), a collector of birds and plants.
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Linnaeus, a professor at the University of Upsala, was determined to bring order out of apparent chaos.
He developed a classiication system for all plants and animals based upon the determination of their
genus and species. Linnaeus classiied plants and animals according to their similarity, taking especial
note of their reproductive systems. In his system, human beings are classiied as: Phylum – Chordata;
Subphylum – vertebrata; Class – Mammalia; Order – Primates; Family – Hominidae; Genus – Homo;
Species – sapiens. Hence we are called Homo sapiens. (Notice, DNA had not been discovered so, of
course, DNA testing was not possible. Many changes are being made in the classiication scheme now.)
(See Link 9.4.)
Link 9.4 Linnaean Classiication
http://bit.ly/14ZaWE1
Linnaeus believed the natural world to be ordered and systematic. He held to ideas of plenitude, gradation,
continuity, and especially, immutability. Linnaeus did not initially believe that species had evolved or
that any had become extinct.
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Linnaeus’ work was irst published in 1735 as an eleven page work titled Systema Naturae, the System
of Nature. By the 10th edition in 1758 it included more than 4000 species of animals and more than
7000 species of plants. Linnaeus believed the System was a recapitulation of God’s creation. He believed
that all species could be traced back to an original pair created by God. By cataloging all the species,
Linnaeus envisioned himself as a Second Adam renaming God’s creation. Linnaeus liked to say: Deus
creavit; Linnaeus disposuit. God created; Linnaeus organized.
Linnaeus believed his System relected God’s thoughts. He noted the diferences between wild and
domesticated animals, and believed domestication was only temporary. Linnaeus’ created an herbarium
and zoo which collected all the known species (4,200 animal species). He wanted to recreate the time
of Creation, make a new Garden of Eden.
Linnaeus made several contributions to natural philosophy, including his classiication of humans as
Homo sapiens. Despite the fact that his classiication system was based on the premise of the immutability
of the species, it remains the standard for taxonomy today.
But Linnaeus did wonder about plant hybridization and whether everything had been created at the
beginning. He wondered if they might be the work of time.
William Paley (1743–1805) was a philosopher and church functionary. Linnaean biological classiication
was blessed in Paley’s Natural heology (1802). According to Paley order and symmetry in nature relected
God’s design. Paley was famous for: Everything was in its place and there was a place for everything.
Paley believed that God’s creative hand was observed in every organism. It was Paley who ofered the
watchmaker analogy. (If you came upon a watch in the woods lying on the ground, would you believe
someone made it or that it happened by accident?) he exquisite order of nature argued for God.
According to Paley, the most exquisite design of God was the human eye. he eye was the ultimate
manifestation that humans had been created in the image of God.
Paley believed he had found the answer to the ethical dilemma of the Enlightenment. How is it possible
to determine ethical and moral imperatives from the Laws of Nature? Paley stated that Natural Order
was ordained by God. hat which promoted Natural Order was in harmony with God’s will. hat which
disrupted God’s Natural Order was evil. hat which upset harmony was sin. Here was the key to moral
education. Moral education devised ethics and morals from those actions that promoted, secured, or
maintained Natural Order (or Natural Law). his is an example of the vocabulary of the Newtonian
culture being used to defend conservative social philosophy.
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George Louis Leclerc, Comte de Bufon (1707–1788), was one of the most catholic scholars of the
Enlightenment. He was educated in mathematics and physics and inluenced by Newton. Bufon served
as keeper of the Jardin du Roi (he King’s Gardens) in Paris.
Bufon envisioned himself the Newton of Natural Philosophy, and attempted to fashion a comprehensive
description of the natural world which uniied Newtonian cosmology and mechanics with observations
of the natural world, including animals, plants, minerals, geography, climate, and so forth.
For more than 35 years (1749–1785), Bufon labored on his massive (36 volume) Histoire Naturelle, which
rivaled the Encyclopedie in its comprehensive and vivid description of the incredible diversity of nature.
Bufon was impressed with the great diversity in the natural world, but he discerned less order and
regularity in Nature than did Linnaeus. Bufon argued that Linnaeus’ system did not replicate the mind
of God, but rather relected the imagination of Linnaeus.
Bufon believed that organisms had a history, a Natural History. Over time, one could not only discover
similarities, but also one had to account for variation. Bufon knew about the fossil record and recent
discoveries. Hottentots were discovered at the end of the 17th century in South Africa and were thought
by some to be missing link between humans and apes. In 1739, biologist Trembley discovered the Hydra,
a fresh water polyp which was widely viewed as the missing link between plants and animals.
Bufon postulated his own historical Great Chain of Being leading from ancient slime to humanity.
Bufon did not directly challenge the Creation story presented in the Bible, but he certainly elongated
it. In order to integrate Newtonian cosmology with Earth history, Bufon needed more than the 6000
years allowed by Ussher.
In 1755, Immanuel Kant proposed that the solar system had formed from matter separated from the
sun. Bufon liked this idea because it seemed to it nicely with Newtonian cosmology. Was it possible,
Bufon asked, for the Earth and solar system to have formed from a giant explosion caused when a
comet crashed into the sun?
Ingeniously, Bufon melted some iron balls and waited so see how long it took for them to cool to the
touch, which was several days. hen extrapolating from his data, Bufon calculated how long it would
take an iron ball the size of the Earth to cool suiciently to support life. He came up with a igure of
about 74,000 years. And he thought that the time could be a great deal longer.
How could Bufon reconcile what he had found with the Creation story about how God created the
Earth in six days? Bufon reasoned that the six days of creation described in the Bible did not necessarily
mean six 24-hour days. Rather, Bufon speculated that the Earth had been created in vast Epochs, each
characterized by God’s creative purpose.
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hus, as the Earth gradually cooled into the modern Epoch and life forms evolved from the primordial
slime into modern species. Bufon does not really develop a modern theory of evolution, but his theory
did challenge the static, timeless, ahistorical biology of Linnaeus and Paley with a dynamic Earth history
that would lay the initial groundwork for Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.
9.2
Natural History and Classical Geology
he early history of geology is complex. In the 18th and 19th centuries Geology became one of the most
popular of the sciences, and scores of professional and amateur geologists were engaged in exploring
and describing local rocks and geological formations. homas Jeferson’s Notes on Virginia remains one
of the best accounts of early American geography and geology. Bones of wooly mammoths and saber
tooth tigers were irst discovered in North America, and then the bones of dinosaurs were discovered
and identiied in Europe. How did extinct animals it into the economy of God’s creation?
People thought of Earth history as conforming to the Bible; that there was a creation moment and a
Garden of Eden. he Earth was about 6000 years old according to Bishop Ussher, and there had been
a Great Flood. he Flood dominated the story of the development of the Earth. Carrying the Bible
story further, the Earth had been perfect and spherical in the days of the Garden of Eden. It was the
introduction of sin by man that caused the imperfections in the Earth that we see today.
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But, reconciling geological evidence to scripture proved a major stumbling block to the elucidation
of Earth history. In 1691, homas Burnet ofered classic diluvia theory interpretation. (Diluvia means
produced by a lood.) he surface of the Earth between the time of the Garden of Eden and the Great
Flood had been regular and smooth – God’s perfect creation. But human sin had required God to
cleanse the Earth with a Great Flood. he Great Flood accounted for the geological irregularities of the
Earth. In sum, the Earth had degenerated from its original perfection as a consequence of human sin.
Floods, storms, earthquakes, and natural disasters indicated further groaning of the creation under the
weight of sin.
Serious interest in Earth history and geology began in Italy about the time that Newton graduated from
Cambridge University. Canal building in northern Italy dramatically exposed rock strata.
Nicholas Steno (1638–1686) was a Dane who renounced Lutheranism and ultimately became a Bishop
in Northern Italy. Steno noted that fossilized shark teeth (dog-ish) were imbedded in the strata. Some
would say the teeth conirmed the scriptural account of the Great Flood. (See Link 9.5.)
Link 9.5 Strata with Fossils
http://www.gutenberg.org/iles/20417/20417-h/images/image158.jpg
Steno’s observations certainly did not contradict scripture. But Steno reasoned that the shark’s teeth
imbedded in the rock, suggested that the rock had been sot mud at the time the teeth had been deposited.
hus he concluded that the strata were not all created at the same time, but laid down successively, one
layer upon the other. And, of course, there was not just a solitary stratum with shark’s teeth, but others
with bones and other life-like impressions. Steno concluded that he was observing an historical record
which could not be explained by a single Great Deluge.
By the 18th century – the Age of the Enlightenment – with the sophisticated development of canal
building and mining, engineers had accumulated a great deal of information regarding the structure
and composition of European geology. And from observers such as homas Jeferson, they received
information about the new world.
Since Steno and Newton, questions about the basic forces that had shaped the Earth itself became
important. One did not have to reject homas Burnet’s doctrine that the Great Flood had shaped with
Earth, but the theory of a single great lood was not suicient to explain all geological change. Even
Burnet had calculated there was not enough water in the oceans to cover all the Earth assuming that it
was possible to rain in a universal deluge for 40 days and nights and had had to assume that subterranean
waters had burst to the surface! (Newton had also done this calculation. If you use the data we have
today, you will ind it would require two and one-half times all the water on Earth to cover the entire
surface of the Earth. Remember, even Mount Everest would have been submerged!)
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What forces, then had shaped the Earth? Of Aristotle’s elements, was it primarily water, the Great Flood,
rain, rivers, the oceans? Or was it ire: volcanoes, great hot forces from within the Earth? How long was
the Earth’s history? Had the Earth shaping forces always been the same? Were the Earth shaping forces
constant? Or was the Earth shaped in catastrophic, creative moments? Was the Earth itself subject to
Newton’s mechanical laws?
Abraham Werner (1749–1817) was the irst modern geologist to develop a systematic, comprehensive
theory of geology. Werner was a professor of mineralogy at one of Germany’s best known mining schools
at Freiburg. Werner has been called the Linnaeus of Rocks. He undertook a typically 18th century project
a la Linnaeus, the Encyclopedie, and Bufon – he set out to create a comprehensive catalogue of rocks –
their locations, descriptions, compositions, and of course, their names.
By all accounts, Werner was a marvelous, master teacher. He was beloved by his students, who were
iercely loyal disciples who carried Werner’s geological theories across Europe, forming Wernerian
Societies wherever they settled. Werner was a spell-binding lecturer. Give him a rock, any rock, and
Werner could not only tell you what it was, where it could be found, and what were its economical uses,
if any, but he conjured up wonderful images of Hannibals’s legions, or of Genghis Kahn, or the Great
Caesar striding across the landscape from which the rock was obtained.
Werner believed that geology provided a literal foundation for all civilization and culture. From a single
stone, he would wax eloquently on the progress of the arts, languages, religion, industry and economy,
wars, and education of the region in which the rock was found. For Werner, geology was literally the
solid rock on which the liberal arts were founded.
Not only were his lectures colorful and inspiring, but Werner also explained the origin of all the rocks
that made up the Earth. Werner’s theory was twofold: the Earth was once enveloped by a universal
ocean; and the rock strata that make up the Earth’s crust were precipitates or sediments from that ocean.
Key to Werner’s theory was that he believed granite had been the irst of the rock strata to have been
precipitated out of a great ocean soup. In other words, he did not believe that granite was of igneous or
volcanic origin.
Werner taught that the rock strata had been laid down in ive great epochs during which the oceans
covered the land, beginning with granites and ending with clays and sands. Subsequently, living species,
ish, mammals, and human appeared, roughly in the order described in the Bible. he Noah’s Flood could
have been the last of the universal loods. (See Table 9.1.)
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Primitive
Igneous rocks – irst precipitates from the
ocean before the emergence of land
Transition
Limestones, dikes, sills, and thick sequences of greywakes
Secondary
Remaining stratiied fossili-ferous rocks – emergence of mountains
Alluvial
Sands, gravels and clays
Volcanic
Younger lava lows
Table 9.1: Werner’s Great Epochs
Werner was the founder of the Neptunist theory of the origins of the rocks. According to Werner and
his follows, volcanic activity was both relatively recent, and of only local consequence. Volcanic activity
played no role in shaping the Earth’s geological activity as a whole.
But the Neptunist theory had its problems; not the least of which was what had happened to all the
water that once covered the entire globe? he need to explain the ebb and low of vast oceans of water
would prove a major problem in the Neptunist theory.
he major challenger to Werner’s system came from James Hutton (1726–1797), an extra-ordinary
Scottish gentleman geologist. Hutton attended Edinburgh University where he irst studied law, and
then tiring of law, returned to study medicine. He practiced medicine for a while, and then retired to
become a farmer.
.
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Chemistry was Hutton’s hobby, and led him to his irst challenge of Werner’s theory. Observing outcrops
of granite on his own land, Hutton examined the crystalline nature of granite and concluded that it was
igneous in origin, having been formed under great heat and pressure. Further examination, led him
to the conclusion that volcanic forces had indeed played a signiicant role in shaping the Earth’s crust.
Hutton determined that Scotland’s mountains were chiely of igneous origin, not sedimentary. Elsewhere
he found evidence of granites overlying older sedimentary layers. In some areas of Scotland, the granite
appeared to be the youngest rock, not the oldest. Hutton knew, of course, that if granite turned out to
be of volcanic origin, Werner’s whole Neptunian system would collapse.
In some of the literature, Hutton and his followers have been called Vulcanists, or Plutoists, in order
to distinguish them sharply from Wernerian Neptunists. Hutton distinguished between igneous and
sedimentary rocks, and then (unlike Werner) he described a class of rocks that were sedimentary in
origin, but had been transformed under great heat and pressure. (See Link 9.6.)
Link 9.6 Volcanism
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1007/images/volcanic.gif
In his book heory of the Earth (1795), Hutton summarized his doctrine of uniformitarianism. To
understand geological forces, Hutton argued, we must begin by studying the present forces which are
shaping the Earth. He assumed that the forces which are at work today, were the forces that were at work
in the past, and will be at work in the future. his is what he meant by uniformitarianism. he natural
geological forces at work shaping the Earth are uniform over time and space.
Motion, or change, then is constant–the Earth is never at rest. Hutton envisioned a continuing process of
building up and wearing down. Land was always being formed and reformed. Hutton’s major handicap
was that his scheme required too much time. (See Link 9.7.) Again, the problem of the age of the Earth
arises.
Link 9.7 Uniformitarianism
http://uniformitarianism.tumblr.com/post/7734877967/cathedral-peakyosemite-california
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Hutton’s uniformitarianism vision was not only hard to grasp, but was breathtaking in its larger
implications. How did sea bottoms become mountain tops? How did ire and water interact to shape the
Earth? How old was the Earth? What was the nature of geological time? Was anything ixed or permanent?
he answer to some of these questions would be found in stratigraphy, the mapping of geological strata,
and the interpretation of the evidence from fossils. Fossils were known from ancient times. Fossils,
especially mollusks, looked like animals, but had hardness, and other characteristics of rocks.
he major challenge was the discovery of marine fossils on high ground, and especially in the mountains.
For some, the marine fossils discovered in the mountains, conirmed the Biblical story of the lood. Others
speculated that pilgrims had dropped the shells on their way to Rome (or wherever). And still others,
Voltaire, for example, went so far as to argue that the fossils were not really the remains of animals, but
were simply rocks.
In Notes on Virginia, homas Jeferson speculated on the reports that fossil clams had been found high
in the Andes Mountains of South America. Jeferson did not think much of the Pilgrim theory, nor did
he take Voltaire’s argument seriously. Of the two alternatives that Jeferson thought were plausible: the
oceans once covered the mountains or the mountains once formed the seabed. He rejected Werner’s
theory that the seas had once covered the Andes Mountains.
Jeferson knew of no geological forces that could raise up mountains. As a good Baconian, Jeferson
suspended judgment.
William Smith (1769–1839), a contemporary of Jeferson, was an engineer and canal builder in England.
It was Smith who irst recognized the true historical signiicance of the rock strata. Around the turn
of the 19th century in England, the industrial revolution was taking of. It was the industrial revolution
that supported the irst development of mass transportation. Canals were built, to some degree, to haul
farm products to market and passengers, but mostly to haul vast amounts of coal from the mines to the
burgeoning factories and industrial cities in the English Midlands.
While engaged in the canal building trade, William Smith became an expert on the rock strata of all
Great Britain. He realized that one could map all of England according to the rock strata that ran across
the country – some 19 strata from London to Wales and Scotland. Smith made a geological map – the
irst of its kind – that helped him locate useful building material as well as coal seams. (See Link 9.8.)
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Link 9.8 Stratigraphic Map
http://bit.ly/186kYhG
Smith was also the irst to perceive that there was a relationship between certain fossils and particular
strata – and he used this relationship to identify the strata as they appeared in outcrops across the
landscape. Smith’s book A Deinition of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland (1815),
is now one of the classics of geological cartography or stratigraphy. It was the irst attempt to map the
strata of rock formations for an entire country.
Smith kept careful notes, and produced wonderful drawings and descriptions. He was the irst to identify
what we now call the Jurassic strata, and much of his nomenclature survives in geology text books. He had
little interest in the origins of fossils or how they related to geological history, however. Nor did he speculate
on the origins of the strata so as to involve himself in the debate between the Neptunists and Volcanists.
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But Smith’s observations raised a number of questions: fossils found in diferent strata suggested that
they had lived, and were perhaps created, at diferent times. Had there been more than one creation?
Other fossils appeared to be extinct. Had God changed his mind? Uniformitarianists assumed constancy
in natural law, but did this mean there was not immutability of the species? Had God made mistakes? If
God had make mistakes, could he do so again? hese were deeply disturbing questions.
Some of the answers to these upsetting questions were provided by Georges Cuvier (1769–1832), who
in 1794 was Professor of Vertebrate Zoology at the Paris Natural History Museum that had become part
of Bufon’s Jardin du Roi.
Cuvier made his greatest contributions in paleontology. It was Cuvier who irst igured out how to
reconstruct an entire animal from just a few bones. He used the principle of homology. Like bones and
structures suggested certain patterns of structure. Fangs were connected to meat eating predators. Hoofs
were associated with grass eating herbivores, etc.
Cuvier also discovered that certain fossils were associated with speciic strata, and that the rocks could be
identiied and dated according to their fossil population, again containing many species that were extinct.
Cuvier noticed that the fossil record of certain species oten ended abruptly, only to be replaced in the
fossil record by another animal. Sometimes clams and oysters, sometimes ish, sometimes dinosaurs,
sometimes mammals or birds. It was Cuvier who irst discovered the Pterodactyl. One major species
was absent from the fossil record, however, Homo sapiens.
What did the historical record indicate, Cuvier asked? How do we account for certain species dying out
and others taking their place? Cuvier postulated that this was the consequence of ancient catastrophes.
Floods, tidal waves, volcanic eruptions had devastated the land, killing of resident species which made
room for new species to move in. In his studies of the Paris basin, Cuvier detected the record of two
ancient loods. he absence of human remains suggested that humans occupied the region ater the
second lood. Cuvier reasoned that the second lood must have been Noah’s lood.
Again, while Cuvier did not directly challenge scripture, Cuvier’s catastrophism seemed to conlict with
Hutton’s uniformitarianism. Did Cuvier ancient catastrophes, not gradual geological processes, account
for the fossil history? But as we shall see, the two theories did not necessarily conlict.
Gone, almost completely, was the idea of the immutability of the species. Like Hutton, Cuvier depicted the
geological story of Earth history on a vast canvas of time. But Cuvier did not postulate an evolutionary
theory. While species thrived and died as the consequence of repeated geological catastrophes, the origins
of species remained unexplained in Cuvier’s system.
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he last paving stone on the Geological Road from Newton to Darwin is marked with the name Charles
Lyell (1797–1875) Lyell is the most important of these geologists because he was the most distinguished
and inluential geologist of his time. He was a close personnel friend of Darwin and greatly inluenced
the writing of On the Origin of Species.
here is not a modern geologist who does not know of the work of Charles Lyell. [He is the Newton or
Darwin of Geology]. His three volume Principles of Geology (1833) was the most important and inluential
text on geology of the 19th century. It went through 12 editions by the time of Lyell’s death in 1875 and
set the standard for establishing the modern discipline of Geology.
Lyell’s Principles was a vast, comprehensive and synthetic work summarizing the best of geological data
and theory. Lyell reconciled Cuvier and Hutton. As Cuvier had indicated, the evidence of the strata was
clear that there had been a succession of geological events in which certain species had died to be replaced
eventually by others. But Lyell rejected Cuvier’s catastrophic theory in favor of Hutton uniformitarianism.
Lyell argued that all rocks we now see on Earth were formed by the same slow chemical and physical
processes which we see today.
Like Hutton, for Lyell the key to understanding the geological past is to know the present. And he found
no evidence that catastrophe contributed to anything but local change. For example, he studied the
volcanic activity of Mt. Etna in Sicily and concluded that even the volcanic building up of the mountain
took place over eons. Second, by calculating the rate of sedimentation in the Mississippi delta, he was
able to estimate the number of years the river delta and valley had been in the making.
His conclusion was that both volcanic building up and sedimentary wearing down required repeated
cumulative efects over vast, immense periods of time. Even if Lyell were correct, there remained a major
problem: In this slow uniformitarianism dance of nature, some species died out and others appeared.
Lyell, like Cuvier, had no explanation for the origin of the species. (See Link 9.9.)
Link 9.9 From Lyell
http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/02/4/images/l_024_01_l.jpg
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10 Classical Biology (1800–1900)
10.1
Evolution
Along with Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, and Lavoisier, Charles Darwin (1809–1882) is one of the scientists
who deine their age. We have thus far discussed more physical scientists than biological scientists. But
it is important to realize that the development of classical chemistry, electricity and magnetism, and
thermodynamics happened in parallel with classical biology.
he physical sciences have lent themselves more easily to cosmological discussions, while side-stepping
the diicult religious questions of the meaning of life and death. Religion ultimately deals with death –
and so does biology. Central to Darwin’s quest was why do living things die?
homas Malthus, whom we will discuss further under the origin of social science, wrote about population
expansion. He is considered the inventor of economics (the so-called dismal science). Malthus’s An Essay
on the Principle of Population was published in 1789 and became a major inluence on Darwin.
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Ater reading Malthus, Darwin noted his relections on the struggle for survival and death. A struggle
for existence inevitably follows from the high rate at which all organic things tend to increase. Every
being must sufer destruction during some period of its life. Otherwise, on the principal of geometrical
increase, its numbers would quickly become so inordinately great that no land could support the product.
Hence, as more individuals are produced than can possibly survive, there must in every case be a struggle
for existence. But in this struggle for existence, in which death is an inevitable outcome, there must also
be the survival of the species.
On the Origin of Species (1859) is less about origins than it is about the future of species – and that is
why Darwin’s theory is so religiously controversial.
Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England, on the River Severn near the Welsh border, on
Feb. 12, 1809. (Abraham Lincoln was born the same day.) He was the son of a successful physician,
Robert Darwin, and the grandson of Erasmus Darwin, famous botanist and author of Zoonomia: or
Laws of Organic Life (1794). (his is evolution without a mechanism.)
Young Darwin attended the School in Shrewsbury, but he did not proit from the classical education
of the day. While at Shrewsbury, Darwin and his older brother set up their own chemistry laboratory,
where they made various gases and compounds. Darwin earned the nickname Gas, and was publicly
rebuked by the head-master for being a dilettante.
His time at the School seemed wasted, so his father sent him on to Edinburgh University with his brother
to study medicine. Although his brother earned an MD degree, two years study of medicine at Edinburgh
University proved unsuccessful for Darwin. He failed to qualify in medicine at Edinburgh and thus, he
would not follow in his father’s or his brother’s footsteps to become a physician. Again, he was interested
in chemistry, but bored by anatomy. Worst of all, he became sick to his stomach witnessing a surgery
which was an especially bad operation on a child.
In 1827, he was of to Christ College, Cambridge to study for a B.A. to prepare him for ministry in the
Church of England. At Cambridge, Darwin was again an indiferent student. Unfortunately, he had
forgotten much of the Greek and Latin he had learned at school and he felt much of his time was wasted
at Cambridge.
Darwin recalled that one of the best books he read at Cambridge was Paley’s Natural heology, which
very much impressed him. Paley said that there cannot be a design without a designer; a contrivance
without a contriver; order without choice; arrangement without anything capable of arranging; all of
which imply the presence of intelligence and mind.
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he implied presence of intelligence and mind, of course, ofered proof of a designer God. Darwin
not only accepted the hand of the Creator, but at this time he also believed in the immutability of the
species. It was also at Cambridge that he irst learned about the evolution theories of Lamarck, whom
he compared to his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin.
But at Cambridge, Darwin was more interested in card playing, drinking and shooting. He also spent a
good deal of time, pleasurably he reported, collecting beetles.
While he did not follow a rigorous course of study at Cambridge, at the encouragement of his brother,
he became acquainted with Professor Henslow, one of Cambridge’s distinguished botanists. Every week,
Henslow held open house where students and faculty gathered for sherry, cofee, and cigars. Darwin
enjoyed these weekly meetings, and became friends with Henslow who encouraged him to study geology.
his was advice that Darwin followed, establishing himself a reputation as a budding geologist.
On returning from a geological outing to northern Wales in 1831, Darwin found a letter from Professor
Henslow waiting for him. Henslow informed Darwin that he had been recommended to sail with Capt.
Fitz-Roy on the H.M.S. Beagle as a volunteer naturalist without pay. It was the custom in those days
for the captain of such an expedition to have a gentleman companion because the captain could not
socialize with his crew. At irst Darwin’s father opposed, but ater the intercession of Darwin’s uncle,
his father relented. Darwin’s income while on the voyage would be limited to his allowance from his
father which he had spent rather lavishly at Cambridge. It was supposed the voyage of the Beagle might
enforce some frugality.
he expedition was to survey and observe the coast of South America. Actually, Darwin was not the
ship’s oicial naturalist. Rather the ship’s surgeon, Robert McKormick, was the oicial naturalist, in
keeping with the custom of the ship’s doctor performing this service. Darwin was on board to keep
FitzRoy, who was 26, company at the Captain’s table during the long voyage. he previous Captain of
the Beagle had committed suicide. FitzRoy, who had worries about his own mental health, did not want
to spend the entire ive years alone on the ship without a friend. (he Beagle sailed from 1831 to 1836
circumnavigating the globe in the process.) (See Link 10.1.)
Link 10.1 Route of the H.M.S. Beagle
http://www.darwinday.org/images/beagle/beaglemap-t.gif
It was the time of exploratory expeditions. Lewis and Clark in 1804–1806; Zebulon Pike, the Upper
Mississippi and Colorado, 1805–1807; the Oregon Trail opened in 1843; and John Wesley Powell’s
expedition into Rocky Mountains in1868. 1838 saw the Trail of Tears and the forced relocation of the
Civilized Tribes to Oklahoma.
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It was common to carry a naturalist on board for such expeditions. In addition to companionship,
FitzRoy saw Darwin’s service as a way to implement the scientiic capability of the ship. Darwin’s duties
were to observe, note, collect specimens and data on geology, paleontology, botany, and zoology. But he
was hampered by constant sea-sickness and other health problems.
Darwin had brought with him the irst volume of Lyell’s Principles of Geology, and in the Cape Verde
Islands became convinced of the soundness of Lyell’s theory. He obtained Lyell’s second volume when
the Beagle stopped in Montevideo, which is about halfway down the East coast of South America.
On board the Beagle with Captain FitzRoy, Darwin coasted of of South America, visiting numerous
landfalls including the Falklands, Patagonia, Chile, and Peru before heading westward across the Paciic
and home to England. Gradually, Darwin became more interested in lora and fauna than in geology
and paleontology.
His most famous stop on the Galapagos Islands near the equator of the coast of Ecuador, may have been
anti-climatic in Darwin’s mind. he Beagle spent ive weeks in the Galapagos, of which Darwin spent
about three weeks ashore. here is mixed evidence about whether he found exploring the Galapagos
particularly exciting or enlightening. Indeed, subsequent naturalists and scholars have commented that
although his collecting was diligent, it was also somewhat haphazard and sloppy.
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He seems to have been most enthralled by the giant tortoises and sea iguana he saw in the Galapagos.
As noted by Jonathan Weiner in he Beak of the Finch (1995), Darwin also collected inches which
now have his name. But his collection of the inches was not comprehensive, or even systematic. It was
not until ater he returned to England, and consulted with colleagues that he became interested in the
signiicance of his indings concerning the adaptations of Darwin’s Finches.
he Beagle returned to England in 1836, and three years ater his voyage around the world, Darwin
married his cousin Emma Wedgwood, the daughter of Josiah Wedgwood (of Wedgwood pottery). He
was able to live comfortably on his allowance and inheritance from his father, and Emma’s dowry. He irst
moved to London, and then in 1842 to the English countryside to raise his growing family. he only bad
side to Darwin’s comfortable life at this time was nagging ill health. He may have been sufering from
Chagas’ syndrome (a parasitic infection similar to African sleeping sickness), and other psychosomatic
disorders.
Initially, Darwin devoted himself to geology, not biology, and became a protégé of Charles Lyell. Darwin’s
major contribution in geology was his Structure and Disposition of Coral Reefs (1842). he current
theory (Charles Lyell) was that coral reefs came from coral animals dying and piling up to form a ridge
on the bottom of the ocean. However, Darwin recognized that coral did not grow well in deep water.
Darwin, using Lyell’s principle of uniformitarianism, speculated that coral reefs formed from the gradual
subsidence of volcanic cones or peaks. So, as the ocean loor lowered, the coral animals continued to
reproduce near the surface and the ridge became higher (with respect to the ocean loor) over time.
(See Link 10.2.)
Link 10.2 Darwin’s heory of Coral Reefs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/he_Structure_and_Distribution_of_Coral_Reefs
An objection to Darwin’s theory was that the coral should form a disk, rather than a ring. However, Darwin
countered this by pointing out that coral developed much diferently in sheltered waters as the inside of
a disk would be. Lyell supported him and Darwin’s contributions to geology earned him considerable
respect, and he was elected secretary of the Geological Society, a high honor which connected him well
to the British scientiic community.
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Darwin published 25 books and editions in all, the most notable of which were: he Structure and
Distribution of Coral Reefs, 1842; he Voyage of the Beagle, in several parts 1839–1845; On the Origin of
Species by Means of Natural Selection, 1859; and he Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, 1871.
here was more than a twenty-year hiatus between his return to England in 1836 and publication of
On the Origin of Species in 1859. As his publications indicate, he was not entirely unproductive during
this period. In fact, Darwin’s notebooks reveal that he was intellectually quite active. In 1838, he read
homas Malthus’ An Essay on the Principle of Population, whose theories on population growth provided
Darwin with the interpretive key for his own biological analysis. “Here, then, I had at last got a theory
by which to work…,”29 he recorded in his journals. By 1842, he had written in pencil a 35 page outline
of his ideas. By 1844, the manuscript had grown to 235 pages, a copy of which he gave to his wife to
publish if he should die.
But then the work languished for almost iteen years until Alfred Wallace (1823–1913) sent him an
abstract of his own work, which anticipated Darwin’s theories in almost every respect. Naturally, Darwin
was alarmed that Wallace threatened to scoop his life’s work. Wallace had served as a naturalist on scientiic
expeditions to the Amazon Basin and to the Malay archipelago. Wallace had also read Malthus’s theories
on population and arrived at same conclusion as Darwin had earlier. Wallace recorded: “I…wrote it out
carefully in order to send it to Darwin by the next post…”30
Deeply concerned, Darwin wrote to Lyell, “I never saw a more striking coincidence. If Wallace had my
MS. sketch written out in 1842, he could not have made a better short abstract! Even his terms now
stand as heads to my chapters.”31 (See Link 10.3.) he issue became whether Wallace or Darwin was the
originator of evolutionary theory.
Link 10.3 Wallace’s Letter to Darwin (received June 18, 1858)
http://www.plantsystematics.org/reveal/PBIO/darwin/dw04.html
http://www.plantsystematics.org/reveal/PBIO/darwin/dw05.html
English society rallied to Darwin’s side. Arrangements were made for Wallace to present his paper at the
Linnaean Society in July 1858, where Darwin also presented extracts from his own work to secure prior
authorship. Wallace yielded while Darwin worked feverishly on the On the Origin of Species which was
published a year and a half later in November, 1859. All 1250 copies of the irst edition sold in a single day.
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Why had Darwin been so reluctant to publish? his had been a puzzle to scholars, although long periods
of productive drought are not unusual in creative lives. Stephen Jay Gould, Ever Since Darwin (1977),
believes that the reason for Darwin’s reluctance to publish his theories was that Darwin was fully aware
of the materialistic implications of his theories. Darwin feared that Victorian England would not welcome
his book when it became aware of its Godlessness. Gould writes: “he notebooks prove that Darwin was
interested in philosophy and aware of its implications. He knew that the primary feature distinguishing
his theory from all other evolutionary doctrines was its uncompromising philosophical materialism.
Other evolutionists spoke of vital forces, directed history, organic striving, and essential irreducibility of
mind – a panoply of concepts that traditional Christianity could accept in compromise, for they permitted
a Christian God to work by evolution instead of creation. Darwin spoke only of random variation and
natural selection.”32 Darwin’s problem was not fundamentally diferent than Newton’s. Both were fully
aware of the fact that their science contradicted orthodox Christianity.
he irst point that needs to be made very clearly is that Darwin did not originate the of evolution. he
theory of evolution was not Darwin’s chief contribution to natural history or biology. his point oten
gets confused. When one thinks of Darwin, one oten thinks of evolution and assumes that he was
Darwin’s principal scientiic achievement. It was not. What Darwin did was to give the mechanism of
natural selection whereby evolution could logically occur.
Darwin’s mechanism of natural selection is based upon three principles:
1. Populations grow exponentially
2. Variation occurs within species
3. Traits can be inherited
Given these three principles, over a vast number of generations there is a natural selection of those
species which have the best survival characteristics. Slowly through this process the species evolves to
be better suited to the environment. Eventually it has become another species.
here were several precursors to Darwin in evolutionary theory: Bufon, whose Histoire Naturelle
presumed change and development in organic life – from slime to human beings; Erasmus Darwin whose
Zoonomia also postulated a theory of organic evolution; and, Jean Baptiste Lamarck whose Philosophie
Zoologique (1809) Darwin studied at Cambridge.
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Jean-Baptiste Lamark (1744–1829) was a French soldier, naturalist, and academic. Lamarck was
wounded in the Pomeranian War with Russia and returned to Paris to study medicine. He was mentored
by Compte Bufon and became Chair of Botany at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. In 1802,
Lamarck was one of the irst to use term “biology.” Lamarck’s theory of Evolution said:
1. Environment gives rise to changes in animals
2. Life is structured in an orderly manner
Lamarck believed in sot inheritance which means that an Alchemical Complexifying Force drives
animals to become more complex, more perfect and to become adapted to our environment. According
to Lamarck we pass these adaptive attributes on to our progeny.
For example, because girafes stretched their necks to reach leaves higher in the trees, Lamarckian
evolution would say that their ofspring should be born with longer necks. (hus, if you pump a lot
of iron, your babies will be born with bulging muscles.) his process, like Darwin’s natural selection,
could slowly change the species over time. Lamarck gave a lecture on his theory in 1800 and went on
to publish three books on the topic.
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Lamarck saw linkages between modern animals and the fossil record. He advocated an evolutionary
theory based on acquired characteristics and traits. Lamarck was the irst to propose a theory of evolution
based upon the inluences of the environment, the efects of the use and disuse of organs, and on the
inheritance of acquired characteristics. Lamarckian evolution was still argued into the 20th century, partly
because it had an element of spiritualism in the drive to perfection.
Robert Chambers, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844), actually anticipated Darwin by
hypothesizing an evolutionary theory of natural history. Chambers work was widely read, especially in
America, and undoubtedly was important for preparing Americans to read and accept Darwin. Chambers
difered from Darwin in arguing for a teleological natural history; that is, Chambers attempted to present
a theory of evolution which reconciled natural history with Biblical creation. He was not naive about the
challenge. For Chambers, evolution meant God ordained natural development and progress. According
to Chambers, God created the world with potentiality for growth and change through natural laws or
laws of organic development.
Chambers’ theory of evolution has a very familiar look to it: Comprehensive design – plenitude;
Marvelous synergy – continuity and gradation; and, Central purpose – God’s natural design and laws
were immutable. It is very similar in these regards to William Paley’s Natural heology. While Chambers’
anticipated Darwin, he apparently had no direct inluence on Darwin or his theories.
Darwin never used the term evolution, either in On the Origin of Species, or other publications. (He did
use “evolved” as the last word in On the Origin.) Darwin himself always used the term Descent with
Modiication. Darwin did not mean to imply progressive descent with modiication, and he was always
careful not to use the terms higher or lower in describing how organisms adapted to their environment.
he slug is as well adapted to its environment as we are, and Darwin would ask who is to say which is
higher or lower in its biological success?
Critics of Darwin have frequently insisted that Darwin advocated progressive evolution. An anti-evolution
pamphlet (quoted by Stephen Jay Gould) says: “Did Man Get Here by Evolution or Creation: Evolution,
in very simple terms, means that life progressed from one-celled organisms to its highest state, the human
being, by means of a series of biological changes taking place over millions of years…. Mere change
within a basic type of living thing is not to be regarded as evolution.”33
Critiques of Darwin commonly miss the mark in four ways: It was Bufon, not Darwin, who implied the
progressive evolution from slime to humans. It was Chambers, not Darwin, who ofered a teleological
theory of evolution; It was Lamarck, not Darwin, who argued that organisms willed their own evolutionary
destiny; and, Darwin’s Dissent with Modiication was not progressive (teleological) from lower to higher
forms of life as implied by the creationists.
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Darwin’s theory of Descent with Modiication was developed without knowledge of genetics or the laws
of inheritance. Gregor Mendel – we will discuss him later – published the results of his genetic studies
in 1866, but Mendel’s work remained virtually unnoticed until 1900. he irst half century of debate
regarding natural selection and evolution took place without any understanding of genetics.
Who were the major inluences on Darwin? First there was Malthus and his struggle for existence as
described in An Essay on the Principle of Population. (Malthus was a very dour and pessimistic social
scientist. It is Malthus who irst presented an interpretation of economics as the dismal science.) Next there
was Lyell and geological uniformitarianism. If the geological world is in constant, almost imperceptible,
continuous change, shouldn’t the biological world be changing as an adaptation to the environment?
10.2
Darwinism
Well into the 19th century, the fossil record had not yielded any known human remains. he absence of
humans from the fossil record lent credence to the belief of a special creation of humanity. Stone tools
had been found in France, but there was a great deal of debate and skepticism about their origins and
authenticity.
First in 1848 a skull was found in Gibraltar. hen in 1856, workers in the Neander Valley, quarrying
limestone blocks on a steep hillside near Düsseldorf broke into a cave above the Neander River, a tributary
of the Rhine. hey discovered some old bones, including a complete skull. hese indings were delivered
to the scientiic community for analysis: the analysis included: the low arch of the brow; the projecting
lower jaw; the extreme bulging of the forehead; and the heavy posture reconstructed from the skeleton.
(See Link 10.4.)
Link 10.4 Neanderthal
http://bit.ly/19HRq0v
his Neanderthal man provoked both alarm and great excitement. One scientist noted that the
Neanderthal man was probably the remains of a Mongolian Cossack who had taken refuge in the cave
while on the way to Prussia in pursuit of Napoleon’s Army in 1814. It was more than ity years before
paleontologists could agree that the Neanderthal man was a Hominoid who lived between 20,000 and
100,000 BCE.
A few years later in 1868, another team of workers clearing a railroad right-of-way in France, opened
another cave containing ive skeletons of the so-called Cro-Magnon. (See Link 10.5.)
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Link 10.5 Cro-Magnon
http://bit.ly/1dqOcO0
hese were fortuitous discoveries being made just when Europeans were beginning to debate the origins
of humanity, the historicity of the Bible (and especially Jesus), and Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.
Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal were contemporaries (c. 20,000) – Cro-Magnon was a precursor to modern
Homo sapiens, and Neanderthal was dying out. Neanderthal had reached a dead end.
he discovery of the bones of extinct hominoid species raised fundamental questions about the unity of
the human species – and thus the timeliness of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) and his Descent
of Man (1871).
hus, Darwinism came of age at a time when there were dramatic discoveries in human paleontology,
and theories of social evolution (progress) and materialism was gaining momentum in Western culture.
Before discussing how Darwinism was received in American scientiic circles, let’s look at the LincolnDouglas debates of 1858 as a reminder of where Americans stood on the issue of our common humanity
and race at virtually the same time that Darwin published On the Origin of Species.
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Abraham Lincoln (Republican) was running for Stephen Douglas’s (Democrat) seat in the US Senate.
heir debates focused on the nature of Union and the place of Slavery in the United States. he debates
are famous for Lincoln’s House Divided Speech: i.e., the United States could not survive half free and
half slave. Lincoln forecast the irrepressible conlict of the Civil War.
Most interesting to our study were the Lincoln-Douglas discussions about race and humanity. In the
fourth debate, Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, shared common American views of race: “I am not nor
ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, not of qualifying them to hold oice, not
to intermarry with white people…. here is a physical diference between the white and black races which
I believe will forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.”34 Douglas
went even farther than Lincoln, declaring that the American government “was made by white man, for
the beneit of the white man, to be administered by white men” and that any “mixture or amalgamation
with inferior races” would lead to “degeneration, demoralization, and degradation.” Lincoln objected
to this racial doctrine. Lincoln airmed our common humanity and protested that in Douglas’ views
that “the negro is no longer a man but a brute…that he ranks with the crocodile and the reptile.” From
his premise that the black man shares a common humanity with all races, Lincoln inally deduced that
blacks were entitled to the freedoms guaranteed in Jeferson’s Declaration of Independence. Ultimately,
the issue before us is not one of politics, but one of biology – the nature of race and species – a very hot
topic in the mid-nineteenth century.
he irst public debate concerning Darwinism took place at the Oxford University Museum on June 30,
1860, just a year ater publication of On the Origin of Species. he debate featured the famous conlict
between homas H. Huxley and Samuel Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford. he debate was scheduled
as part of a general symposium on Darwin’s views.
he debate was held before a packed hall illed with raucous undergraduates. Preliminary speakers, both
critics and supporters of Darwin, were shouted down by the undergraduates, who wanted to get on with
the main show, the debate between Wilberforce and Huxley, already known for his skepticism and atheism.
Reportedly, Wilberforce’s address was given in the best of Oxford tradition: witty, droll, obsequiously
polite, but biting and sarcastic – just what the Oxford undergraduates loved. One report said: “although
he ridiculed Darwin and Huxley, it was done in such dulcet tones, so persuasive in manner, and in such
well turned periods that the chairman could not object, only Darwin’s partisans complaining of the
‘ugliness and emptiness and unfairness of it.’ ”35
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What everyone remembered of this encounter was the climax. Wilberforce gallantly asked the audience,
to the great delight of the Oxford students, whether women, their mothers, sisters, wives, and sweethearts,
also derived from beasts, as Darwin supposed. “No, no, no!” shouted the undergraduates. hen, turning
to Huxley, Wilberforce asked whether it was through his grandfather or grandmother that he claimed
descent from the monkey. he undergraduates howled with delight.
Huxley was also delighted, this was the kind of rhetorical alley ighting that he loved, and turned to his
friend, and declared: “he Lord hath delivered him into mine hands.” Huxley rose to defend Darwin–and
presented a sober defense of the Origin as a legitimate scientiic theory. He explained patiently that it
was not Darwin’s intention to establish a direct relationship between apes and man, but only to suggest
that they had perhaps descended from a common ancestor ater many thousands of generations. hen
he delivered his famous blow against Wilberforce: “I assert – and I repeat – that a man has no reason to
be ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather. If there were an ancestor whom I should feel shame
in recalling, it would rather be a man, a man of restless and versatile intellect, who, not content with an
equivocal success in his own sphere of activity, plunges into scientiic questions with which he had no
real acquaintance, only to obscure them by an aimless rhetoric, and distract the attention of his hearers
from the real point at issue by eloquent digressions and skilled appeals to religious prejudice.”
he undergraduates loved it, and the speech forever made Huxley’s reputation. Tragically, FitzRoy,
Darwin’s old sea captain, now somewhat deranged, stalked the back of hall holding alot a Bible and
shouting: “he Book, he Book.”36 (Fitzroy had been governor of New Zealand but later fell from grace
and in 1865 slit his throat.)
Unfortunately, the Huxley-Wilberforce debate also set the tone for the discussion of Darwinism and
religion. In many respects, scientists were eclipsed in the raucous debates over Darwin that were to
follow. Mostly, the public debate was not about science theory, but the symbolic clash between science
and religion. In fact, science became so irrelevant that in the Scopes Trial of 1925, the famous monkey
trial challenging the Tennessee law that banned the teaching of evolution in public schools, the judge
ruled the testimony of distinguished scientists was not relevant. And the judge probably ruled correctly:
the scientists’ testimony was not germane to the social, religious, and political issues before the Tennessee
court.
10.3
Darwinism in America
Louis Agassiz (1806–1873), represented 19th Century Scientiic Creationism. Swiss born Agassiz was
a Harvard Professor of geology and zoology. He was one of the most prominent biologists of the 19th
century. Agassiz was well known in Europe as well as America. He was so prominent that Darwin sent
him a drat of the On the Origin of Species before publication.
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he son of Swiss Protestant minister, Agassiz was trained in the best European universities, and went to
France to study with George Cuvier. (Cuvier was the great paleontologist who believed in catastrophism
regarding geological development.)
Agassiz was a successful scientist – as a student he studied fossil ishes; he drank heavily at Cuvier’s well.
In general, Agassiz rejected the doctrine of evolution, but like Cuvier was drawn towards William Paley’s
natural philosophy. Cuvier had been opposed to Lamarck – the opposition to Lamarckian evolution
carried over into Agassiz’ criticism of Darwin.
In all creation, Agassiz saw the wonderful and purposeful hand of God. Agassiz’ view was neither an
unpopular or unusual position in the 19th century. But he was also a rigorous scientist. At Harvard, he
insisted that his students study nature from nature and introduced dissection of animals into the Harvard
curriculum. In this sense he was also a disciple of Vesalius and Harvey.
Agassiz also admired Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology, but rejected Lyell’s uniformitarianism. It
was Agassiz who studied the problem of erratic boulders found across England, France and Europe,
and determined that they had been deposited by historic glaciation. He was the originator of the irst
theories of ice sheets covering the northern hemisphere. heories of periodic ice ages it well into his
catastrophic view of geological change.
Agassiz was one of the most inluential members of the scientiic establishment – and counted among his
circle the intellectual and literary leaders of Boston and Cambridge, including Emerson and Longfellow.
He was well respected and successfully raised money for building one of the inest natural history
museums in the country.
Given the inluence of Cuvier and catastrophism, Agassiz’s reaction to Darwin’s manuscript was
predictable. Agassiz believed in the successive creation of organisms separated by catastrophes. Agassiz
believed that the fossil record can best be explained by God’s successive creative acts.
Although Agassiz’s views were not Biblical, neither were they incompatible with the Biblical story.
According to Agassiz, he Creator, much like Newton’s creator, set forth the basic plan and pattern, but
did not manage the details. hus Agassiz could admit to a certain amount of change and development.
In the margin of On the Origin of Species, Agassiz wrote: “What is the great diference between supposing
God makes variable species, or that he makes laws by which species vary?”37
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It is important to note that Agassiz is interested in developing a scientiic system, not a theological one.
From his study of nature, Agassiz believed that there existed distinct, identiiable Zoological Provinces in
nature with their distinctive lora and fauna. Australia was a perfect example of a zoological province –
how distinctive it is – but all nature was Australia like.
In Agassiz’s reasoning, the great richness and variety of the species found in the world’s distinctive
zoological provinces implied Special Creations, which in turn implied a Unique Creation.
Agassiz believed in separate creations for White, Blacks, and Browns. In his public lectures, Agassiz
applied his idea of zoological provinces to humans, and stated that Blacks had an origin distinct from
Whites. Agassiz did not believe that Blacks could trace their ancestry to the sons of Noah, that is, Noah
of the Biblical Great Flood catastrophe.
Lecturing in Charleston, SC, Agassiz airmed not only that Blacks and Whites were of distinct origin,
but also that Blacks were probably a physiologically and anatomically distinct species. Agassiz statements
reinforced southern arguments in defense of slavery, and established Agassiz as one the most popular
scientists in the South. It was signiicant that he came from the heart of the abolitionist north.
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Ironically, despite his popularity in the South, a few biblical fundamentalists objected to his reinterpretation of the Biblical account of creation. he idea that Blacks enjoyed a separate creation struck
at the heart of a literal reading of the stories about Adam and Eve and Noah’s Ark. Agassiz responded that
the Genesis story only referred to the creation of one of the zoological provinces, including the plants
and animals associated with Adam and Eve. here were at least a dozen separate, successive creations
in diferent parts of the world, Agassiz maintained.
Agassiz saw the debate between plurality of creation or unity of creation. He maintained that all humans
enjoyed a spiritual and moral unity, but viewed zoologically, “the several races of men were well marked
and distinct.”38 He deined eight races of humans to correspond to the eight major zoological provinces: “the
Caucasian; Arctic; Mongol; American Indian; Negro; Hottentot; Malayan; and, Australian.”39 (How ironic
it is that we used a modiied version of Agassiz’ eight races for the purposes of airmative action today).
Agassiz on the Bible – “he Bible was not a textbook of natural history and could not be treated as such
by a mind seeking only to discover the truth. Science had a right to investigate these questions without
reference to politics or to religion.”40 hen he concluded, it was not really very important whether human
groups were called races, varieties, or species – what was important was the recognition of the fundamental
diferences between the races. In addition to obvious physical diferences, for example, Agassiz believed
that Blacks were by nature submissive, obsequious, and imitative – and the argument of the unity of the
human race would mock science if it implied that Blacks were equal to Whites.
Darwin, himself, was very much in touch with this debate between Pluralism and Unity of human species.
Remember that Darwin had extensive contact with blacks and other races, much more so than Agassiz.
In contrast to Agassiz, Darwin, was an ardent and outspoken anti-slavery advocate and believed in the
unity of the races.
Asa Gray (1810–1888) was a colleague of Agassiz at Harvard. Gray was a distinguished botanist – not
as prominent as Agassiz – but was well know and also received a copy of the On the Origin of Species
from Darwin. Gray became the principal pro-Darwin scientist in the US.
Gray, like Darwin, was an ardent anti-slavery advocate. Gray argued for the unity of the Human Species,
and against pluralism which he believed gave aid and comfort to pro-slavery forces. But Gray also believed
that Agassiz’s argument for separate creations was scientiically lawed. he Agassiz-Gray debate was
about science, but it had far reaching social implications.
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Gray, interestingly, remained a Christian Darwinist, arguing that: “Natural Selection not Inconsistent
with Natural heology.”41 Gray as a rationalist, distrusting orthodox religion; but he was also pious,
evangelical and became a Unitarian. While Agassiz explained the variation of the species by proposing
separate creation in eight zoological provinces, for Gray the key to explaining the variety of the species
was to give up the idea of the ixity of species.
he debate between Gray and Agassiz focused on the Transmutability of the species. Gray, the botanist,
read On the Origin of Species and concluded that one species probably passed into another and that
natural selection was the likely mechanism. But while he was willing to accept the ideas of evolution
(and perhaps natural selection), Gray argued that he should not change his religious and philosophical
beliefs beyond that required by scientiic evidence.
As a taxonomist, Gray perceived order and design in nature as portrayed by the structure and function
of organisms. However one explained them, Gray believed that there was design in the adaptation of
organisms to their environment. In short, Gray could not quite give up the Argument from Design, then
and still, a powerful argument for God and purposefulness in the universe.
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Origin of the Social Sciences (1750–1900)
11 Origin of the Social Sciences
(1750–1900)
11.1
Economics
homas Malthus (1766–1834) lived and wrote before Karl Marx. Malthus was an Englishman who
graduated from Cambridge in 1784 where he majored in mathematics. Malthus was not so much a
critic of capitalism as he was a proit of doom regarding the workings of Adam Smith’s invisible hand.
You could think of Malthus as the Jeremiah (the broken-hearted prophet) of early capitalism. At a
time when there was vast optimism about the future of the Industrial Revolution, Malthus warned that
industrial England was heading towards economic disaster. What a contrast to Adam Smith!
Proponents of the industrial revolution believed that it would ease the grinding poverty of Europe’s
peasant class, and would provide prosperity and higher standards of living for owners and workers
alike. Malthus took none of this for granted, but tried to work out mathematical relationships between
technology, resources, and population. Was there a law of demography on population growth?
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Malthus became a student of population history, collecting and analyzing data from ancient Greece and
Rome, China, and Europe, including population data concerning the rise and fall of population during
the Black Death [plague] in the 14th century and ater. In 1798, Malthus irst published An Essay on the
Principle of Population. His essay went on to six editions between that time and 1826.
His major conclusion was that population growth increased geometrically, while food supply tended to
increase by arithmetic progression. An arithmetic progression is linear, e.g. 2,4,6,8,10… A geometric
progression is exponential, e.g. 2,4,8,16,32… In the irst case we added 2 to each step; in the second case
we multiplied by 2 for each step. (A fun puzzle when I was a child was to take a penny and multiply it
each day by 2 for a month. At the end of the month (30 days) the amount was more than ive million
dollars!) (Figure 11.1.)
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Figure 11.1 Exponential Growth
he problem becomes obvious and ominous. According to Malthus, population will always outrun food
supply. In an industrial state, the specter of famine will always haunt the economy. Obviously, Malthus’
prediction has not come true, at least globally. But Malthusian’s warn us not to become complacent.
Malthus missed two mitigating factors: he opening of vast new agricultural lands in Americas, Russia,
and Australia; and, the development of transportation systems to market grains. he invention of
refrigeration and chemical fertilizers and preservatives have also been an important factors that improved
nutrition.
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However, Malthusians contend that the population problems now being experienced by third world
countries conirm Malthus and should be a warning to the developed nations. We may yet reach the
crisis point Malthus predicted.
11.2
Sociology
In general, the 19th Century embraced the doctrine of scientiic and technological progress and airmed
as well the idea of social progress. While the people of the 19th century were not naive about human sin
and persistent poverty and sufering, western culture believed that through reason and science humanity
could gradually, steadily, and progressively improve the conditions of life. Some individuals actually
believed in the perfectibility of the human race.
Faith in science, or the scientiic method, was so great that there was virtually no discipline, no
phenomenon, no realm of life that scientism did not invade. By the end of the 19th century, history,
anthropology, psychology, medicine, sport and recreation, industrial production, child rearing and
education, criminology and penology – everything was studied scientiically. New academic disciplines
in the social sciences, agriculture, architecture, and even the law, achieved legitimacy by becoming
objectively scientiic in their choice of problems and conduct of research.
For the irst time, even the Bible was subjected to scientiic, objective study or analysis. he Bible’s
sacred books were now treated as historical literature and documents – through literary analysis, the
Holy Scriptures former unity was dissolved into fragments of historical eras, kingdoms, and multiple
authors – a single Biblical story, such as Noah’s Flood, might actually be constructed from three or four
versions relecting the diferent historical or cultural experiences of the people who wrote them. Indeed,
the new scientiic historical criticism even raised questions about the historical Jesus. A great deal of 19th
century biblical scholarship was spent in search of the historical Jesus.
he best known of the scholars who pursued the scientiic study of society was Auguste Comte
(1798–1857) known as the founder of sociology. He called his philosophy positivism, claiming he had
discovered the laws of human progress. Comte believed that the story of history moved through three
stages: the theological stage – the most primitive – natural and historical events are controlled by the Gods;
the metaphysical stage – not unlike the ancient Greeks and scholastics – events explained by Spirit, Ideal
Form, etc.; and, the Positive stage – in which the mathematical laws of material causes are discovered.
Comte also believed there was a hierarchy in the sciences: mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry,
biology, and sociology, all ultimately materialistic and mathematical.
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he discipline of Statistics was irst developed in the social sciences and later applied to the natural
sciences. In the inal stage of history, the positivist era, all knowledge would be uniied into a single
comprehensive discipline of sociology. From Comte’s perspective, understanding the laws of historical
succession freed humanity from determinism – the major object of materialism. To know the laws of
society and history enables one to be able to participate actively and dynamically in being a mid-wife
for the new social order.
Comte’s philosophy was popular because it was in tune with European’s belief about their historical destiny.
11.3
Political Science
Karl Marx (1818–1883) was the father of Dialectical Materialism. If one were to list the most inluential
thinkers of the 19th Century that have had the most impact on the 20th century, I think one would have
to include: homas Jeferson, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, and Karl Marx.
Marx was steeped in the philosophical, social, and economic thought of 18th century philosophes,
particularly Hegel and to some extent, Darwin. Apparently, Marx wanted to dedicate Das Kapital to
Darwin, and even when Darwin refused the honor, Marx sent him an inscribed, autographed copy.
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Marx wanted to be to economics and history what Darwin had been to biology. Marx, in a letter to
his collaborator, Friedreich Engels, praised Darwin’s theory of natural selection as the “natural history
foundation for our own viewpoint” [historical materialism]. He wrote to Ferdinand Lassalle, German
socialist: “Darwin’s work is most important and suits my purpose in that it provides a basis in the natural
science for the historical class struggle. One does, of course, have to put up with the clumsy English style
of argument. Despite all shortcomings, it is here that, for the irst time, ‘teleology’ in natural science is
not only dealt a mortal blow but its rational meaning is empirically explained.”42
Marx was born in the Rhineland, Germany, of Jewish parents. Young Marx dreamed of a university
position in philosophy. But he was unsuccessful and turned to journalism instead. While in Berlin he
was much inluenced by Hegel, and became one of the young Hegelians.
George W. Hegel (1770–1831) was Professor at the University of Berlin, and one of Immanuel Kant’s
most important followers. Hegel opposed the empiricism and materialism that characterized French and
English 18th and 19th thought. Hegel believed that the natural, material world depended on the mind or
consciousness for its existence. he world we have not experienced, in efect, does not exist for us. hus
it is moot for Hegel to consider nature or the material world beyond consciousness of the Mind of God,
or Spirit. It simply can have no meaning. What is rational, Hegel concluded, is real, and what is real is
rational. Our ideas then, forge reality.
How then does God think? God’s consciousness is expressed collectively through the thinking of humanity. Our
thoughts are God’s thoughts. According to Hegel: “Man and God are a Unity. History is the continuing unfolding
of Absolute Spirit’s (God’s) creative self-realization. God becomes conscious of Himself as God through human
history. God becomes God through us.”43 he ultimate embodiment of Spirit or Geist is in the state. Only the
state can blend liberty and authority – thesis and antithesis – to achieve true freedom and autonomy.
Shocked by the injustices of the industrial revolution, and the great disparities of wealth between rich
and poor as evidenced in the capitalistic system, Marx denounced the exploitation of the workers and
proletariat by the capitalists in his famous, and readable, Communist Manifesto (1848). His theory of
history, on the other hand, is most completely worked out in his magnum opus, Das Kapital (1867),
which is verbose and turgid. Marx ofered what he described as a scientiic interpretation of history,
based on his extensive reading in the British Museum.
Marx theorized that history has progressed through stages: hunting gathering; agricultural; feudal and
manorial; bourgeoisie merchants; and modern industrial capitalists. he next saga of history would see
the revolt of the workers, the establishment of socialism, and eventually, the creation of a classless society,
and a withering away of the state, and the end of history.
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Like Hegel, Marx’s version of history was both teleological and dialectical. What Marx rejected was
Hegel’s Idealism (i.e. God), rather he attempted to adopt Darwin’s categories of materialism. What did
Marx understand by materialism? Marx rejected all forms of supernaturalism whether theological or
philosophical. his is what he understood to be naturalism. He believed that all human experience
is based on sense experience. He rejected all claims of idealists that knowledge comes from God. All
knowledge comes through scientiic investigation. He believed that religious ideas and practices are
products of human imagination, not God’s action or inspiration. Religion was invented by humans for
social and psychological needs. And, he believed that scientiic and philosophical knowledge is measured
by its usefulness. In sum, Marx’s materialism was a composite of naturalism, empiricism, positivism,
atheism, and pragmatism.
While Americans were disturbed by Darwin’s materialismscienc; for the most part, they rejected outright
Marx’s materialism as applied to history.
11.4
Psychology
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) was born in Freiberg, Bavaria which is now part of the Czech Republic.
In 1859 his family moved to Leopoldstate (Vienna). Freud attended high school in Leopoldstate in
1865. He irst planned to study law but then registered with Faculty of Medicine at the University of
Vienna receiving his medical degree in 1881. Freud did research from 1884 to 1887 in cocaine therapy
for hysteria. He opened a neurologist oice in 1886.
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Freud worked and published over the next decade and in 1920 was appointed Professor on the Faculty
of Vienna. In 1938 he exiled himself to London to escape Nazi anti-Semitism.
When Freud entered psychiatry, there were only two therapies for mental illness: surgery and drugs.
We owe Freud for the concept of the unconscious mind and the use of the interpretation of dreams to
understand better the uncounderstand the unconscious. Freud’s theories depended heavily upon the
sex drive in human beings. Freud gave us psychotherapy, the concept that the mind can understand and
heal itself.
Freud classiied the development of the mind in three stages: the Id is present at birth, entirely instinctive
and seeking gratiication; the Ego develops ater birth, deals with reality (including the subconscious and
preconscious) and tries to satisfy the Id in socially acceptable ways; and the Superego, which begins to
develop around 5 years and internalizes morals and ideals, right and wrong.
Freud tried to be the Linnaeus of mental illness. He thought he could classify each illness then determine
the therapy required. His one-time student, Carl Jung dispelled this idea and took psychiatry in another
direction to focus on the individual.
On religion, Freud said: “Religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis.” “In the long run, nothing can
withstand reason and experience, and the contradiction religion ofers to both is palpable.”44
In 1880, Fyodor Dostoevsky published his inal novel, he Brothers Karamazov. In his autobiography,
Freud said that he learned psychology from Dostoevsky. Carl G. Jung, as we mentioned above, was an
early collaborator with Freud. Ater years of clinical research, Jung concluded that each person is an
individual and their mental illness must be dealt with individually. A good understanding of Freud can
be found in he Interpretation of Dreams, which he published in 1900. Excellent books by Jung are he
Undiscovered Self (1975) and Dreams, Memories and Relections (1962).
11.5
Social Science and Statistics
Francis Galton (1822–1911) was a cousin of Charles Darwin. hey had in common Erasmus Darwin
for a grandfather. Galton was precocious, reading at 2 and learning foreign languages by 5, and moving
on to Shakespeare and poetry by 6. Like Darwin, he was urged to study medicine but did not like it. He
then studied mathematics at Cambridge from 1840 to 1844 getting a B.A. degree in 1844 and then an
automatic M.A. degree in 1847 without additional work.
Galton’s father died in 1847 leaving him independently wealthy. He took advantage of his wealth and
traveled extensively, going to parts of Africa that were little explored, as well as other areas. He won the
Royal Geographical Society Gold Medal in 1853.
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Galton was in communication with Darwin and was in the audience in 1860 at the famous Huxley/
Wilberforce debate. When Galton read On the Origin of Species (1859), he realized that mathematics
might be applied to human variations. Gauss had developed the mathematics of the normal distribution
(see Appendix 6) including the statistical analysis of the mean and standard deviation. (Galton actually
introduced the term standard deviation.)
Galton collected vast amounts of data trying to determine all sort of human properties from physical
features to more esoteric attributes such as beauty and eminence. He found that many human attributes
were normally distributed. He thought it would be possible to determine if human attributes were
hereditary. Galton coined the term eugenics and felt it might be possible to improve the human race by
encouraging higher quality people to marry and have children. (Because of this philosophy, many have
historically blamed Galton for the negative aspects of the eugenics movement, the most extreme of which
was carried out by the Nazi party in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.)
Galton’s data, however, surprised him on the inheritance issue. For example, he found that tall parents
had above average height children but in a few generations the population was back to the mean value
of height for the society. He also classiied people for eminence over several generations and, while some
children seemed to inherent eminence, the grandchildren did so to a lesser extent. Galton developed the
idea of reversion to the mean. (We now say regression to the mean.) Here is Galton’s statement:
“he child inherits partly from his parents, partly from his ancestry…. [T]he further his genealogy goes
back, the more numerous varied will his ancestry become, until they cease to difer from any equally
numerous sample taken at haphazard from the race at large…. his law tells heavily against the full
hereditary transmission of any given…. he law is even-handed; it levies the same succession-tax on
the transmission of badness as well as goodness. If it discourages the extravagant expectations of gited
parents that their children will inherit all their powers, it no less discountenances extravagant fears that
they will inherit all their weaknesses and diseases.”45
Galton’s most famous publication was his 1869 book Hereditary Genius: Its Laws and Consequences. Galton
made contributions to many ields of science including statistics, psychology, biology, and meteorology. He
was important in criminology for his study of inger-prints, a human attribute that does not change over
a life-time. Galton efectively invented population genetics but, like Darwin, he didn’t know about Mendel
when he was doing his work. Darwin, Mendel, and Galton were doing their research at the same time.
What incredible collaborations could have occurred among them had Mendel been known to the other two.
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11.6
Origin of the Social Sciences (1750–1900)
Social Darwinism
he scientiic debates between professional scientists – Agassiz and Gray – were obviously colored by the
moral and social implications of Darwinism. By the end of the 19th century most biologists accepted the
idea of evolution – but as we have seen with Gray, not necessarily the mechanism of natural selection
with its materialist implications.
If the scientiic debate focused on the issue of the plurality or unity of creation – the religious debate
centered instead on the Concept of Design. hat is, whether any supernatural intelligence or power (God)
ruled over or within creation and history, giving it purpose and meaning. As we have already stressed, the
heart of the Darwinian interpretation is the doctrine of natural selection. he religious response, could be
three fold: Deny evolution and/or natural selection on scientiic or dogmatic grounds; Harmonize religion
and biology by arguing that evolution and/or natural selection described in better detail (and science)
than Scripture the operation of God in the natural (biological) world; or, Decide biology and religion
had nothing to do with one another: that religious truth was spiritual and scientiic truth was material.
What we ind historically, is that much of the old guard, i.e. Darwin’s generation, among the clergy,
took the irst option. But that group was greatly handicapped in refuting Darwin because they did not
understand the science. hey became isolated from the mainstream of the intellectual tradition and
their successors still are.
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Younger clergy, especially the educated clergy who learned their biology towards the end of the 19th
century, tended to take the third option, that is, they simply walked away from the problem. A middle
group (transition group) tried for a time to work a compromise, but without success.
For example, consider Pastor James Woodrow, a Presbyterian, and Fr. John Augustine Zahm, a Roman
Catholic. James Woodrow (1828–1907) was the Uncle of Woodrow Wilson. He was Professor of natural
science in connection with divinity at the Presbyterian Seminary of Columbia, South Carolina. In 1884
Woodrow was asked by his governing board to declare himself on the question of evolution. He chose
as his audience the Seminary’s Alumni Association – many of them, his students.
Woodrow was himself a student of Agassiz at Harvard, but had been swayed by Gray, and had come to
accept the soundness of On the Origin of Species. In his talk, he tried to give his former students a way out
of the Darwinian materialist trap. He argued that there were two kinds of truth – scientiic and scriptural
(an argument as old as Galileo). And you could accept the indings of science while keeping your faith.
Woodrow reviewed another challenge to faith – the Copernican Revolution. As Woodrow noted, those
who wanted harmony between science and scripture had found wonderful conirmation in Ptolemaic
astronomy and the Bible. But Galileo had clearly taught, Woodrow reviewed, that the Bible was not
written to teach astronomy, and could not be relied upon for that purpose.
Now Woodrow cleverly quoted John Calvin. “Moses does not speak with philosophical acuteness of
occult mysteries…. He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere.”46
Woodrow went on to say: “I have found nothing in my study of the Holy Bible and of natural science
that shakes my irm belief in the divine inspiration of every word of that Bible, and in the consequent
absolute truth, the absolute inerrancy, of every expression which it contains, from beginning to end.”47
Regarding the subject at hand, Evolution, Woodrow thought it was self evident that continuous change –
in all nature – was life’s one constant. But Woodrow could not accept Agassiz’s non-Biblical theory
of separate creations. “Evolution does not include reference to the power by which the origination is
efected: it refers to the mode, and the mode alone.” God, then, is the power behind evolution – and this
is a religious statement, not a scientiic statement, Woodrow is careful to qualify.
“I would say in conclusion, that while the doctrine of Evolution in itself…is not and cannot be either
Christian or anti-Christian, religious or irreligious, theistic or atheistic, yet viewing the history of our
Earth and its inhabitants, and of the whole universe, …and then going outside of it and recognizing that
it is God’s Plan of Creation, …I am led with profounder reverence to contemplate this wondrous series
of events, caused and controlled by the power and wisdom of the Lord God Almighty.”
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Woodrow was ired. He had to weather a heresy trial to maintain his standing as a minister. Ultimately,
he recovered to become head of the South Carolina Synod, and eventually President of the University
of South Carolina.
John Augustine Zahm (1851–1921) was a Catholic theologian and spokesman on science and religion.
He wrote Evolution and Dogma (1896). he Catholic Church, which placed more emphasis on church
authority, and less on the scriptures did not have the same severe problem with Darwinism as did the
Protestants.
In general, Catholics were told they could accept Darwin’s theory of evolution, as long as they did not
doubt the divine origin of the soul.
Zahm argued that true religion and objective science could never really conlict. Zahm argued that the
theory of evolution could actually be found in the writings and sayings of the Church’s great Patristic
and medieval saints and scholars, such as Gregory, Augustine, Francis of Assisi, and above all homas
Aquinas! How astounding!
Zahm begins by explaining that Evolution is not a new idea, but a very old idea having its origin in classical
Greek philosophers. St. Augustine’s teaching – in the beginning God created all things potentially…
and that these were aterwards developed through the action of secondary causes during the course of
untold ages. St. homas Aquinas – Evolution was God’s continuing and sustaining power in the birth,
growth and development of all creatures He has made. Evolution was what St. homas called Divine
Administration, and what is ordinarily know as Providence.
So Zahm concludes: “To say that Evolution is agnostic or atheistic in tendency, if not in fact, is to betray
a lamentable ignorance of what it actually teaches, and to display a singular incapacity for comprehending
the relation of a scientiic induction to a philosophical – or, more truthfully, an anti-philosophical –
system…. Rather should it be airmed that Evolution, in so far as it is true, makes for religion and
Dogma: because it must needs be that a true theory of the origin and development of things must, when
properly understood and applied, both strengthen and illustrate the teachings of faith…. he doctrine
of Evolution destroys the conception of the world as a machine.”48
Zahm’s conclusion (similar to Woodrow) is that science does not reveal purpose and teleology in nature;
and that’s OK because religion does.
Finally, Marx was not the only social philosopher to adapt Darwinian biological principles to social
processes. hose who adapted Darwin to sociology were known as Social Darwinists. he most inluential
social Darwin philosopher was Herbert Spencer (1820–1903), who coined the term survival of the ittest.
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Spencer published his famous treatise Social Statics in 1851 before publication of the On the Origin of
Species. He ultimately became one of the chief popularizes of Darwin and Malthus. Spencer envisioned
human progress in terms of the struggle for existence in which the weak fall by the wayside for the
greater good of the community.
“he poverty of the incapable, the distresses that come upon the imprudent, the starvation of the idle…
are the decrees of a large, far seeing benevolence [which also] brings to early graves the children of
diseased parents, and singles out the low-spirited, the intemperate, and the debilitated as the victims of
an epidemic.”49 said Spencer.
In Spencer’s view, the race is toughened and tempered by the rough and tumble struggle for existence.
he strong, intelligent, ambitious, craty, ruthless, and lucky survive. he weak are purged from the
community.
Contrast Spencer’s view of history with Marx. Where Marx believed the downtrodden proletariat would
rise up to take control of history, Spencer saw the struggle for existence in which the ittest survived
as producing a society which guaranteed maximum opportunity for individuals to fulill their destiny
without encroaching on the rights of others. A good 19th century social theorist, Spencer optimistically
believed that social progress was the consequence of the survival of the ittest.
In general, Social Darwinists opposed state interference with the natural unimpeded growth of society.
his laissez-faire theory was in concert with the traditional capitalist doctrine of Adam Smith. he
Government that was best, governed least. his was a good Jefersonian concept packaged in social
science dogma based on Darwinian principles.
Spencer opposed all state aid to the poor, public education, housing regulations, health and safety
regulations, tarifs, state banking, and even the government postal system. he government’s principle
role was to secure the safety and security of the people from domestic crime and violence and from
foreign domination and war. Social Darwinists believed in the privatization of all possible aspects of the
society. hey had a tremendous distrust of government, and believed that cooperation in an industrial
society must be voluntary, not compulsory.
It was a doctrine well suited for industrial capitalism in America, where Spencer became widely popular.
Andrew Carnegie was Spencer’s most prominent American disciple. And Carnegie, whose own story
was that of rags to riches, an immigrant from Scotland was a generous, humane man. Social Darwinism
in America was always tempered by the Social Gospel – an American tradition of private philanthropy.
Whatever conclusions one wants to reach about the so-called industrial Robber Barons, many were
generous, especially to educational institutions.
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During the Gilded Age wealthy men founded great universities: Rockefeller and the University of Chicago;
Ezra Cornell, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Leland Stanford, just to name a few. And Carnegie joined the
contributors, not only supporting the Carnegie Institute, but funding libraries all across America. his
makes his comments about Spencer and Social Darwinism all the more interesting. Carnegie wrote: “I
remember that light came as in a lood and all was clear. Not only had I got rid of theology and the
supernatural, but I had found the truth of evolution. All is well since all grows better, became my motto,
my true source of comfort. Man was not created with an instinct for his own degradation, but from the
lower he had risen to higher forms. Nor is there any conceivable end to his march to perfection. His
face is turned to the light: he stands in the sun and looks upward.”50
John D. Rockefeller was reported to have said : “he growth of a large business is merely a survival of the
ittest…. he American Beauty rose can be produced in the splendor and fragrance which brings cheer
to its beholder only by sacriicing the early buds which grow up around it. his is not an evil tendency
in business. It is merely the working out of a law of nature and a law of God.”51 [emphasis added]
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William Graham Sumner, a professor of moral philosophy at Yale University, became the chief academic
spokesman for Social Darwinism in the United States. Sumner was a dour man. He believed in private
charity, but he opposed all government aid equally to the poor or to private business. His book he
Absurd Efort to Make the World Over (1894) criticized social reform, and in a famous essay he asked
rhetorically, “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other.”52 he answer: nothing. Sumner also believed in
the principle of the struggle for existence. He approved of private charity, but government assistance
would create dependency while killing individual and corporate initiative.
Here is a dialogue taken from a student’s notes of Sumner’s class at Yale:
Student: Professor, don’t you believe in any government aid to industries?
Sumner: No! It’s root, hog, or die.
Student: Yes, but hasn’t the hog got a right to root?
Sumner: here are no rights. he world owes nobody a living.
Student: You believe then, Professor, in only one system: the contract-competitive system?
Sumner: hat is the only sound economic system. he rest are fallacies.
Student: Well, suppose some professor of political economy came along and took your job
away from you. Wouldn’t you be sore?
Sumner: Any other professor is welcome to try. If he gets my job, it is my fault. My business is
to teach the subject so well that no one can take the job away from me. Millionaires
are a product of natural selection…. Let it be understood that we cannot go outside
this alternative: liberty, inequality, and survival of the ittest; not liberty, equality, and
survival of the unittest.
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Atomic and Nuclear Era (1900–1950)
12 Atomic and Nuclear Era
(1900–1950)
12.1
Pre-1900 American Science
he Civil War (1861–1865) was a watershed for American science and technology. Northern victory
assured a national system of communications and transportation. Medicine as well was signiicantly
advanced by the war. But until about 1930, American science, especially the physical sciences, was a
colonial outpost of Europe.
Americans had a little distinction in the 18th and 19th centuries. here was Franklin in electricity and
Priestly (who led to America) in chemistry. And, Audubon in zoology, Lewis and Clark in exploration,
and Agassiz and Gray ofered distinction to the American scene, but not greatness.
By contrast, American technology was strong and innovative. here was Robert Fulton with his steamboat,
Eli Whitney and the cotton gin, Cyrus McCormick invented the mechanical reaper, and Cornelius
Vanderbilt built a fortune with ferry boats and steamships. Frederick Howe planned and built cities,
and Samuel Colt patented the revolver and made its manufacture a commercial success. Perhaps the
most important American contribution to technology before 1860 may have been balloon frame housing
construction. his allowed houses and barns to be built in a single day and provided homes for the
population which expanded across the country following the Civil War.
In America, basic science research largely lacked patronage. In Europe, science enjoyed increasing
government and private support. Concurrently, sciences in Europe had developed levels of professionalism
(including scientiic organizations), specialization, and University Graduate Education.
European universities, especially in Germany and England became the centers for research in the physical
sciences. As late as the 1920, Americans largely depended on European universities for doctoral studies in
the sciences. America’s inner circle of scientists – including Louis Agassiz (Harvard biologist), Alexander
Dallas Bache (Head, Coast and Geodetic Survey), and Joseph Henry (Head, Smithsonian Institution)
promoted European professionalism, academic science, and campaigned against amateurism. his group
called themselves the Lazzaroni (beggars), and founded the American Association for the Advancement
of Science (AAAS) in 1847. he Lazzaroni ardently promoted the German concept that scientiic research
was an essential function of college faculties.
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Atomic and Nuclear Era (1900–1950)
Yale University founded a Graduate School and awarded the irst Ph. D. in the New World in 1861. Johns
Hopkins was founded in Baltimore in 1876 as a university where one could study a research oriented
Ph.D. in Science. Two major developments arising out of the Civil War would ultimately change the face
of American science. First, the Morrill Land Grant Acts (1862 and 1890) established the national state
university system devoted to research in agriculture, engineering, technology, and science. he irst Act
gave land for a state university and the second Act established experiment stations in agriculture and
engineering. (he second Act also required co-education.) Second, the National Academy of Sciences
was established in 1863 to serve as an oicial science advisor to the federal government – although it
was largely ignored until the 20th century and oten even then.
While America lagged in science between1865–1895, the United States became the world leader in
applied technology. In America technology seemed to plunge ahead without scientiic trail-blazing. But
even industry did not completely ignore basic science.
homas Edison (1847–1931) established his research laboratory at Menlo Park, NJ, in 1876. Edison’s
research laboratory became a prototype of the industrial laboratory for which the United States would
become a world leader. It established precedents for great industrial research labs of such giants as GE,
AT&T, Bell Labs, Westinghouse, and IBM.
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Prior to World War II, U.S. government laboratories were neither large nor important. In part this was
because of the Government’s benign neglect of science. (he U.S. would have no real science policy until
WW I.) Without strong support from the government, science in the United States became decentralized
and pluralistic, and mostly supported by economic interests. For example, the government did establish
some small research laboratories to do research on coal and oil. he U.S. Department of Agriculture
sponsored some research on plants, animals, and insects at the newly founded land-grant universities;
the military, especially the Navy, conducted weapons related research on ballistics, explosives, armament,
and related matters. (On a recommendation to congress from homas Edison, the U. S. founded the
Naval Research Laboratory in 1923.)
In the 1880s, a congressional appointed commission recommended the establishment of a Department
of Science, but Congress rejected the idea. Yale produced a great physicist in Josiah Willard Gibbs. And,
the American Chemical Society was founded in 1876. Physics, chemistry, and medicine were becoming
the principle interests of American scientists.
12.2
Theories of the Aether
Clerk Maxwell in 1865 had calculated electromagnetic waves would travel about 299,793 kilometers
per second (186,000 mps) – the speed of light! According to Newtonian mechanics, waves traveling
through space required a mechanical medium. But, an evacuated chamber that could not convey sound,
conveyed light. herefore, the Aether, an ancient concept as old as Aristotle, was assumed to exist and
be the medium through which light traveled.
Albert Michelson (1852–1931) and William Morely (1838–1923) believed that one ought to be able
to detect the aether wind. hey reasoned that either the Earth was moving through the aether, which
pervaded all space, or that the aether was lowing past the Earth. Either way (in this relativistic movement),
one ought to be able to detect the speed of the Earth through the aether – like a giant boat moving
through water.
In 1887, Michelson and Morely built an interferometer to send two beams of light, one in the direction
of Earth movement and the other perpendicular to the irst, to determine if there was a diference in
their speeds. However, no diference was measured no matter which way the instrument was turned.
(See Link 12.1.)
Link 12.1 Interferometer
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/phyopt/michel.html
What did this puzzling result mean? Had Newton been wrong? Seventeen years would pass before young
Albert Einstein would answer these questions. (Michelson received a Nobel Prize for this work in 1907.)
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It was the end of the century (Fin de Siecle). Optimism prevailed. Everywhere reformers believed the
principles of science and good government would usher in an era of Progress and Prosperity.
Europe had generally been at Peace since the Congress of Vienna (1814–15), and while America
had passed through the trauma of Civil War, many believed that general war was a thing of the past,
unthinkable for modern civilized nations. he technology of warfare was such that no sane national
leaders would lead their people into armed conlict.
Shortly ater the turn of the 19th century science and engineering gave the world electric lights, the
telephone, phonograph, automobile, aeronautics, X-rays and the radio. All of these captured the
imagination and produced renewed faith in progress through technology. Rapidly growing transportation
and communication systems, and chemical and electrical products, especially in Germany and the United
States, created a general prosperity that also encouraged greater political freedom and democracy.
Women, too, demanded participation in the political process. In 1896 the irst modern Olympic Games
were held in Athens, Greece. In 1901 the irst Nobel Prizes were ofered for scientiic accomplishment.
Soon the 19th amendment (ratiied in 1920) would give women the right to vote.
here was some pessimism as relected in the writings of Henry Adams and others. Darwin had
challenged humanity’s special place in nature. hermodynamics predicted the collapse of civilization.
Freud and Nietzsche noted the irrationality of human afairs. Ethnic rivalries and hatreds had erupted
into murderous violence in Southeastern Europe. Anti-Semitism, thought a thing of the past in modern,
progressive Europe, arose in France, Germany and elsewhere. In a few years there would be WW I.
12.3
X-Rays and Radioactivity
In 1879, British scientist William Crookes (1837–1919) built an evacuated tube with an electrode at each
end to study electric discharges in gases. (See Link 12.2.)
Link 12.2 Crooke’s Tube
http://bit.ly/14hBeP7
When a high voltage was applied to the electrodes, Crookes observe a beam of yellow rays coming from
the cathode (negative electrode). he more he evacuated the tube, the brighter his cathode rays became.
A porous screen placed inside the tube would let the rays go through. And, cathode rays could also be
bent by a magnet in a direction that showed they were negative.
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In 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen (1845–1923), a German physicist, was experimenting with a Crookes’s Tube
when he noticed a zinc sulide screen glowing across the room. When the tube was turned of, the glow
disappeared. Röntgen repeated the experiment and placed materials between the tube and the screen
noting that it took a lot of solid matter to completely stop the interaction. (See Link 12.3.)
Link 12.3 X-Rays
http://bit.ly/14UxhLW
Röntgen named the rays that travelled from his Crooke’s tube X-Rays, the X standing for unknown.
Röntgen brought his wife to the laboratory and placed the Crooke’s tube on a stand with a photographic
plate beneath his wife’s hand. (See Link 12.4.)
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Link 12.4 X-Ray Photograph of Mrs. Röntgen’s Hand
http://bit.ly/17ICSrU
he developed photographic plate showed the bones of Mrs. Röntgen’s hand in detail and showed her
wedding rings as well. In less than a year, X-rays were being using in Chicago for medical purposes,
particularly to discover bone fractures and to determined alignment for setting broken bones. Röntgen
received the irst Nobel Prize in physics (1901) for his remarkable discovery.
Henri Becquerel (1852–1908) was the son and grandson of physicists. Both his ancestors had been
well known in their day. Becquerel pursued research on Röntgen’s X-rays. Röntgen had determined that
X-rays fogged a photographic plate. Becquerel tried to establish that there was a relationship between
X-rays and light. It had been discovered that certain salts and crystals became dramatically luorescent
when X-rays were shined on them.
In 1896, Becquerel wrapped a uranium-salt crystal along with a photographic plate in black paper, placed
it on his window sill, and determined that no matter how much black paper he wrapped around the
crystal, light somehow penetrated to activate the salts and leave a black spot on the photographic plate.
One day it rained and Becquerel placed a freshly wrapped bundle of uranium-salts along with a
photographic plate in his desk drawer. Several days passed before there was clear weather again in Paris.
Finally, Becquerel got a chance to expose his bundle to sun light, but when he developed the photographic
plate, he discovered results far diferent from before. Instead of faint dark impressions, he discovered a
heavy dark spot, only possible ater extended exposures, perhaps of several days. he uranium salts had
exposed the photographic plate! (See Link 12.5.)
Link 12.5 Becquerel’s Photograph of Uranium Salts
http://www.vias.org/physics/img/becquerel_plate.jpg
Becquerel heated the uranium, froze it, ground it up, and dissolved it in acid, but the results were always
the same. he rays he discovered had nothing to do with sunlight but emanated from the uranium itself!
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Becquerel had discovered an unbelievable property of matter. he uranium continuously emanated
rays that were very penetrating just like the X-rays of Röntgen. In 1896, Becquerel had discovered
radioactivity. (Becquerel shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics with Pierre and Marie Curie for the
discovery of radioactivity.)
Another startling discovery occurred only a few months later. J.J. homson, an English scientist,
(1856–1940) declared in 1897 that cathode rays were negative pieces of atoms. (he electron was the
irst subatomic particle.) Dalton’s immutable atoms were actually made of parts! We will talk about the
implications of homson’s identiication of cathode rays a little later. However, it is interesting to note
that homson was able to calculate the mass of the electron by the extent that it curved in a magnetic
ield. homson’s calculation of the electron mass as about 1/2000th that of a hydrogen atom is only about
10% of. (homson won the 1906 Nobel in Physics for the discovery of the electron.) (See Link 12.6.)
Link 12.6 homson’s Discovery of the Electron
http://bit.ly/181SbKU
homson realized the cathode rays (traveling from the cathode to the anode) had to be negative and
had to be particles coming from the atoms in the cathode. He placed a magnet around the beam and
it bent in the correct direction for negative particles. From the voltage of the tube, homson calculated
the velocity of the negative particles, and from the strength of the magnetic ield and the curvature of
the beam, he could calculate the mass of the particles. (An Irish physicist, George Johnstone Stoney, had
suggested in 1891 that he could explain electroplating if atoms could be broker apart. Stoney coined the
term electron at that time.)
Following Becquerel’s discovery, Marie Curie (1867–1934), and her husband Pierre, devoted themselves
to the study of the strange phenomena of radioactivity. (It is interesting to note that Marie was Pierre’s
student. She came to Paris to study because her native Poland did not let women go to college at that time.)
he most dramatic question regarding radioactivity was how energy could be continuously emitted from
matter without any outside source such as light, heat, or electricity? he Curies literally gave their lives
to the pursuit of this question. From 1896 to 1898 they separated several tons of pitchblende into its
chemical components inding that one precipitate (with bismuth) became more and more radioactive.
In June 1898 they announced that they thought a new element had been discovered. hey suggested the
name polonium to honor Marie’s home country of Poland.
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heir work continued and by December 1898 they announced another new element, this one similar to
barium. Radium, which was much more radioactive than uranium or polonium, had been discovered.
hey isolated about 25 mg which was about 1/4 of the total amount of radium in the tons of pitchblende.
(his is about 1 part in 108 or 10 parts per billion. If you lay golf balls all the way around the equator and
replace one with a ping pong ball you have 1 ppb. But the Curies were looking for atoms, not golf balls!)
he work of the Curies was very signiicant in showing there were radioactive elements other than
uranium. And, the energy output of radium was very high, so much so that it was always warmer than
the surrounding environment. he Marie Curie called this efect radio-activity. Here was the possible
answer about the age of the Earth. Radioactive ores could account the Earth cooling more slowly and
give a much longer age to the Earth.
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Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) was born in Nelson, New Zealand and studied at Cambridge under
J.J. homson. Rutherford graduated in 1897 and accepted a chaired position at McGill University
in Canada in 1989. Working with Frederick Soddy (1877–1956) Rutherford determined there were
diferent rays produced by radioactive substances. Alpha rays could be stopped by a sheet of paper, Beta
rays could pass through aluminum foil, and Gamma rays behaved very much like X-rays). Rutherford
determined that the radioactive element thorium gave of a radioactive gas, as did uranium, which the
Curies conirmed. Rutherford and Soddy analyzed the gas and determined that it had no chemical
character whatever. It was inert. In a clever experiment, Rutherford collected the gas and learned that it
lost its radioactivity ater several minutes. By quantifying the results he found that the gas lost one-half
its radioactivity in 62 seconds. Rutherford had discovered that radioactive materials are characterized
by an important property called its half-life. We now know that radioisotopes have half-lives ranging
from less than a microsecond to more than a billion years.
Using magnetic and electrostatic efects, it was now possible to determine that alpha particles were
helium nuclei, beta particles were merely very energetic electrons, and gamma rays were high energy
light. (See Link 12.7.)
Link 12.7 Alpha, Beta and Gamma Radiation
http://library.thinkquest.org/28383/graika/1/aalfa-beta-gamma.gif
In sum, radioactive thorium was spontaneously transmuting itself into another element! (his was the
dream of the alchemists as they sought the philosopher’s stone – transmutation of elements!) What does
this mean for classical Newtonian mechanics? In 1907, Rutherford became the Langworthy Professor
at the University of Manchester in England and then the Cavendish Professor at Cambridge succeeding
his mentor, homson. We will shortly discuss his most famous experiment which was carried out at
Manchester.
Let’s take a moment to move forward in time and see some of the tools that radioactive phenomena have
given us. In 1947, Willard Libby, at the University of Chicago developed radiocarbon dating. Radioactive
carbon-14, with a half-life of 5730 years, is produced in the upper atmosphere by cosmic radiation. he
radioactive carbon eventually becomes carbon dioxide and is ingested by plants. Since plants are basic in
the food chain for animals, all living matter has a steady ratio of radioactive carbon to normal carbon.
However, when the plant or animal dies, its ingestion of carbon-14 stops, and the ratio of carbon-14 to
normal carbon decreases to half its amount every 5730 years. By measuring the radio of carbon-14 to
normal carbon, formally living matter can be dated back to about 60,000 BCE with an accuracy of +/- 100
years. For example, the Shroud of Turin was dated independently at Oxford, Zurich, and the University
of Arizona and was found to be made from fabric produced from vegetable matter from 1260–1390 CE.
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Potassium-Argon dating is used for rocks. Potassium-40, which is naturally occurring, has a half-life of
1.3 billion years. As it decays to the gas argon, the gas escapes from the molten rock. But, once the rock
solidiies the argon is trapped. By measuring the argon-potassium ratio, it is possible to date rocks to
billions of years. We will talk more about dating methods in chapter 19.
12.4
Atomic Structure
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) was born in 1879 in Ulm, South Germany. He was the son of Jewish
parents. His father was an unsuccessful businessman and Einstein’s family moved frequently. He was
raised in a free-thinking household, his father was little concerned about Jewish religion or tradition.
(We commented earlier that Newton was born the year that Galileo died. And, Einstein was born the
year that Maxwell died.)
Young Albert was late in learning to talk – almost three years old. He was never a luent child. Einstein’s
parents even worried that their son might be retarded. He recalled being very impressed by a compass
his father gave to him when he was ive. He wondered how something like the compass needle could be
moved when nothing touched it.
At age 12, he was enthralled with a book on plane geometry. He seems to have had very typical male
let-brain dominance. He learned to play the violin when he was six, and remained a competent amateur
musician all his life. Einstein attended a Catholic grade school, where he became deeply interested in
religion and ethics, an interest that he retained the rest of his life.
Ater grade school, he enrolled in a secondary school, or gymnasium, but soon dropped out to join
his parents in Milan, where his father sufered another business failure. In 1895, at age 16, because of
deiciencies in history, literature, and languages, he failed the entrance examination to the Polytechnic
School in Zurich, where he had hoped to study to become an electrical engineer. Ater a year of studies
at a local preparatory school, he was admitted to the Polytechnic School, which was the equivalent of
MIT or Cal. Tech.
Einstein became a student of H.F. Weber, a noted electrical engineer. He did well at the Polytechnic
School, but changed his major from engineering to education to secure a certiication to teach secondary
school math and physics. he free-spirited Einstein may have had some problems with Weber, a rather
traditional disciplinarian. While a student, he fell in love with Mileva Maric’, a young Serbian woman
who also studied physics at the Polytechnic School.
Einstein’s family strongly opposed their marriage, and in 1901 Mileva became pregnant and gave birth
to a daughter who was given up for adoption. Only later did Einstein’s family relent in their opposition
to his love-afair with Mileva.
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Ater he graduated in 1900, Einstein’s career was headed nowhere. his could have been related to
Einstein’s life style, his challenge to authority, and anti-Semitism. Weber did not support Einstein for
teaching positions or graduate assistantships. Weber also lunked Mileva on her exams and she let the
Polytechnic without receiving her degree.
For the next three years, Einstein lived a discouraging life of temporary appointments and tutoring while
trying to pursue doctoral studies. Without an advisor or sponsor, his doctoral dissertation submitted
to the University of Zurich did not succeed, and, in 1902, he withdrew from the university. hat year
his father died.
Sponsored by a relative, Einstein secured a permanent position in the Swiss Patent Oice as an entrylevel patent examiner, Technical Expert – hird Class. He and Mileva inally married and in 1904, a
son was born. By 1905, Einstein had a wife and family, a full-time civil service job, and a comfortable
apartment in Bern.
As we discussed earlier, Isaac Newton had his Annus Mirabilis in 1666 around the age of 22. And, for
Albert Einstein, his Annus Mirabilis came in 1905 around the age of 26. In a few short months, Einstein
submitted ive papers to Annalen der Physik, at least three of which were worthy of the Nobel Prize.
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In March, Einstein submitted a paper which was the irst argument for the quantum structure of light.
In this paper he explained the photoelectric efect. When low frequency light toward the red end of the
spectrum is shined on the cathode no current travels in the circuit. But, when higher frequency light
toward end violet end of the spectrum is used a current lows. From this, Einstein determined that
the energy of light was proportion to its frequency (E = hν, where h is Planck’s constant and ν is the
frequency) and light behaves as particles. (He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for this work.)
(See Link 12.8.)
Link 12.8 Photoelectric Efect
http://bit.ly/16AmT01
In April, he gave a theoretical method for calculating the number and size of molecules from their
motion in solution. his article was accepted as a doctoral thesis by the University of Zurich.
In May, he submitted an explanation for the erratic motion of small bodies suspended in liquids (Brownian
motion). his was the irst experimental evidence of the existence of atoms. he argument of continuous
matter versus atomic matter continued until this time. (See Link 12.9.)
Link 12.9 Brownian Motion
http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/Goodies/Einstein_stat_1905/Brownian%20motion%20anim.gif
In June, he submitted a paper entitled On the electrodynamics of Moving Bodies. his was the special
theory of relatively involving new concepts of space, time, and mass. (See Link 12.10.)
Link 12.10 Special Relativity
http://bit.ly/13PWqs1
In September he presented a three-page paper that derived his famous formula E=mc2, that energy and
matter were equivalent and could, theoretically, be converted from one to the other. his will become
the basis for explaining radioactivity and for the development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons.
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How did he do it? What did it mean? As we shall see, the world will never be the same.
A new era of science had been launched. he world of sub-atomic science had been born. he electron
had been discovered eight years earlier bringing an end to Dalton’s immutable atoms. Next, with
the discovery of radioactivity, energy was available from within atoms, energy that had no apparent
relationship to thermodynamics. Did this mean conservation of energy was wrong? Newtonian physics
was sufering blow ater blow, as was the credibility of science. he electron had already been discovered
and the addition of radioactivity suggested that Dalton’s immutable atoms might be composed of parts.
Lavoisier had taught that mass is conserved in all reactions. Joule had taught that energy is conserved in
all reactions. But now Einstein tells us that mass can be converted to energy and, presumably, vice versa.
In efect, Einstein has told us that it is the combination that is conserved. So, if we simply consider mass
another form of energy, then we can make our rule that energy is conserved.
E = mc2 gives us the answer to some very important questions. First, this relationship answers the question
as to the source of energy in radioactivity. (We will shortly calculate how a small quantity of matter can
be converted into a huge amount of energy.) By explaining radioactivity, we can explain why the Earth
can be much older, old enough for uniformitarianism and evolution to work. Radioactive material within
the Earth slows the cooling process. Furthermore, we inally have an explanation for the tremendous
amount of energy that pours from the sun and other stars. And, the Einstein relationship opened up an
entirely new and very large source of energy, that being mass.
To put mass-to-energy equivalence on a practical scale, consider the following: In 2007, the world energy
consumption of energy was about 5 × 1020 Joules. Total conversion of 1 kg (2.2 lbs) of matter to pure
energy yields about 1017 Joules. herefore, 5000 kg (5 metric tons or 11,000 lbs) of matter would supply
the entire world’s energy needs for an entire year. (In 1919, when Aston invented the mass spectrometer
that could measure isotopic masses accurately, the Einstein equation predicted both nuclear fusion and
nuclear ission.)
he discovery of the electron and radioactivity led to research in the structure of the atom. Since it could
be determined that electrons were negative by the direction of their curvature through a magnetic ield,
the rest of the atom had to be positive. Also, the very low mass of the electron, about 1/2000th of the
mass of a hydrogen atom, meant that the positive mass had to be very heavy. J.J. homson proposed a
plum-pudding model of the atom in which there was positive matter spread over the atom with electrons
stuck in the atom like seeds in plum-pudding. (I always thought of homson’s proposal as the watermelon
model.) (See Link 12.11.)
Link 12.11 “Plum Pudding” Atom
http://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/images/db/07chemHSq25.gif
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In order to ind the positive mass, Rutherford conceived a remarkable experiment (1907–1911). In
Rutherford’s experiment, alpha particles, now known to be helium atoms lacking their electrons, were
allowed to bombard a thin ilm of gold and the angles of scattering measured. To Rutherford and his
students’ shock – his students were named Geiger and Marsden, both later to become famous – very
few alpha particles were delected. However, those delected were scattered at wide angles – some even
relected backwards. (See Link 12.12.)
Link 12.12 Rutherford Scattering Experiment
http://bit.ly/16J9l4M
Rutherford solved the mathematical scattering equations and was able to conclude that all the positive
charge was compressed into a very small area. Rutherford, with his crude experiment but great insight,
had discovered the nucleus of the atom. He had also determined that it was positive by the fact that
some of the alpha particles, themselves positive, were scattered backwards.
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Now the race was on to solve the mechanics of the atom with its light, negative electrons that were easily
pulled of and its heavy positive nucleus. he idea of negative electrons orbiting a positive nucleus was
obvious and, unfortunately, also wrong.
In another important development, Englishman Henry Moseley found X-ray energies correlated with
the number of electrons in a given element. Roughly, the heavier the element, the more energetic X-rays
it produced. his made it possible to assign the correct atomic number to each element. (he atomic
number is the number of positive charges, or protons, in the nucleus. It is the same as number of
electrons in the neutral atom.) Moseley’s atomic numbers agreed exactly with Mendeleev’s ordering of
the elements by atomic weight and chemical intuition. What a wonderful conirmation of 19th century
chemistry this was. (See Link 12.13.)
Link 12.13 Correlation of X-Ray Energy and Atomic Number
http://bit.ly/16J9oh7
Pushing the frontier ever further, C.T.R. Wilson (1869–1959), working in J.J. homson’s laboratory,
invented the cloud chamber in 1912, a device which allowed the tracking of radioactive events. his
device has probably been the most important experimental tool of nuclear physics. Wilson won the 1927
Nobel Prize in Physics for this development. (See Link 12.14.)
Link 12.14 Cloud Chamber Tracks
http://www.scienceclariied.com/images/uesc_03_img0160.jpg
In 1913, J.J. homson sent a beam of charged neon atoms through a magnetic ield and discovered
that they consisted of two diferent masses. Later, Francis Aston (1877–1945) in 1919 through 1922
developed the instrument now known as the mass spectrometer for investigating the masses of atoms.
he combined eforts of homson and Aston determined that many elements had one or more stable
isotopes, that is, nuclei with diferent masses. For example, oxygen has three and tin, of all things, has
ten, the most of any element.
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he initial interpretation was that some elements had additional protons in the nucleus whose charge
was cancelled by electrons also in the nucleus. Carbon, atomic number 6 with 6 electrons, has three
isotopes that occur in nature. hey are called 12C, 13C, and 14C. (14C is actually radioactive but has a long
half-life.) he explanation at that time was that 12C had 6 electrons outside the nucleus, 12 protons and 6
electrons inside the nucleus. 13C then had 1 more proton and 1 more electron in the nucleus. he other
possibility was that there was a neutral particle with just about the same mass as the proton.
James Chadwick (1891–1974) found the neutral particle, called the neutron, in 1932, by correctly
interpreting a clever nuclear experiment done in Marie Curie’s laboratory by her daughter Irene CurieJoliot. Rutherford had predicted the neutron in 1932 and Chadwick was working as Rutherford’s research
assistant at the time of his discovery.
Two German scientists had discovered that when beryllium was hit by alpha particles it emitted a neutral
radiation that was very penetrating. Marie Curie’s daughter, Irene Joliot-Curie and her husband Frederic
and Chadwick did similar experiments letting the penetrating rays collide with other atoms. However,
the Joliot-Curie team did not interpret their results correctly.
Chadwick discovered that various elements absorb the penetrating rays and released other radiation.
His calculations showed that this could only happen if the penetrating radiation was neutral and about
the same mass as a proton. hus, he concluded that the radiation was neutrons. Chadwick received the
1935 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the neutron.
homson irst used magnetic delection to measure the masses of charged particles. However, the device
that is called the mass spectrometer was developed properly by Aston a few years later so it seems
appropriate to give them both credit. Aston received the 1922 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the mass
spectrometer. he mass spectrometer is still, in my opinion, the most important instrument in analytical
chemistry today. Molecules are vaporized and ionized by a number of methods and their charge to mass
ratios measured to identify the fragments.
Going back to our example of 12C, and 13C, 12C has 6 electrons, 6 protons and 6 neutrons, while 13C has
6 electrons, 6 protons and 7 neutrons. Isotopes are simply diferent numbers of neutrons with the same
number of protons. Hence, the diference between 1H, 2H (deuterium, sometimes symbolized as D) and
H (tritium, sometimes symbolized as T) is that the irst has a nucleus with a single proton, deuterium
3
has a nucleus of a proton and a neutron and tritium has a nucleus of a proton and two neutrons. All have
only a single electron. Since the chemistry, that is the formation of molecules and their reactions, is caused
solely by the charged particles and is only very slightly inluenced by their diferences in weight, all isotopes
of a given element have similar, almost identical, chemical behavior but radically diferent nuclear behavior.
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12.5
Atomic and Nuclear Era (1900–1950)
Nuclear Fusion and Fission
he Einstein relationship, E = mc2 (1 kg = 9 × 1016 Joules), combined with accurate mass information,
allows a thermodynamic calculation as to what will happen when nuclei are combined (nuclear fusion)
or fractured (nuclear ission). he mass of a proton, mp, is 1.673 × 10-27 kg; of a neutron, mn, is 1.675 ×
10-27 kg; and an electron, me, is 9.110 × 10-31 kg. Carbon-12 has 6 protons, 6 neutrons, and 6 electrons.
As separate particles, their total mass is 2.009 × 10-26 kg. However, the mass of a carbon-12 atom is only
1.993 × 10-26 kg. his small mass diference is the mass lost in the formation of the nucleus and, when
converted to energy, produces 1.44 × 10-11 Joules. Since there are 12 nucleons (protons and neutrons),
the energy per nucleon is 1.2 × 10-12 Joules. his is about 6 × 1010 Joules for the formation of one gram
of carbon-12. (here are 453.6 grams in a pound.)
As we go across the period table the so-called binding energy per nucleon increases to a maximum and
then decreases again. he following table gives values from near the ends of the periodic table and the
middle. (See Table 12.1 and Link 12.15.)
Isotope
Symbol
Carbon-12
12
Iron-56
56
Uranium-235
235
B.E. per nucleon
(Joules per nucleon)
C
1.26 x 10-12
Fe
1.43 x 10-12
U
1.23 x 10-12
Table 12.1: Binding Energies of Isotopes
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Link 12.15 Binding Energy vs. Atomic Number
http://www.splung.com/nuclear/images/benergy/benergy.png
he most naturally abundant isotope of iron, 56Fe, is the most stable isotope because it has the highest
binding energy per nucleon. i.e. the most energy is released by forming 56Fe. Einstein’s equation tells us
that ission should occur with nuclei above 56Fe and that fusion should occur with nuclei below 56Fe.
Huge amounts of energy would be released in either process.
Nuclear fusion can be achieved by combining two 2H nuclei to form a 4He nucleus. (2H is called deuterium
and given the special symbol D. he sun is about 71% hydrogen and 27% He, by mass.)
D + D → 4He
E = mc2 = 4.05 × 10-12 J/2D
his means that 1 pound of D (1.4 × 1026 atoms) would produce 2.7 × 1014 Joules of energy.
[m(D) = 3.346 × 10-27 kg and m(4He) = 6.647 × 10-27 kg.]
But, it requires very energetic particles to overcome the repulsive Coulomb force and bring two nuclei
close enough together for fusion to occur. (Remember, both nuclei are positively charged.) A temperature
of about 106 (one million) degrees must be reached before a fusion reaction can begin. While fusion
bombs have been built, no one has yet been able to build a containment system for a fusion reactor.
Hence, we do not yet have fusion power. (Fusion would be an incredible power source for the world.
2
H or deuterium is the fuel and 1% of naturally occurring hydrogen is deuterium. Water is about 22%
hydrogen by weight and there is a lot of water in the ocean!)
Nuclear ission, on the other hand, can occur spontaneously, or when a neutron is captured by a heavy
nucleus. Fission was irst achieved with by bombarding 235U with neutrons. (235U is about 0.7% abundant
in naturally occurring uranium.)
U + n → smaller nuclei + 2.501n + energy
235
Given a critical mass of 235U, enough so that each ission produces exactly one more ission, once begun a
chain reaction occurs and a ission+ reaction runs continuously. (In addition to the amount of issionable
material, the coniguration or geometry of the material is important to achieving a critical mass. A
spherical geometry is the ideal.) In the next chapter we will discuss how critical masses were achieved
to build the irst nuclear weapons.
12.6
Special Relativity
Aristotle’s and Newton’s space and time were absolute. If time is absolute, then there must be a clock of
the Universe, that is, time must be independent of your frame of reference.
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Consider the following thought experiment, if we stand one light-hour apart (that is the distance that
it takes light one hour to travel, about 6.4 × 108 miles), when your watch says 3:00 PM, I see it reading
2:00 PM. If, in the next hour as seen by you, we move the distance equivalent of 30 light-minutes towards
each other, when you read your clock as 4:00 PM, I read it as 3:30 PM! herefore, if I try to measure
time using your reference frame, it seems to move more slowly for me, than it seems to move for you!
(he experiment would have the same results for you trying to measure time using my reference frame.)
(See Figure 12.16.)
Figure 12.16 Clocks Moving Towards Each Other
Since light takes a inite time to travel, we can never establish the simultaneity of events. Hence, there is
no clock of the universe and time depends upon your frame of reference!
he paper Einstein submitted in June, 1905, On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, has two special
assumptions: 1) he laws of physics are invariant in all inertial reference frames; and 2) It is a law of
physics that the speed of light in a vacuum is the same in all inertial reference frames, independent of
the speed of the source or detector of light.
he irst principle virtually assumes that physics exists, i.e. that there are laws to the universe and they
are the same in all inertial reference frames. he second agrees with the Michelson-Morley experiment
and, in efect, says that no aether can ever be detected because there is no way to measure a diference
of the speed of light in vacuum. (he speed of light in any medium is less than that in vacuum. he ratio
of speed of light in vacuum to that in a medium is called the index of refraction.)
Consider what the constancy of the speed of light would do with a person standing in the middle of a
train car and shinning a light at the two ends of the cars. he light would be seen to hit the walls at the
same time. However, to an observer watching the train move by, the light would hit the ends at diferent
times! (hese are diicult experiments to consider. Keep trying if you ind them hard.)
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Consider two identical clocks moving away from each other. Einstein showed that the relationship
between the times in the two frames of reference was t’ = t(1 – β2)1/2 where β = v/c, t’ and t are the times,
v is the velocity between the two clocks and c is the speed of light.
Einstein, in efect, showed that space and time were interchangeable. And, that the only correct
measurement of any event, is space-time. his led to the same form of expression with which the Dutch
physicist, Hendrik Lorentz, had explained the Michelson-Morley experiment, only the results of which
we will discuss here. Henri Poincare, a French theorist, had suggested in 1904 that it was useless to try
to measure the movement of the Earth, or anything else, with respect to the aether.
he result of the space-time equations (as shown through the mathematics of, once again, Pythagoras)
is a series of equations in which a multiplying factor is (1 – β2)1/2, where β is v/c, the speed of light of
the object divided by the speed of light in a vacuum.
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As a body is accelerated towards the speed of light, its relativistic mass increases as divided by this factor,
so: m = m0/(1 – β2)1/2 where m0 is the rest mass. (Light has no rest mass, only a relativistic mass.) When
v = c, mass becomes ininite! herefore, as energy is applied to accelerate a particle, it becomes heavier.
And, more and more energy must be used to provide the additional acceleration. his additional mass
agrees with the Einstein equation, E = mc2. Also, as a body moves closer to the speed of light, time in
that reference frame becomes slower compared to external reference frames. (his is the result of the
General heory of Relativity and involves acceleration.) While only relative velocity can be known
between two objects in diferent inertial frames, acceleration can be measured within a frame. (his
gives rise to many forms of optical illusions.)
he twin paradox is an interesting example of time dilation. If a twin were to travel very rapidly in a
space ship, say at 99.9% of the speed of light to another star 100 light-years away and return, that twin
would age only 9.94 years while the twin that stayed behind aged 200 years! Further, it would seem to
the irst twin that the distance to the other star was only 4.47 light-years. (See Link 12.17.)
Link 12.17 Twin Paradox
http://bit.ly/17ID8XV
Consider also the cosmological results of the speed of light being constant. We know only the past of
the universe. And, since so much is so far away, we know only the ancient past.) he speed of light
constancy is veriied by experiments with the redshit. If the speed remains constant, then, as an object
moves towards us, the frequency of light should increase and, as it moves away, should decrease. his
is observed and, in fact, used to calculate the speed of stars and galaxies.
hese phenomena have been veriied experimentally. As an example, Cherenkov radiation occurs when
subatomic particles are released from nuclei at above the speed of light of the medium (still below the
speed of light in a vacuum) and must decelerate. he energy loss of the deceleration is in the form of light.
Also, there are radioactive particles created in the upper atmosphere by cosmic radiation that have very
short half-lives but still reach the surface of the Earth before they decay because of time dilation. Mass
increases had been measured for particles in accelerators travelling close to the speed of light.
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Einstein described time-cones to treat the issue of what can be known in the universe and what can
inluence other events in the universe. We can only inluence those events that are within our own spacetime coordinates. For example, we could send a signal at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second,
to afect some process. If we wanted to afect an event that will happen one week from now, we must
send a message some time before the event. Light travels 1.1 × 1011 miles in a week. herefore, we could
not afect an event that will happen one week from now at any point beyond that distance. (he Milky
Way galaxy is about 6 × 1017 miles across. hat means, if we are at one end of the galaxy, we can only
afect events at the other end that will happen about 100 thousand years from now!) (See Link 12.18.)
Link 12.18 Time Cones
http://bit.ly/1f0WqdG
12.7
Quantum Mechanics
In 1859, A German chemist, Robert Bunsen (1811–1899), and a German physicist Gustav Kirchhof
(1824–1887), invented the spectroscope by mounting a prism on a telescope. It had been known for some
time that diferent elements emitted diferent colors of light when placed in a lame. he spectroscope
dispersed the light by wavelength and made it possible to determine the spectra of various elements.
Surprisingly, the spectra of elements were discontinuous, that is, only certain wavelengths were emitted.
(See Link 12.19a & b.)
Link 12.19a Spectroscope
http://bit.ly/13PWBUi
Link 12.19b Atomic Spectra
http://bit.ly/16J9Cop
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Around 1868–1870, J.N. Lockyer discovered new spectroscopic lines in sun. He surmised this was an
element not yet discovered on Earth. In 1895, William Ramsey conirmed Lockyer’s results and helium
(named for the sun, Helios in Greek) was discovered. In 1905, Helium was discovered in pockets within
the Earth by companies drilling for natural gas. (However, helium does not form compounds with other
elements and the helium atom is so light that it quickly loats to the top of the atmosphere. hus, when
helium is released on the surface of Earth, it quickly disappears.)
he results of spectral measurements showed that atomic transitions occur in quantum steps not
continuously. Because spectral lines are at discrete energies, it means that only those energy transitions
are possible. his is saying something fundamental about the nature of atomic structure.
As you recall, homson identiied electrons as very light, negative particles that were easily removed
from the atom and Rutherford showed the positive charge and most of the mass was located in a nucleus.
his raises two important scientiic questions: 1) what holds this nucleus together? (he discovery of the
neutron was the irst step in understanding nuclear physics.)
.
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2) With a massive, positive nucleus surrounded by removable electrons, it was logical to propose that
Newtonian mechanics, using Coulomb’s law instead of the law of gravitation, would explain atomic
physics. But, the solution to this problem implies that the electron will simply spiral to the nucleus,
losing all its energy. It was observed, however, now that Einstein had showed the energy of light was a
function of its frequency, or wavelength, and behaved as photons, that electrons jumped from one energy
level to another either absorbing or emitting a speciic energy of light. A new mechanics was needed
to solve the atom. And, since that mechanics is based upon the light quantum, it acquired the name of
quantum mechanics. he second question inds its solution in the replacement of Newtonian Mechanics
with Quantum Mechanics.
Niels Bohr (1887–1951) was a young Danish physicist working with Rutherford in 1912. Deciding that
electrons could only exist in particular orbits around nuclei, Bohr, who had followed the arguments of
Planck and Einstein, proposed an atomic model that would have the angular momentum of the electron
mvr equal to nh/2π, where n = 1,2,3… (h/2π is the orbital form of Planck’s constant.) If this quantum
number, n, must be an integer, then the energy transitions would be discrete as experimentation showed.
Bohr’s equation correctly calculated the spectra given of by various elements.
Bohr’s equation also agreed with Einstein’s photoelectric efect which had showed that the energy of
light was hν where ν is the frequency. (Additional quantum numbers were added to explain electron
behavior, and to account for relativistic efects and magnetism, until it was found that four quantum
numbers were suicient to completely describe an electron.) However, Bohr gave no explanation for
this behavior of electrons, only a set of equations that worked. (Correspondingly Newton gave only an
equation for gravity, not an explanation.) (See Link 12.20.)
Link 12.20 Bohr Atom
http://bit.ly/12nukGY
hen, in 1924, a French physics student, Louis de Broglie (1892–1987) in his doctoral dissertation,
showed from relativistic theory that the momentum of a photon could be calculated from h/λ where λ
is the wavelength. he de Broglie equation is p = h/λ (p is momentum). his equation would apply to
all particles including electrons! If de Broglie was correct, not only did light (supposedly waves) have
particle properties, but electrons (supposedly particles) would have wave properties! And, according
to de Broglie, the length of the orbit for an electron would have to be just such that it allowed a whole
number of waves to it! his condition meant that nλ = 2πr. Here was a basis for Bohr’s quantum number!
For two years no one could prove or disprove de Broglie’s hypothesis. hen, in 1927, Davisson and Germer,
at Bell Laboratories, difracted electrons, proving their wave behavior. Again, theory had succeeded in
predicting the results of experiments before they were performed. (See Link 12.21.)
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Link 12.21 Electron Difraction
http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/28/96828-004-644E46F6.jpg
he stage was now set for the development of the modern theory of matter. Erwin Schrödinger
(1887–1961) an Austrian mathematical physicist, published a general theory for the propagation of
matter waves in three dimensions in 1926. (One dimension is easy. Consider a violin string that will
only vibrate at one of the discrete frequencies that allows exact numbers of waves to travel the length
of the string.) (See Link 12.22).
Link 12.22 Violin String
http://bit.ly/14AdJNF
A violin string can only vibrate at certain wavelengths. If the wavelength is not a fraction (1,1/2, 1/3,1/4…)
of the length, then when the wave hit one end and relected, it would cancel itself. (Remember a wave
is moving up and down.) he same efect works for sound waves moving down a tube and relecting
of the bottom. here is a natural wavelength (frequency) for any tube. Try blowing across the neck of
a sot-drink bottle and listening to the sound. Now, add some water to the bottle and do it again. he
sound will be higher because the fundamental wavelength is now shorter.
Waves are controlled by boundaries, such as the ends of the violin string. Given a potential well – ield
of positive potential such as the nucleus – there exist only certain solutions to the wave equations for
electrons which, in the derivation thereof, produces exactly those quantum numbers postulated by Bohr
and others.
P.A.M. Dirac (1902–1984), an English mathematical physicist, derived a relativistic quantum mechanics,
that not only included all of Bohr’s postulated quantum numbers, but predicted there could be positive
electrons. he positron (positive electron) was discovered shortly thereater in certain radioactive decay
processes. his was the irst example of anti-matter. (When a positron encounters and electron, both are
annihilated and converted to pure energy. his is another application of Einstein’s most famous equation.
he mass of an electron is equivalent to 0.51 MeV (million electron volts) of energy. When a positronelectron pair annihilate, two 0.51 MeV gamma rays are produced.)
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Waves, however, can only be described by probabilities. And, in the modern atomic picture, we talk only
of the probability of the location of an electron. In 1927, along with the startling experimental proof of
electron difraction, Werner Heisenberg (1901–1976) in Germany completed the destruction of Laplace’s
mechanical universe by postulating the uncertainty principle. he uncertainty principle, which has also
been demonstrated experimentally, states that the uncertainties in the position (ΔX) and momentum
(ΔP) of a particle must always be equal to or greater than h/2π.
ΔXΔP ≥ h/2π.
he uncertainty principle may be interpreted simply as saying that if we try to measure the position
of a particle closer than a certain amount, we will afect its momentum and vice versa. However, a
philosophical interpretation is that position and momentum simply don’t exist below a speciied level!
(he uncertainty principle may be derived mathematically by applying Schwartz’s Inequality heorem
to wave mechanics.)
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he uncertainty principle, more than any other development in science, implies that even if the total and
exact history of the universe is known, its future cannot be completely predicted. (his, of course, must
be comforting to those postulating the religious theory of free will.) At the beginning of the 19th century,
Laplace, the great French mathematician, had stated the Newtonian idea as a complete description of
the universe. According to Laplace, if the positions and velocities of all the particles in the universe were
known at one time, and if all the various force laws were known, then the positions and velocities of all
these particles could be calculated and predicted for any future time.
Heisenberg says No! Only the probabilities can be known. It is this diference in view that is referred to
in the famous Einstein quote: “God does not play dice with the universe.” Einstein was never comfortable
with quantum mechanics. On the other hand, Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest physicists of our
time, says: “…God not only plays dice, but also sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen!”53
By 1932 the electron was completely described by quantum mechanics. And today, we know of four
forces, two of which pertain only to the nucleus. hese forces are: Gravity, Electromagnetic Force, he
Strong Nuclear Force, and the Weak Nuclear Force. All but gravity have been successfully described
using quantum mechanics. Developing a successful quantum-gravity theory remains one of the great
scientiic challenges of our time.
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Science and the U.S. Government (1900– )
13 Science and the U.S.
Government (1900– )
13.1
The Atomic Bomb
To pay WW I debts, governments, including France and Germany, simply printed more money creating
run-away inlation. Americans held most of the world’s debt.
In 1923, the German mark became practically worthless. It literally took a suitcase full of money to buy
a loaf of bread and a pound of ham. People went to the market with wheelbarrows of money. he value
of the mark fell hour by hour, and when workers were paid they would rush out to buy food or whatever,
before their pay became worthless. Eventually, the German economy was reduced to barter and payment
in kind. By November 1923, the government issued new marks at the ratio of one trillion to one.
In 1925, J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967) graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University
and set sail for the Old World. First Oppenheimer stopped at the University of Cambridge to work at
the Cavendish Laboratory under the direction of now Lord Rutherford. At Cambridge, Oppenheimer
was immersed in the new atomic science.
Max Born invited Oppenheimer to come to Gottingen University, then one of the leading German
Universities in mathematics and physics. No atmosphere could have been more stimulating or exciting
for the young New York City physicist. Paying regular visits to Gottingen at this time were Niels Bohr
from Denmark, and Paul Dirac, an English physicist on his way to becoming one of the great scientiic
names of the 20th century. Enrico Fermi (1901–1954) studied there just before Oppenheimer arrived.
hey discussed and debated the new theories of E. Schrodinger and Werner Heisenberg, with tutoring
from the great Dane, Niels Bohr himself. Ater taking his doctorate from Gottingen in May 1927,
Oppenheimer spent time studying at the universities of Zurich and Leyden. At Leyden in Holland, he
astonished professors and students alike by giving a lecture in Dutch only six weeks ater his arrival.
Nuclear science prospered. In 1932, Chadwick had discovered the neutron and explained why the diferent
isotopes of an element had diferent atomic weights. (Marie Curie’s daughter, Irene Joliot-Curie and her
husband Frederick had actually done the deinitive experiment earlier but misinterpreted the results.
Chadwick won the Nobel Prize in 1935 that could have been won by the Joliot-Curies. (he Joliot-Curies
went on to win the Nobel Prize for the discovery of artiicial radioactivity.)
he heaviest naturally occurring element, uranium, (92 protons and 92 electrons) has three naturally
occurring isotopes:
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•
234
•
235
•
238
Science and the U.S. Government (1900– )
U with 142 neutrons, only a trace in natural uranium
U with143 neutrons, 0.7% abundant
U with 146 neutrons, more than 99% abundant
In 1934, Fermi decided to bombard systematically the known elements with neutrons, hoping in the
process to create artiicially radioactive isotopes. Fermi began with light elements (water) bombarding
hydrogen and oxygen simultaneously, and worked his way through the periodic table bombarding sixtythree stable isotopes, and discovering thirty-seven artiicially radioactive isotopes. (Fermi won the 1938
Nobel Prize in Physics for this work.)
Fermi also discovered that hydrogen and carbon were useful in slowing down neutrons and slow moving
neutrons were more likely to be captured by a nucleus than fast moving neutrons. When Fermi’s team
bombarded uranium, there was no clear result, and Fermi was uncertain what had happened. Initially,
Fermi thought that uranium had captured the neutron transmuting it element 93 or perhaps even 94.
Fermi wasn’t certain what had been accomplished. (Fermi may have actually achieved nuclear ission
without knowing it.)
But the Great Depression, which assisted Hitler’s rise to power, was to change the peaceful pursuit of
nuclear science. In 1938, Germans Otto Hahn (1879–1968) and Fritz Strassman (1902–1980) following
up on Fermi’s experiment, likewise bombarded uranium, discovering that uranium nuclei broke into
two roughly equal pieces. hey identiied radioactive barium isotopes (atomic number 56), fragments
of uranium itself. Hahn and Strassman were working in Lise Meitner’s laboratory. Meitner had been
dismissed because she was Jewish. But Meitner helpd them interpret their results and all realized that
Hahn and Strassman had discovered nuclear ission of uranium by repeating Enrico Fermi’s experiment!
hey also noted the mass of the fragments was less that the mass of uranium which meant, of course,
that mass had been converted into energy during the ission process. Hahn informed Lise Meitner who
had led to Sweden and, in turn, informed Niels Bohr. (See Link 13.1.)
Link 13.1 Nuclear Fission
http://bit.ly/157x0cO
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A neutron is captured by a 235U nucleus and the nucleus breaks into smaller nuclei releasing additional
neutrons and energy. Hahn and Strassman found the smaller nuclei ater the reaction and, adding up all
the mass produced, determined that it was less than the starting mass thereby concluding that energy
had been produced. (E = mc2) A chain reaction would occur if the neutrons released would also cause
issions. A critical mass would be that amount of issionable material, arranged in such geometry that
each ission would produce another ission.
Bohr carried the news to America in January, 1939, and physicists in the U.S. knew immediately that an
atomic bomb was theoretically possible. Given that the Germans had achieved nuclear ission irst, the
physicists in America were very apprehensive. Immigrant physicists, especially Hungarians Leo Szilard
and Edward Teller, German Albert Einstein, and others, had no doubt that Hitler and the Germans would
push forward to develop atomic weapons. As they had all been students in Germany, they were in awe
of Germany’s reputation for physics and chemistry – the world’s leader. Hitler controlled the world’s
top scientists, except for those who had already escaped from Europe. (In 1933, Jewish professors were
forced from their positions and 11 Nobel Laureates in Physics, 4 in chemistry, and 5 in medicine let
Germany as a result.)
In August 1939, under the encouragement of Szilard, Einstein wrote to President Roosevelt, alerting
the President to the importance of the Hahn-Strassman achievement, and warning the President that
the Germans might develop a powerful bomb. In September 1939, Hitler invaded Poland touching
of the beginning of World War II. By October, Roosevelt discussed Einstein’s letter with his advisors,
and authorized preliminary uranium studies to be carried out. By November 1939, the United States
has a small, oicial uranium project, and the Americans and British decided to ban publishing atomic
energy information in professional journals. When the publications stopped, the Russians surmised that
Americans were exploring the possibility of an atomic bomb project.
In December, 1940, Glenn Seaborg (1912–1999) isolated Plutonium at the cyclotron at the University of
California at Berkeley. Plutonium, element number 94, is two elements beyond uranium in the periodic
table. Plutonium turned out to be issionable and a better weapons material than uranium.
U + n → 239U → 239Np + β-) → 239Pu + β-
238
On October 9, 1941, ater being briefed on the uranium project, Roosevelt asked if a bomb could be
built, and how much it would cost. A decision was being made to launch the atomic bomb project, even
before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. It was not until August 1942, however,
that the Army established the Manhattan Engineer District of the Army Corps of Engineers under the
leadership of General Leslie Groves, the man who built the Pentagon. he atomic bomb project was
code-named the Manhattan Project.
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Some scholars have characterized the Manhattan Project as the biggest secret of the war – certainly it
was big and security was tight and compartmentalized. Even Congress did not know the details of the
$20 billion project. hen a US Senator, Harry Truman started to investigate the expenditures, but was
halted. Even though he was elected Vice President in 1944, Truman was never briefed about the Project
until Roosevelt died and Truman was sworn in as President on April 12, 1945.
he Manhattan Project established secret cities: Oak Ridge in Tennessee, Hanford in Washington state,
and Los Alamos in New Mexico. Compartmentalization and need-to-know were established as security
principles. here is no evidence that the Germans knew about the Manhattan Project, but Russian atomic
espionage was excellent, even to the extent that a Russian agent penetrated Los Alamos in the person
of Klaus Fuchs.
While there was important science in the Manhattan Project, the task of building an atomic bomb was
essentially a gigantic engineering problem. In an atomic bomb, energy is produced by the ission of
atoms with mass being converted to energy. Contrary to what Fermi initially believed, it turns out that
it is 235U (0.7% abundant) that issions with slow neutrons rather than the much more abundant 238U.
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he irst problem to be solved was obtaining suicient amounts of 235U to make a bomb. (How can you
separate 235U from 238U when 238U and 235U are almost identical chemically?) he second problem was
to control the chain reaction. A slow reaction would be required for nuclear reactors and a very rapid
one for nuclear bombs.
he only techniques for isotope separation were physical, not chemical, but the masses of 238U and 235U
difered by less than 1%. he lighter
U could be drawn of at the center of a centrifuge. A series of
235
centrifuge in a cascade mode would slowly enrich the uranium to the issionable isotope. But in building
such a system vibration was among the biggest problems.
Pioneered by Alfred O. Nier of the University of Minnesota, and adopted by Ernest Lawrence at the
University of California, they designed and built an industrial size mass spectrograph, sending a stream
of charged particles through a magnetic ield. he lighter isotope, U235, would be delected more by the
magnetic ield than the heavier U238. he gigantic mass spectrograph was the project of the famous Y-12
Plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. here was not enough copper available to build the huge magnets required,
so Groves obtained 15,000 tons of silver bullion from the U.S. Treasury silver reserve to substitute for
copper. (he silver was returned to the US Treasury ater the War). By mid-1944, the mass spectrometer
had produced 200 grams of 12% U235, nowhere near enough for weapon production. (A critical mass
of 235U is about 50 kg. For 239Pu, it is about 10 kg and can be reduced to 5 kg using neutron relectors.)
(See Link 13.2.)
Link 13.2 Y-12 Magnetic Separation of Uranium
http://bit.ly/150hATD
he method that succeeded in uranium isotope separation is called gaseous difusion. Uranium was
converted to a gaseous state by the formation of uranium hexaluoride, UF6. he slightly lighter 235UF6 –
(about 0.85% lighter) difused through a porous barrier slightly faster. Fortunately, 100% of luorine
occurs as 19F. Otherwise, the mixture of isotopes would render the technique impractical. A huge gaseous
difusion cascade for enriching the uranium to weapons grade was built at the K-25, Oak Ridge site.
he cascade was placed in a U-shaped building, 5 stories high, 1000 feet wide, and one half mile long.
(See Link 13.3.)
Link 13.3 K-25 Gaseous Difusion Plant
http://www.smithdray1.net/k25heritage/images/K25%20in%20color2.jpg
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A major problem was that UF6 rapidly reacts with water to make highly corrosive HF (hydroluoric acid).
UF6 is made from luorine, the most reactive element known. (Fluorine is extremely toxic and burns
explosively with many materials. Generally, burning is considered combining with oxygen. However,
luorine releases considerably more energy than oxygen when materials are burned in it.) he major
trick was to develop a barrier through which UF6 would tend to pass, becoming slightly richer in the 235U
component in each step. But the barrier had to withstand the corrosive environment of UF6. he answer
was a nickel barrier. (Barrier technology may be the last remaining atomic secret.) It turned out that the
K-25 gaseous difusion process and the Y-12 magnetic separation process working together produced
barely enough enriched material to make one uranium bomb by 1945, the one dropped on Hiroshima.
Seaborg had discovered plutonium in December,1940, and by the next May determined that 239Pu was
1.7 times more likely to ission than 235U. Plutonium is created when 238U captures a neutron and loses
a beta-particle from the nucleus in two successive steps transmuting irst into
Np (neptunium) and
239
then into 239Pu. Plutonium can be produced in a nuclear reactor by placing a blanket of 238U around the
reactor core. he question was could one build and operate a self-sustaining, controlled nuclear reactor?
(See Link 13.4.)
Link 13.4 Plutonium Production
http://www.3rd1000.com/elements/plutonium/350px-Hanford_Site_1945.jpg
his is the major signiicance and importance of the work conducted by Enrico Fermi and his team irst
at Columbia University and then later at the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago in 1941-1942. he
irst critical pile was built under the stands at Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. (Ater receiving
the 1938 Nobel Prize in Stockholm, Fermi came to the US instead of returning to Italy. Fermi’s wife was
Jewish and they were afraid to remain in Fascist Italy.)
For a chain reaction to occur, the neutrons released by each ission have to produce exactly one additional
ission. he symbol k is used to represent the number of additional issions caused. If k is less than 1,
then the reaction will die out. If k is greater than 1, the reaction will continue to increase. Fermi knew
that for a stable nuclear reaction, a coniguration would have to be designed such that k was exactly 1.
Elements had been found, including boron and cadmium that easily absorbed neutrons without issioning.
hese elements, particularly cadmium which is a metallic element, made good control devices for Fermi’s
reactors. A rod of cadmium could simply be inserted into the pile to control the reaction.
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Fermi conducted a number of experiments building piles of graphite (which slowed down the neutrons
making them better for causing ission), uranium oxide, and metallic uranium. He obtained values of
k that got closer and closer to 1. It was a cold day on December 2, 1942, when Fermi achieved the irst
controlled chain reaction in CP1 (critical pile number 1). his event has been called the beginning of
the nuclear age because it demonstrated that humans could control or moderate nuclear processes. CP1
was a massive construction with 396 tons of graphite (to serve as the moderator), 40 tons of uranium
oxide, and 6.2 tons of pure uranium metal. (See Link 13.5.)
Link 13.5 CP1 Nuclear Reactor
http://bit.ly/1bR9p1O
CP1 demonstrated the possibility of using nuclear reactors to generate power. It also demonstrated the
possibility of plutonium production reactors to create special nuclear material. (hese are now called
breeder reactors.)
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At the Oak Ridge laboratory called X-10 (now called the Oak Ridge National Laboratory or ORNL) an
experimental reactor called the X-10 Graphite Reactor was built. his second critical pile became the
irst reactor designed for continuous operation. With the success of CP1 and X-10 Graphite Reactor, the
Manhattan project, in cooperation with the du Pont chemical company, built huge production facilities
at Hanford, Washington, using the power generated from Grand Coulee dam, and the Columbia River
for cooling the huge reactors. he Hanford reactors produced plutonium in the 238U blanket, and then,
because plutonium is chemically diferent from uranium, chemical separation techniques were used
to extract the issionable plutonium. his is a much easier process than the separation of the uranium
isotopes. (See Figures 13.6 and 13.7.)
Link 13.6 X-10 Graphite Reactor
http://www.hcc.mnscu.edu/chem/abomb/X10_Cutaway.jpg
Link 13.7 Hanford Reactors
http://farm1.static.lickr.com/42/83332804_49aa10d9ba.jpg?v=0
he modern nuclear power station simply provides heat from a nuclear reaction instead of from burning
coal or oil. he heat is used to produce steam that turns turbines that turn generators. (See Link 13.8.)
Link 13.8 Nuclear Power Plant
http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/coldwar/images/tmi.jpg
he next problem to be solved is how you build a bomb? How does a ire cracker work? You want to
contain a heat buildup, from burning gun-powder in the ire cracker, until it has suicient force to cause
an explosion as it is released. In fact, you want to contain the buildup as long as possible in order to
achieve the maximum pop. he same is true, in general, for an atomic bomb – you want to maintain the
critical mass as long as possible, to assure as many heat-generating nuclear reactions as possible, before
the bomb blows itself apart. But this is a reaction time that takes place in milliseconds. Once the critical
mass expands (because of heat), it quickly loses its criticality. he trick is to assemble the critical mass
as quickly as possible, and hold it together as long as possible. (See Link 13.9.)
Link 13.9 Subcritical Masses Brought Together
http://bit.ly/1bR9rH5
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In order to create a nuclear explosion, two or more sub-critical masses must be brought together very
rapidly creating a super-critical mass. he rapid increase in ission rate by the super-critical mass then
causes a very rapid temperature increase and an explosion.
In the Manhattan project there were two solutions proposed for triggering a nuclear explosive and both
were successfully implemented. he irst was the Gun-style bomb. A sub-critical ball or mass of issionable
material was placed on the end of an artillery shell. (Uranium, which is heavier than lead, makes a ine
bullet.) he uranium ball is ired into a catcher’s mitt of issionable material at the end of the gun barrel.
High explosives were used to ire the gun-style bomb. Technically, the concept is straight-forward, but
the engineering requirements are very diicult. It takes 52 kg of
takes 10 kg of
U to make a critical mass. It only
235
Pu. With neutron relectors, to return neutrons to the issionable material instead of
239
letting them escape, the amount of 239Pu can be reduced to 5 kg. Little Boy, the Hiroshima Bomb, was a
U gun-style bomb. (See Link 13.10.)
235
Link 13.10 Gun-Style Bomb (Little Boy)
http://www.historylink101.com/ww2photo/atomic-bomb-little-boy.jpg
here was great disappointment when it was discovered that you could not build a plutonium gun-style
bomb. he neutron activity of plutonium would cause any gun-style bomb to pre-detonate, thereby
causing a izzle rather than an explosion.
Seth Niedermeyer, a young physicist at Los Alamos, came up with the ingenious idea of an implosion
bomb. he implosion bomb uses several sub-critical pieces of issionable material and blows them
together simultaneously using dynamite. An implosion bomb was successfully tested at Trinity site on
July 16, 1945. President Truman learned of this at Potsdam, where he was consulting with Joseph Stalin
and Winston Churchill about the post-war world. Fat Man, the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, was an
implosion bomb using plutonium. (See Link 13.11.)
Link 13.11 Implosion Bomb (Fat Man)
http://www.historylink101.com/ww2photo/atomic-bomb-fat-boy.jpg
In summary, at Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, Little Boy (Gun-Style) with a yield the equivalent of 20
kilotons of TNT, killed 70,000 immediately, and eventually 200,000; and at Nagasaki on August 9, 1945,
Fat Man (Implosion-style), with a yield of 21 kilotons, killed 40,000 immediately, and eventually 140,000.
An interesting historical point is that General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander
and future Presidential successor to Truman, opposed the use of the atomic bomb in Japan. He did not
think it was necessary. (See Link 13.12.)
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Link 13.12 Atomic Bomb Explosion
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll62/Findalis/atomic-bomb.jpg
he United States emerged from World War II not only militarily and economically the most powerful
nation on Earth, but also the richest nation scientiically and technically. Before the war, the best
American students went to England and Europe to study for the doctorates. Ater the war, American
universities and research laboratories were second to none in the world. he center for basic science
research in numerous ields, including nuclear physics, chemistry, biology and medicine, had shited to
the New World.
Before World War II, the United States had a benign and largely laissez-faire attitude toward science
research and development. Ater the war, the government was not only deeply involved in science, but
in the important area of atomic energy research and development the United States government enjoyed
a virtual monopoly.
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During the war, the Manhattan Engineering District had established several large, secret scientiic
laboratories whose principal task was developing the atomic bomb. hese included: the Metallurgical
laboratory (Met Lab) at Argonne Illinois managed by the University of Chicago; Berkeley Laboratory
run by Ernest Lawrence at the University of California; the Los Alamos Laboratory directed by J. Robert
Oppenheimer in New Mexico; and the Clinton Laboratory established at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. While
each of these laboratories supported the atomic bomb project, they also conducted basic research related
to nuclear science and technology, including physics and chemistry, materials science and engineering,
and biology and medicine.
It seemed evident in 1946 that the United States simply could not walk away from the atomic bomb.
As Oppenheimer once stated, the atomic genie was out of the bottle. he Atomic Energy Act of 1946
established the Atomic Energy Commission to assure civilian control of atomic energy policy and
facilities. he most extraordinary aspect of the Atomic Energy Act was that it identiied atomic energy
information as Restricted Data. here were Top Secret, Secret, and Conidential categories and atomic
energy information was born classiied.
he Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), which was also exempt from Civil Service rules and ordinary
government procurement regulations, obtained unusual independence and power. he AEC, of course,
was responsible for the development of the United States nuclear weapons program. In addition, for more
than a decade ater World War II, the AEC was the major source of government funding for science
research and development. All other government agencies combined did not equal the AEC’s science
budget during these years.
To support its research and development mission, the AEC established a system of national laboratories,
most of them facilities inherited from the Manhattan Project. In addition to nuclear weapons, the AEC
conducted research on nuclear power reactors, basic physical sciences including chemistry and physics,
high energy physics, superconductivity, computer sciences, biology and medicine, and eventually energy
and environmental related sciences.
By 1957, the AEC allocated $60 million for research, 70% going to National Laboratories and 30% directly
to 118 universities and other private laboratories. he dream of a separate federal science agency became
a reality in 1950 when the National Science Foundation (NSF) was established. Ater years of lobbying,
Vannevar Bush and supporters, in 1947, convinced Congress to create the NSF science agency along
the lines favored by the academic scientists. President Truman vetoed the bill. Truman declared that
he would only sign an NSF bill which authorized appointment of the director by the President with a
Presidential appointed board acting in an advisory and policy-making capacity.
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In 1950 the impasse was resolved in the President’s favor and NSF became the principal direct funding
agent for the nation’s scientists. In the irst two years NSF only received enough money to organize itself.
FY 1952, the NSF received only $3.5 million (about 6% of the AEC budget for basic research).
13.2
Sputnik and the Space Race
he most startling and exciting development of the 1950s outside the nuclear ield was the astounding
progress in perfecting missile propulsion systems. Like the Russians, the American missile program was
organized around a core of German rocket scientists who let Germany ater the war. Werner von Braun,
one of Hitler’s chief rocket experts, became the head of the American program.
he United States built a huge nuclear weapons deterrent including the Strategic Air Command bomber
leet with its thermonuclear warheads; ICBM’s (intercontinental ballistic missiles); and the Polaris missile
armed nuclear navy centered on nuclear submarines. Russia, based partly on US secrets obtained through
espionage, also built larger and larger atomic weapons in this nuclear arms race.
hen on October 4, 1957, America woke up to the beep-beep-beep of Sputnik I orbiting the heavens
overhead. One can scarcely overstate the shock of American politicians, scientists, and citizens to this
accomplishment of the Soviet Union. More than anything else, Sputnik encouraged the Congress to
open government purse strings to inance expanded programs in science research and education. (See
Link 13.13.)
Link 13.13 Orbiting Russian Satellite
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/04/16/sputnikmain2.jpg
Sputnik, of course, posed a serious military threat to the United States. Despite the fact that the Soviets
had nuclear weapons by 1956, they had no credible delivery system. For Soviet bombers, both Bears and
Bisons, without advanced bases, the light from the Soviet heartland over the poles and across Canada
to the United States was just too long to be a serious threat. But the possibility of Soviet intercontinental
ballistic missiles changed all that, and Sputnik made it perfectly clear that the Russians had that capability
much sooner than American planners had estimated.
Perhaps more importantly, Sputnik prompted an agonizing national self-appraisal that questioned
American education, scientiic, technical, and industrial growth. Under intense pressure from Congress
and the media, the United States tried to get something (almost anything) into space. he irst American
rockets teetered and then exploded on the launching pad. Kaputnic, lopnik, stay-put-nik, brayed the
news media. Finally, on January 31, 1958 Werner von Braun’s team lited America’s irst artiicial satellite,
Explorer I, into space on the shoulders of an Atlas military rocket.
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By putting a man into orbit, the Russians once again beat the United States. On April 12, 1961, Cosmonaut
Yuri Gagarin lew on orbit around the Earth in Vostok I. A month later, Alan B. Shepard, Jr. was the
irst American in space with a iteen minute sub-orbital light. In August 1961, no American had yet
orbited the Earth when Russian Gherman Titov lew 17 orbits. (See Link 13.14.)
Link 13.14 Orbiting Capsule
http://www.lightglobal.com/blogs/hyperbola/ESA%20ARD%20capsuleW445.jpg
As an immediate response to the Sputnik crisis, President Eisenhower established the President’s Science
Advisory Committee. Congress responded to the Sputnik Crisis with two pieces of landmark legislation:
in July 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created; and, in 1958,
he National Defense Education Act (NDEA) was passed and played a substantial role in funding both
graduate education and research in science and engineering.
Ater John F. Kennedy became President, the Democrats virtually adopted NASA as their science agency.
(he AEC was still dominated by entrenched Republicans.) Kennedy promised to get America moving
again, among other ways by sending an American to the Moon. In May 1961, Kennedy pledged that an
American would land on the Moon before the decade was out. (he goal was achieved by Neil Armstrong
in July, 1969). Soon NASA rivaled the AEC as a source of funding for basic research. (See Link 13.15.)
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Link 13.15 U.S. Moon Landing
http://mechanicsnationalbank.com/images/timeline/History_Moon_Landing_Armstrong.jpg
But the best news from the perspective of the academic science community was the spectacular growth
of the NSF during the period the United States was racing for the Moon. For FY1958 (the budget before
Sputnik), the NSF budget had been $40m, still not exceeding the AEC’s budget for basic research. For
FY 1959, Congress appropriated $134m, more than tripling the money. By 1968 (at the end of the
Kennedy/Johnson administration), the NSF budget stood at $500m. It continued to grow in the Nixon
administration, and by 1972 stood at $650m. he NSF FY2006 budget was $5.9 billion. he FY12 budget
request was $7.7 billion.
he modern research university depends upon government funding from NSF; NIH (the National
Institutes of Health); NASA; EPA (Environmental Protection Agency); DOE (Department of Energy);
DOD (Department of Defense); ARO (Army Research Oice); ONR (Oice of Naval Research); AFOSR
(Air Force Oice of Scientiic Research); and others, including the National Laboratory System.
he federal granting agencies have fostered government-university-industrial partnerships. In most
irst-world countries, there are 5–10 strong universities. In the U.S., you can obtain a PhD in science in
more than 200 universities.
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A New Understanding of Life (1700– )
14 A New Understanding of Life
(1700– )
14.1
The Cell
What we know as Biology (life study) today was known as Natural Philosophy until well into the 18th
century. Scholars of Natural Philosophy concentrated on exploration, discovery, and taxonomy, i.e. on the
classiication of the species. Because of Bufon, more than any other, the term Natural History replaced
Natural Philosophy and then, in the 19th century, the modern term Biology took the place of both. In
the 19th Century, Darwinism focused on variation, struggle for existence, and natural selection, i.e., the
evolution of the species.
Like pre-modern physics and chemistry, progress in Natural Philosophy was limited to that which could
be seen by the eye and manipulated by the hand. Key to the emergence of modern Biology in the 19th
century was the development and reinement of the light microscope.
he microscope dated from about 1590 when the Dutch developed a crude compound microscope by
combining a concave and convex lens at the end of a tube. (See Link 14.1.)
Link 14.1 Dutch Microscope
http://www.molecularexpressions.com/primer/museum/images/dutchsidepillar1700s.jpg
Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723) improved the microscope and undertook some remarkable
studies of crystals, minerals, plants, animals, water, saliva, seminal luid, and even gun powder. He
discovered sperm and various other microorganisms. Others thought the presence of these animalcules,
as he called sperm, were a sign of disease because they were also found in the semen of persons sufering
from gonorrhea. At the time of Leeuwenhoek’s death, relatives found more than 400 microscopes and
magnifying glasses in his laboratory.
Leeuwenhoek’s discoveries were simply before their time. Unlike the telescope, which was invented at
about the same time and thrust astronomy forward, the microscope was considered more of a toy than
a tool in its early days.
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As we pointed out earlier, Malpighi discovered the capillaries using a microscope in 1661. Malpighi’s
discovery gave important support to the theory of blood circulation. He and Robert Hooke (1635–1702)
advanced the application of microscopy. Hooke examined cork and found little pores which he called cells.
He also observed cells in green plants. Hooke published Micrographia in 1665, a wonderfully illustrated
book on his microscopic studies. Another scientist, Nehemiah Grew published several volumes on the
Anatomy of Plants (1682) exploring various parts of plants with the microscope. He thoroughly described
the reproductive organs of plants, and came close to understanding their function. (See Link 14.2.)
Link 14.2 Hooke’s Cells
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Cork_Micrographia_Hooke.png
But the work of all these scientists was limited by serious problems of the 17th and 18th century microscopes.
Poor quality glass, sometimes cloudy or with bubbles and distortions, could be troublesome. More
seriously, lens grinders had problems with chromatic and spherical aberrations in the lens. (Chromatic
aberrations are caused by the lens acting as a prism to produce color fringes). To increase magniication,
grinders fashioned more convex lenses. But as the lens were made more and more convex, they became
more prism-like, which meant that the light became separated into a rainbow of colors.
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Others, however, realized that there was one of two ways to develop an achromatic lens, either change
the light or change the lens. One might use monochromatic light, but better yet one could construct
doublet or triplet lenses with diferent indices of refraction. In the late 18th century John Dollond built
such a lens that earned him election to the Royal Society and appointment as the optician to the King.
By the 1830s, improved compound lenses literally opened up a new world for research.
At the same time, in France and America, scientists were experimenting with Immersion Microscopy, in
which the front element of the microscope’s objective lens was immersed in clear oil in which the object
of the study was mounted. he correct oil would keep the light rays in the same plane as the glass, thus
reducing the chromatic efect.
As you no doubt realize, there are limits to ordinary light microscopy. By the 20th century, Phase-Contrast
Microscopy developed by Fritz Zernike, and the electron microscope, which is perhaps 20 times as
sensitive as the light microscope, marvelously advanced biological research. Following is a comparison
of the human eye, the light microscope, and the electron microscope. he unit used is the Angstrom
(Å) which is 10-10 meter. Atomic bonds (bonds between two atoms) are on the order of an Angstrom.
he Angstrom is now considered an obsolete unit but is still useful for this kind of comparison. (See
Table 14.1 and Link 14.3.)
Instrument
Resolution (Inches)
Resolution (Angstroms)
Human Eye
1/250
1 x 106
Light Microscope
1/250,000
2 x 103
Electron Microscope
1 x 102
Tunneling Micro.
1
Table 14.1 Comparison of Vision Instruments
Link 14.3 Tunneling Electron Microscope
http://www.crystal.ee.uec.ac.jp/image/pl2.jpg
Matthias Jacob Schleiden (1804–1881) was a mental and emotional cripple. He was born in Hamburg,
Germany, and studied at Heidelberg. He began studying law and even practiced for some time in
Hamburg. His practice was unsuccessful and Schleiden attempted suicide. He aimed a pistol at his head
but missed, only grazing his scalp.
Schleiden returned to the University to study botany and medicine, eventually earning doctorates in
medicine and philosophy. He became a professor of botany at Jena University in Germany, but ater
twelve years resigned and spent the rest of his life wandering the German countryside. Schleiden would
talk to anyone he could ind expressing his theories of biology but, few listened.
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He celebrated the 50th anniversary of his law degree, although he had not practiced law for 45 years.
Fortunately, his wanderings brought him into contact with heodor Schwann (1810–1882) in Berlin.
Like Paracelsus, Schleiden was unmerciful in his criticism of classical natural philosophers such as
Linnaeus. He believed that biology had established no fundamental principles. Schleiden argued that only
the chemistry and the physiology of plants were truly important. He dismissed biological classiication
as scientiically a waste of time.
Schleiden believed biology (botany in his case) must deal with the actual structures of plants and animals
examined, especially with the microscope. Schleiden came to the conclusion that the plant cell was the
key to understanding botany, and that the nucleus was the universal elementary organ of vegetables, which
he renamed the cytoplast. (See 14.4.)
Link 14.4 Plant Cell Showing Nucleus
http://www.plant-biology.com/plantcelldiagram.gif
Schleiden decided that within each plant, the cell led a double life. First, the cell enjoyed an independent
development and structure; but, second, the cell served an integral function as part of the plant. herefore,
he concluded that all aspects of plant physiology, including comparative physiology, were fundamentally
manifestations of the vital activity of cells.
Since cells were the ultimate unit of plant structure and function, the origin of the cells was a critical
problem for Schleiden – not unlike the origin of species for Darwin. Schleiden could not work this out.
He developed a theory called free cell formation. He thought that perhaps cells propagated somewhat like
crystals. Importantly, Schleiden rejected all theories of spontaneous generation in favor of a biological
mechanism.
In contrast to the abrasive, bombastic, heterodox Schleiden, Schwann was timid, introspective, and
excessively pious. Schwann, a Prussian, was a broad biologist and his contributions give some sense of
the great variety of activity and research in the mid-19th century. He discovered the sheath surrounding
nerve ibers (named for him). He discovered the enzyme pepsin while studying digestive processes.
Schwann determined that a chick embryo required oxygen. His experiments on fermentation challenged
theories of spontaneous generation.
Schwann’s major contribution to cell theory came as a result of his meeting with Schleiden, who excitedly
described for Schwann the nature and function of the cell nucleus in plants as he had observed it. Schwann
recalled seeing a similar structure in the cells of the notochord, a rod of cells that in the embryo of chicks
forms the supporting axis of the body.
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Like Schleiden, Schwann found the nucleus the key to understanding the cellular structure of animals.
In his microscopic studies Schwann had noted some similarity between plant and animal cells, but he
was most impressed by their diferences and by the great variety of animal cells compared with plant
cells. Besides, it was diicult to see animal cells even with improved microscopes because they were
generally quite transparent.
With Schleiden’s help, however, Schwann understood that there was a certain unity in plant and animals
cells, and that cells are the basis of all animal tissue, no matter how specialized. He published his indings
in Microscopical Researches into the Accordance in the Structure and Growth of Animals and Plants (1839)
in which he argued for the “most intimate connection of the two kingdoms of organic matter.”54
Still, the question remained as to what was the mechanism for the propagation of the cells, animal or
plant? Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow (1821–1902) is generally credited with formulating cell theory in
its modern form, and incorporating it into pathology as the foundation stone of scientiic medicine.
Virchow was also a Prussian who studied medicine at the University of Berlin and became a doctor there.
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Virchow was a brilliant man of many talents, interests, and accomplishments, including being a participant
in the intellectual and social movements of the late 19th century. Virchow irst discovered and described
white blood, or leukemia. He participated in the revolutions of 1848, and because of his political
radicalism, found it expedient to leave Berlin for the University of Wurzburg where he obtained the chair
of Pathological Anatomy. Ultimately, he returned to Berlin to head the famous Institute of Pathology.
Again he engaged in politics, gaining election to the Berlin City Council, and the Prussian Diet.
He served on the Berlin City Council for the remainder of his life and was responsible for social, sanitary,
and medical reforms in the city. During the wars of 1866 and 1870, Virchow was responsible for the
organization of the irst hospital trains and military hospitals in Germany. He was also an anthropologist,
and founded the Berlin Society of Anthropology, Ethnology, and Prehistory, serving as President until
his death.
Virchow’s contributions to cell theory principally concern us here. Relecting on the work of Schleiden
and Schwann, and following up on work of Robert Remak, a Polish scientist, Virchow focused on the
issue of cellular propagation. He not only rejected spontaneous generation, but also Schleiden’s free cell
formation theory.
Virchow concluded that in normal growth cells propagate from the division of parent cells. hat is, that
all cells are produced from existing cells. here is no other place for cells to arise. Furthermore, diseased
cells also grow or multiply from pre-existing cells. He vigorously opposed the ancient idea of general
disease. Instead, the question of pathology was where in the body’s cells is the disease? Virchow argued
that there is no essential diference between normal and pathological states. hat is, all disease is simply
modiied life or cells. For example, extensive studies of cancer convinced Virchow that cancer cells difer
from normal cells primarily in behavior rather than in structure. (See Link 14.5.)
Link 14.5 Cell Reproduction
http://bit.ly/19HSm58
here would be a good deal more to learn about cell structure and behavior before the end of the century.
By 1870, scientists identiied the irst steps in cell division in the nucleus (mitosis), and by the end of the
century, using new staining techniques, chromosomes were discovered and their key function as agents
of reproduction were identiied.
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hese developments in cell theory and pathology paralleled discoveries of bacteria and viruses to which
much was owed to Louis Pasteur for the germ theory of disease; and to Robert Koch for the discovery
of the tuberculosis bacillus; and Joseph Lister for the principle of antiseptics. In addition, advances in
anesthetics made diagnostic and corrective surgery feasible.
Cell theory and physiology, of course, led directly to the question of what happened when cells divided.
How do dividing cells contribute to the survival and evolution of the larger organism?
14.2
Genetics
Genetics was irst studied scientiically by Gregor (Johann) Mendel (1822–1884) in the 1860s. (Johann
was his given name and Gregor his religious name.) Mendel was an Austrian monk who grew up on a
farm and studied at the Philosophical Institute in Olomouc from 1840 through 1843. hen he entered
the Augustinian Abbey of St. homas in Brno. (Brno is now in the Czech Republic but was part of the
Austrian Empire at that time.)
Mendel grew and studied 29,000 pea plants from 1856 through 1863. For his experiments, he selected
the common pea plant, and in preliminary testing identiied seven pairs of characteristics for study.
(See Link 14.6.)
Link 14.6 Mendel’s Pea Characteristics
http://mac122.icu.ac.jp/gen-ed/mendel-gifs/03-mendel-characters2.JPG
• Form of Ripe Seed: Smooth or Wrinkled
• Color of Seed Albumen: Yellow or Green
• Color of Seed Coat: Grey (red lowers) or White (white lowers)
• Form of Ripe Pods: Inlated or Pinched
• Color of Unripe Pods: Green or Yellow
• Position of Flowers on Stem: Axial or Terminal
• Length of Stem – long or short
Note that Mendel, as Darwin, was interested in domestic selection, breeding, varieties, and hybrids.
Mendel carefully studied hybrids produced by crossing diferent varieties of pea plant. His was a painstaking researcher that paid close attention to detail. His experiments took more than eight years to
complete. During that time, Mendel read On the Origin of Species and commented: “It requires some
courage to undertake a labor for such far-reaching extent; this appears, however, to be the only right way
by which we can inally reach the solution of a question the importance of which cannot be overestimated
in connection with the evolution of organic forms.”55 Mendel was clearly aware of the larger issues of
his great work, and anticipated the impact his research would have on the theory of natural selection
and evolution.
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Mendel discovered that when he crossed one pure pea plant with the other, the hybrid tended to look
exactly like one of the parent plants. (here had been a great deal of speculation that ofspring were
a mixture of parentage, even with the Ancient Greeks. his certainly seemed to be so in the human
race, where black and white produces various shades of brown.) What Mendel observed was that some
characteristics were transmitted virtually intact, with little change, while others seemed to disappear,
also completely. He called the former characteristics or traits dominant, and the latent characteristics
or traits recessive.
he vocabulary of dominant and recessive characteristics is now commonplace and we know that if we
cross yellow and green peas, the irst generation will have all yellow seeds because that trait is dominant.
So S=Yellow (dominate) and G = Green (recessive):
1st Generation:
2nd Generation:
YY
GG
1Yellow and 1Green
YG YG YG YG
4Yellow
YG
2Yellow
YG
YY YG YG GG
3Yellow and 1Green
In summary, in subsequent generations of hybrids, the recessive trait will re-emerge in a dominant-torecessive ratio of about three-to-one.
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Mendel experimented with all seven of his traits and characteristics, and determined that all seven recessive
traits reappeared in the same ratio of 1:3. In his own words: “all reappear in the numerical proportion
given, without any essential alteration. Transitional forms were not observed in any experiment.”56
Mendel carried his experiments into several generations, and determined that the ratios always remained
the same. He concluded: “If A be taken as denoting one of the two constant characters, for instance the
dominant, a, the recessive, and Aa the hybrid form in which both are conjoined, the expression A2 +
2Aa + a2 shows the terms in the series for the progeny of the hybrids of two diferentiating characters.”57
Two or more pairs of characters, independent of the others, yield similar, but more complicated equations.
Mendel showed that: “All constant combinations which in Peas are possible by the combination of the
said seven diferentiating characters were actually obtained by repeated crossing. heir number is given by
27 = 128. hereby is simultaneously given the practical proof that the constant characters which appear in
the several varieties of a group of plants may be obtained in all the associations which are possible according
to the (mathematical) laws of combination, by means of repeated artiicial fertilization.”58
Mendel irst published his results in 1866 in the Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Brno.
Said Mendel in his introduction: “Experience of artiicial fertilization, such as efected with ornamental
plants in order to obtain new variations in color, has led to the experiments which will be here discussed.
he striking regularity with which the same hybrid forms always reappeared whenever fertilization took
place between the same species induced further experiments to be undertaken, the object of which was
to follow up the developments of the hybrids in the progeny.”59
Mendel was probably the irst biologist to work out a detailed application of mathematics to biology. Of
course, he had no idea of the mechanism by which the Pea traits were transmitted. (Mendel’s work has
this in common with other mathematical models which describe or measure mathematical regularity
in nature without revealing the mechanism by which change occurs. e.g. Newton’s Law of Gravity of
Coulomb’s Law of Electrostatic Force.)
Mendel’s work was ignored for more than 30 years because it appeared in an obscure publication. In
1868, Mendel became Abbot of his monastery, and had to forgo his time-consuming experiments. On
his death in 1884, the new Abbot burnt Mendel’s remaining papers. It is interesting to contemplate what
might have happened if Darwin had known Mendel’s work. It seems likely that Mendel’s genetics would
have been important support for Darwin’s natural selection.
William Bateson (1861– 1926), discovered Mendel’s work in 1900. Bateson, who had attended Cambridge
and studied morphology, translated Mendel’s original papers into English and published Mendel’s
Principles of Heredity: A Defence in 1902. Mendel’s work was not immediately embraced, in part because
it focused on plants at a time when the principle scientiic interest was in human inheritance.
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But steadily, biologists were won over by Mendelian genetics. A good example is T.H. Morgan (1866–
1945) who initially was critical of Mendel’s ideas. Morgan thought that Mendel’s studies might apply to
plants but not to animals. Morgan did not believe that the categories dominant and recessive were clear
cut. For example, sex was almost equally distributed between male and female but if sex (male vs. female)
were selected like pea seed color, one sex should be dominant and occur with a 3:1 ratio over the other.
Morgan studied the fruit ly, Drosophila, a species that bred every ten days or so. Drosophila’s normal eye
color was red, but occasionally white eyes occurred and Morgan discovered that the eye color followed
Mendel’s rules. (See Link 14.7.)
Link 14.7 Morgan’s Drosophila Generations
http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/04/114704-004-8F8024ED.gif
Morgan’s group at Columbia University developed the technique of observing and mapping the changes
in Drosophila chromosomes under the microscope. his work led to the historic publication in 1915 of
he Mechanism of Mendelian Heredity by Morgan, A.H. Sturtevant, and C.B. Bridges. Morgan’s research
irmly established Mendelian principles with biologists.
Morgan’s studies led rather naturally to the development of population genetics, which was an area
researched especially strongly in the Soviet Union in the 1920s. Morgan’s laboratory shared pure-bred
Drosophila stocks with a group of Russian scientists who determined evolution would occur more rapidly
in isolated populations. Sergei Chetverikov of the Koltsov Institute in Moscow published On Several
Aspects of the Evolutionary Process from the Viewpoint of Modern Genetics in 1926.
Finally there was a marriage between Darwin and Mendel. It was unfortunate that Darwin never learned
of Mendel’s work. Experimental proof of Mendelian inheritance would have given importance support to
evolutionary theory. While Mendel knew of Darwin and read his works, we must assume that he did not
realize that his medium of publication, he Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Brno, was not
widely known. Biology might have progressed more rapidly if Mendel and Darwin had communicated.
Subsequently, the main focus of genetics – and a major focus of biology itself – has been to seek an
understanding of the biochemical basis of inheritance. (his ield is now known as molecular biology.)
hree landmark achievements have occurred in molecular biology. hese were: the elucidation of the
structure of DNA (See he Double Helix); the discovery of the mechanism by which the DNA molecule
replicates itself during cell division; and, understanding how DNA controls the structure of the proteins
made by cells.
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14.3
A New Understanding of Life (1700– )
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)
A development in physics that was essential to the elucidation of the structure of DNA and its functioning
was the invention of X-Ray Crystallography. he father and son team of W.H. Bragg (1862–1942) and
W.L. Bragg (1890–1971) were studying the behavior of X-rays when shined on crystals. hrough a series
of clever experiments, the son determined a mathematical relationship between the wavelength of the
X-rays and the distance between the atoms in a crystal. (See Link 14.8.)
Link 14.8 X-Ray Difraction
http://imr.chem.binghamton.edu/labs/xray/xray.html
nλ = 2d sinθ
where n is an integer, λ is the wavelength of X-rays, d is the distance between planes of a crystal and θ
is the angle of difraction.
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By measuring the angle of refraction for various orientations of a crystal and using complex mathematical
relationships, it is possible to determine the arrangements of the atoms in a crystal structure. (his led
to a ield of chemistry known as crystallography.) By the time, Francis Crick (1930–2007) and James
Watson (1928– ) began their studies of DNA in the 1950s, crystallography had developed into an
advanced science and it was common, though tedious prior to the development of high speed computers,
to determine the crystal structures of simple compounds, typically those with fewer than 20 atoms.
Proteins, which are the building blocks of all living cells, carry the genetic information that allows accurate
reproduction. Proteins are very large molecules made up of a series of smaller molecules called amino
acids. here are 20 some amino acids found in nature and they all have both an amine end (-NH2) and
an acid end (-CO2H). An example of an amino acid is: H2NCHRCO2H where R is some other organic
functional group such as -CH3 or –CH2SH. For example if R is –CH3 the amino acid is alanine and if R
is –CH2SH the amino acid is cysteine. (See Link 14.9.)
Link 14.9 Amino Acids
http://bit.ly/13EkxiE
Glycine
R=H
Alanine
R = CH3
Valine
R = CH(CH3)2
Serine
R = CH2OH
Cysteine
R = CH2SH
All amino acids have the same basic structure, an acid group at one end and an amine group at the other.
he R functional group determines the particular amino acid.
Two amino acids, H2NCHRaCO2H + H2NCHRbCO2H can link by an acid-base reaction:
H2NCHRaCO2H + H2NCHRbCO2H → H2NCHRaCO-HNCHRbCO2H + H2O
he resulting molecule is still an amino acid having the characteristic amine and acid ends. So, the process
can continue indeinitely making a chain of any length. It is the order of the amino acids that determine
the particular protein and its functionality. Typical proteins of importance in the biochemistry of life
are made up of hundreds or thousands of amino acids.
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In 1953, Stanley Miller (1930–2007) and Harold Urey (1883–1981) carried out an experiment at the
University of Chicago where they mixed simple inorganic compounds that were thought to be present in
the primordial Earth. Miller & Urey mixed methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3), hydrogen gas (H2), water
(H20), and carbon monoxide (CO) and applied electric arcs to the mixture to simulate lightning. Ater
one week, they found 10–15% of the carbon was present as organic compounds and amino acids had
been created in the solution. Miller and Urey clearly demonstrated that the components of proteins could
easily be produced from inorganic compounds under natural conditions. hey had extended Wöhler’s
synthesis of urea to the possible synthesis of proteins and all life chemicals.
Determining the structure of DNA was recognized as one of the greatest scientiic challenges. Four
individuals, working in the Cavendish laboratories, are credited with determining the structure by X-Ray
difraction. Crick and Watson, working in the difraction laboratory of Maurice Wilkins (1916–2004) and
aided by data from Rosalind Franklin (1920–1954) determined that DNA was folded in a double helix.
his structural information ultimately led to determining that the genetic code was carried by four
diferent bases in DNA, adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine. It is the order of sets of three of these
bases that allows DNA to select individual amino acids in the proper order when assembling proteins.
(See Link 14.10.)
Link 14.10 Genetic Code
http://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/MGA2-03-28.jpg
In 1962, Watson, Crick and Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine & Physiology. An
American scientiic competitor, Linus Pauling, also shared his own X-Ray data with Crick and Watson
probably aiding them considerably. We will talk in detail about Pauling in the chapter on the Chemical
Bond.
Watson, who was a great writer as well as a great scientist, published a Pulitzer Prize winning book,
he Double Helix in 1968 which you are urged to read. Watson’s book is an excellent discussion of how
science proceeds and is readable by any layman.
here has been much discussion as to whether Rosalind Franklin should have shared in the Nobel Prize
instead of Wilkins. However, it is a moot point as Franklin died before the prize was awarded and thus
she was not eligible.
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Modern Cosmology – the Origin of the Universe (1900– )
15 Modern Cosmology – the Origin
of the Universe (1900– )
here is no more exciting nor more signiicant development in science than modern cosmology. What
greater question could we ask than how we came to exist? Whence the Universe? How and why are
there galaxies and atoms; carrots and quanta; what does it all mean, if there is such a thing as meaning?
When the irst cave man heard thunder in the mountains and wondered what kind of animal made such
a noise, homo sapiens started on a journey to try to explain the universe. We have made fascinating
progress, especially since Galileo used his telescope to disassemble the Milky Way into separate stars.
Before the Ancient Greeks began to apply logic to nature there were gods and demons. Our literature
abounds with stories of supernatural beings: dragons in Asia; the Cyclops and the Minotaur in the
Grecian islands; fairies and sorcerers in medieval Europe; and genies in Arabia. he only way a princess
could get a date in medieval times was to go around kissing frogs!
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We learn what we learn about the universe from light and almost all of our natural light comes from
a nearby star we call the Sun, either directly or by relection of the Moon. With our eyes we can see
a few thousand stars and ive other planets that orbit the sun like the Earth. But, we didn’t look very
closely until about 1600. We didn’t notice, for example, that the Moon has an irregular surface and we
tried to ignore the fact that the planets go back and forth rather then moving in circles like the stars. So
we developed an inaccurate astronomy that, for religious reasons, claimed that all the heavenly bodies
travelled in perfect circles, were themselves perfectly round and smooth, and all orbited the Earth.
hat last rule was clearly egotistical because it made not only the Earth, but also man, the center of the
universe. Western religions are mostly built on the theme that not only is man the center, but that the
entire universe was created for man.
Even brilliant individuals like Ptolemy, who realized the positions of the stars could be used for navigation,
developed hopelessly complex mathematical models to maintain this inaccurate astronomy. he practice
extended all the way to Copernicus who, although he had the courage to develop a heliocentric model
for the solar system, still insisted on maintaining circular orbits.
It is hard to imagine that we would never have moved beyond this inaccuracy if the telescope had not been
invented. In fact, Tycho’s very accurate pre-telescopic observations contained suicient data to support
heliocentricity and elliptical orbits. But, it was certainly easier to build a much improved astronomy
when we learned how to magnify light by focusing it with lenses and later with mirrors. he telescope
was just what Galileo needed and Galileo was just what the telescope needed for science to make a leap
forward in disproving these heavenly myths and start us on a path towards understanding the universe.
In a little over 100 years, the genius of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Newton removed most of the
mythology from astronomy. he sun became just another star, stars became just other suns, and gravity
ruled the behavior of rocks and Moons with one unifying, universal law.
By Newton’s time the idea that the universe was ininite and contained an ininite number of stars was
accepted. But this led to problems in physics, how does one deal with an ininite amount of radiation
or ininite mass?
15.1
Galaxies and Cepheids
Galileo discovered that the Milky Way is a collection of stars (galaxy) spread out as a disk over a very
large space. (he Milky Way is about 100,000 light years across and contains 200–400 billion stars.) In
the 18th century the astronomer William Herschel and the philosopher Immanuel Kant had identiied
other patches of light seen by Galileo as galaxies, but it was not until 1920 that the American astronomer
Edwin Hubble (1889–1955) was able to resolve other galaxies into stars using the 100-inch telescope
at Mt. Wilson in California.
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Measuring the distances to stars was very diicult because it had to be done by stellar parallax. 1 second
of 1 minute of 1 degree (1 parsec) measures a distance of 3.26 light-years. And, there are only 11 stars,
not counting the sun, within 10 light-years of Earth.
hen in 1908–12, Henrietta Leavitt (1868–1921), working at the Harvard observatory, determined that
there was a relationship between the mass (and thereby absolute intensity) and pulsation rate of certain
stars called Cepheids or Cepheid variable stars. Because the absolute intensity could be determined, the
measured intensity allowed calculation of the distance of the star as the measured intensity falls of as
the square of the distance. Cepheids pulse because they are large stars that are expanded by their heat
and pulled back by their own gravity. Since the rate of pulsing is proportional to their absolute intensity,
by calibrating with nearby stars, Cepheids in galaxies can be used to measure much greater distances.
Leavitt was the daughter of a Congregational minister. She had attended Oberlin College and then
graduated from Radclife College very interested in astronomy but then stayed home because of a severe
illness. She lost most of her hearing and, upon regaining her health, applied to work at the Harvard
observatory. She was hired to do a menial job determining the intensity of stars on photographic plates.
It was this task that exposed her to the Cepheid data and led to one of the most important discoveries
in astronomy. A decade later Hubble discovered Cepheids in other galaxies and used this information
to calculate the distances of the galaxies from Earth.
15.2
General Relativity and Black Holes
In 1915, Albert Einstein presented his General heory of Relativity. In General Relativity (GR), gravity
is explained by the warping of space by matter. his efect is only measureable in very high gravity
situations, such as near stars, but explained a well-known diference in the orbit of Mercury from that
calculated with Newton’s gravitational law. he theory was further veriied by the measurement of light
being bent by the gravity of the sun during an eclipse in 1919.
In GR, space is curved but inite. (Consider the perimeter of a circle, it has no limit but is still inite.
Einstein’s GR says that three dimensional space is curved – a concept hard to imagine – and to get the
correct picture we must work in a four dimensional space-time.
Einstein’s theory, however, had the problem that gravitational attraction should cause the entire universe
to collapse. Einstein added a factor called the cosmological constant that would keep this from happening.
(He later called this his biggest mistake.) However, Einstein’s GR solved many problems and slowly
became widely accepted. As a result of GR, Einstein’s universe would be static and inite, and not the
ininite universe of Newton.
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In 1916, Karl Schwarzschild using Einstein’s general relativity, proposed that if a star had suicient mass,
it could collapse into a black hole where even radiation could not escape. (In 1970, Stephen Hawking
developed a quantum mechanical mechanism whereby black holes could eventually loose matter and
decay below the critical mass. And, in 1971, C.T. Bolt detected a black hole in Cygnus X-1.)
In 1923, Hubble resolved the Andromeda Galaxy into stars and calculated its distance at 1 million light
years. (We now know there are billions of galaxies.)
15.3
The Redshift and the Big Bang
As early as 1914, Melvin Slipher (1875–1969) had reported that the spectra from galaxies were redshited.
he Doppler Efect was known for sound and an analogy for light would mean that a redshit occurs
when bodies are moving apart very rapidly. Even though the speed of light is not changed when one
body is moving away from another, the maximums and minimums in the light-wave arrive less oten
resulting in a decrease of frequency. hus the light moves towards the red end of the spectrum. (It would
be a green shit if they were moving towards each other.) (See Link 15.1.)
Link 15.1 he Redshit
http://bit.ly/1d5XZvl
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If the source of a spectrum (in this case, a star producing a hydrogen spectrum) is moving away very
rapidly, each wave maximum is emitted at a farther distance from the observer. his means that the ways
arrive at the observer less oten than they were emitted. hus the arriving radiation has a lower frequency
and, if it is visible light, is shited towards the red end of the spectrum. (In the visible spectrum, the
highest frequency-shortest wavelength light is violet and the lowest frequency-longest wavelength light
is red.) In the example above, the wavelengths of the hydrogen lines, are all redshited indicating the
supercluster of galaxies is moving away from us at 0.07 times the speed of light.
Hubble was working on classifying galaxies when he noticed that the spectra from every galaxy were
redshited. his could only be true if every galaxy was moving away from every other one. (hink of
putting a bunch of dots on a balloon and blowing up the balloon. As the balloon expanded, every dot
would get farther away from every other dot.) In 1929, Hubble proposed the universe was expanding
based on these data. Einstein had claimed a static universe to satisfy his proof that the universe was
inite, but he accepted Hubble’s argument that the universe was expanding.
he extent of the redshit is determined by the velocity with which two bodies are moving apart. hus,
it is possible to determine the speed of a galaxy by its redshit and the distance by measuring Cepheids
within the galaxy. By extrapolating backwards it is possible to determine that all measureable galaxies
were once at the same location. Hubble’s original calculation gave an age for the universe of 1–2 billion
years. However, with the much better data that has been collected in the last 80 years, the age of the
universe is now determined to be 13.7 billion years.
In 1931, Georges Lemaitre (1894–1966), a Belgian Catholic Priest and Professor of Physics and
Astronomy, following on the idea of an expanding universe, published a paper proposing that there
had been a single primeval atom that had exploded to form the galaxies. But, will the universe always
expand? If so, there must be an ininite place into which to expand. In 1932, Jan Oort, in Holland,
calculated the mass that would be required for gravity to make the universe eventually stop expanding
and then collapse. He found that there had to be additional mass at least equal to the observable mass.
He proposed that there must be a great deal of dark matter, mass we cannot see. (We now estimate the
dark matter to make up about 90% of the mass of the universe. One of the initial goals of the Hubble
telescope was to ind the dark matter.)
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Modern Cosmology – the Origin of the Universe (1900– )
In 1932, commercial radio was in its infancy. A major problem with the AM (amplitude modulation)
method of radio transmission was static noise. (Switch your car radio to AM and play with the tuning
knob and you will see what I mean.) Bell Laboratories, in Murray Hill, New Jersey, set out to ind out
why there was static in radio. Interestingly, it was noticed that static was worse in the daytime than at
night. Karl Jansky (1905–1950) built directional antennas and found several sources of static including
the constellation Sagittarius which is near the center of our galaxy. Obviously stars were producing radio
waves and he found that the sun was a major source of static. hat is, intense radio waves were coming
from the sun.
he science community ignored Jansky’s discovery but in 1937, an American radio engineer, Grote Reber,
built the irst radio telescope in his back yard. He made a 31 foot parabolic relector to concentrate the
radio signals onto an antenna and made the irst radio map of the sky. (here are many stars which
cannot be seen by visible light but can be detected by their radio waves.) Following World War II, radiotelescopy has been greatly advanced.
A Cambridge group in 1948, Bondi, Gold and Hoyle proposed the continuous creation and destruction
of galaxies to give a steady state universe. Hoyle was a major critic of the Lemaitre idea of the universe
starting from a single point, but he inadvertently gave the theory the catchy name Big Bang as he was
deriding it on a radio program. And, it was also in 1948 that George Gamow (1904–1968) suggested
the initial explosion that we now call the big bang. Also in 1948 Alpher and Herman proposed a model
in which the universe would initially be concentrated at a single point with a temperature so high that
not even atoms would exist. (We will describe this model a little later.) As the universe expanded and
cooled, particles would come into existence, eventually atoms, and so forth. If their model was correct
there should actually be radiation (microwave) of the background temperature of the universe which is
about 5 Kelvin. (Remember that 0 Kelvin is absolute zero, about -459 oF or -273 oC.)
In 1964 Wilson and Penzias at Bell Laboratories discovered the microwave background radiation which
we can now be measure in all directions. he actual temperature is around 2.7 Kelvin, a remarkable
agreement with theory. Further modeling of stars suggests some interesting results. As a star burns out
it should collapse, losing its electrons and then its protons and become a very massive neutron star. If
it is suiciently massive, it will continue to collapse and become a black hole.
A big bang is what is called a singularity in physics. It is another way of saying the laws of physics change
at that moment. A major argument against the Big Bang is that it requires a singularity as currently
formulated. On the other hand, quantum mechanics gives rise to virtual particles through the uncertainty
principle. If quantum mechanics can eventually explain gravity – it already explains the other three
forces, electrostatic, weak and strong forces – then no singularity is required. Quantum gravity is now
one of the forefronts of physics.
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Steven Weinberg (1933– ), an American Nobel Laureate in Physics, models the Big Bang in his excellent
book: he First hree Minutes (1977). he following is condensed from Weinberg’s Chapter V:
1. Starting at zero time and ininite temperature, ater about .01 seconds the temperature is 1011
K. here are only a small number of nuclear particles compared to photons and electrons
and neutrinos.
2. Ater 0.11 seconds the temperature is 3 × 1010 K and neutrons can turn into protons.
3. Ater 1.09 seconds the temperature is 1010 K and we have a majority of protons among the
nuclear particles. It is still too hot for nuclei to form.
4. Ater 13.82 seconds the temperature is 3 × 109 K and electrons and positrons are starting to
disappear. Nuclei can form. Hydrogen and helium isotopes are forming.
5. Ater 3 minutes and 46 seconds, the temperature is 109 K deuterium nuclei are forming
but still breaking apart. But soon the temperature reaches the point that deuterium holds
together and larger nuclei form.
6. Ater 34 minutes and 40 seconds the temperature is 3 × 108 K, electron-positron
annihilation has ended and there is a slight excess of electrons to balance the charge of the
protons. Cooling continues for 700,000 years and then atoms start to form. At this point,
matter condenses and stars and galaxies can be created.
7. Ater 10 billion years we start to try to igure it out.
As of this writing, science has not deinitively proven which kind of universe we have: a Big Bang universe
or a static, eternal universe.
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16 The Chemical Bond (1900– )
In the 19th century, as chemistry and biology developed, for the irst time science explained microscopic
and, in the case of chemistry, the submicroscopic, properties and behavior of matter. Lavoisier and Dalton
had made chemistry a science, Mendeleev showed there were relations among the chemical properties
and reactivity of elements and Berzelius invented a language whereby chemistry could be reported and
discussed.
he understanding of chemical bonding, most of which occurred in the 20th century, progressed with
virtually no direct measurement of the molecules and atoms. Much like Dalton’s atomic theory, bonding
theory is one of the hallmarks of scientiic reasoning.
As we know, Newton spent most of his research career unsuccessfully searching for the answer to cohesion,
that is, what held matter together. However, Newton preceded Dalton and others who gave the irst irm
foundations to chemistry. Without the atomic concept for a beginning point, it is unlikely that Newton
could have arrived at a satisfactory theory.
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All Newton had to work with as a force was gravity and gravity is a very weak force. If we stand next
to a massive object, like a locomotive or elephant, we do not feel the pull of gravity towards that object.
Given the very small force of gravity, a microscopic theory to explain such obvious cohesions as water
forming into droplets in the air based on gravitational attraction is clearly implausible.
hen, in the 1780s, a French military engineer named Charles Augustin de Coulomb, demonstrated with
the use of a torsion balance, that the forces of electrostatic attraction and repulsion also are a function of
the inverse square of the distance. Hence, Coulomb’s law joined Newton’s law in physics. Furthermore,
the much stronger electrostatic force, about 38 orders of magnitude stronger, could be a reasonable
candidate for holding materials together. (We have all noted the strength of electrostatic forces by such
observations as fabric or paper sticking together; a rubbed balloon holding itself to the ceiling; and
an electric arc generating heat, light and shock as it leaps from your inger to the door knob on a cold
winter day.) (See Link 16.1.)
Link 16.1 Electrostatic Attraction and Repulsion
http://bit.ly/14UySSa
Like charges repel and unlike charges attract. he force between charges is proportional to the two
charges and decreases by the square of the distance between them.
Because metal atoms from molten salts collected at the negative electrode (cathode) and non-metal
atoms from elements such as oxygen and chlorine collected at the positive electrode (anode), Berzelius
concluded that electrical forces must be involved in chemical ainity. In the early 19th century he
proposed that all elements had both a positive and negative charge but that one was stronger than the
other. Only oxygen was totally negative. Berzelius surmised that chemical bonding was the attraction
between atoms of diferent charge. his idea was very sensible and even today we think of the periodic
table divided into two groups, the metals, which predominately form cations (positive ions), and the
non-metals, which usually form anions (negative ions.) It was an empirical theory with obvious problems.
However, as nothing better was ofered, it was largely accepted, even to the extent of interfering with
greater understanding. For example, Berzelius’s bonding theory could not permit a molecule composed
of two atoms of the same kind because they would repel.
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Berzelius, by the way, was a poor boy from Sweden, who grew up on his step-father’s farm. For years he
worked on the farm, living in the potato storehouse. His pay, for all the time he worked on the farm, was
four dollars and a pair of stockings. He let to attend high school with the goal of becoming, perhaps, a
clergyman. But, at school he became interested in nature. He collected birds and insects, even buying a
gun so that he could shoot birds and ind new species. He almost killed one of sons of a widow he was
tutoring and was forbidden use of the gun. He ignored the warning and continued to collect birds to the
extent that he cut his Hebrew class 63 times. He was graduated, but with stern warnings. At Upsala he
became interested in chemistry and studied from the cheapest book he could buy, a German textbook
on Lavoisier’s anti-phlogiston chemistry.
He tried to get his professor to let him work in the laboratory and the professor sought to discourage
him by ordering him to read a large collection of books on pharmacy. Berzelius read them and asked
again to use the laboratory. He was allowed to use it when other students were gone. Berzelius also
rented another student’s room and used it for experiments. At the time he was inishing his University
work, Volta invented the electric battery and Berzelius immediately involved himself in electrical work
in solutions. As we know, Berzelius went on to become the guru of his generation of chemists and gave
us the irst chemical algebra in which Dalton’s atoms were balanced in equations. Berzelius had set out
to analyze every known chemical compound, and from all the knowledge he gained, he became the most
important chemical consultant of his time. (Goethe and Berzelius were friends and admirers.)
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Later in the 19th century, Svante Arrhenius (1859–1927) developed his theory of solutions and explained
the Berzelius charge problem. It was known that pure water conducted only a small current and a pure
salt, such as sodium chloride, conducted no current at all. However, when sodium chloride was dissolved
in water, conductivity became very high. Arrhenius’s theory was that molecules dissolved in water to
give ions. (NaCl → Na+ + Cl-) Arrhenius also devised the irst theory of acids and bases. According to
Arrhenius, acids were compounds that produced H+ in solution and bases produced OH-. hese two
combined to make water. (H+ + OH- → H2O) Hence, acids and bases reacted to make neutral water and
a salt that was ionized in solution and conducted a current. (See Link 16.2.)
Link 16.2 Ionic Conduction in Solution
http://bit.ly/181TMAy
As we discussed earlier, in 1897 J.J. homson identiied the electron. And, in scattering experiments
conducted from 1907 to 1911, Rutherford discovered the nucleus of the atom. Atoms, therefore, were
known to have a massive, positive nucleus surrounded by negative electrons whose mass was only about
1/2000th of a hydrogen atom. (See Link 16.3.)
Link 16.3 Structure of Hydrogen Atom
http://bit.ly/181TKZq
he simplest atom, hydrogen, has a nuclear charge of plus 1 and has 1 negative electron which makes
the atom neutral. (It is common, but wrong, to show the electron(s) orbiting the nucleus, as we will
learn in quantum mechanics,
15.4
Molecular Bonding
A very simple picture of molecular bonding was possible using Coulomb’s Law. Two positive nuclei,
with negative electrons between, would have more attractive force than repulsive force. (See Link 16.4.)
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Link 16.4 Simple H2 Molecule
http://bit.ly/13PXtrO
he simplest molecule is two hydrogen nuclei sharing a single electron (H2+). With the electron somewhere
between the two nuclei, the attractive forces of the electron to each nuclei will be stronger than the
repulsive forces between the two nuclei. (Remember, electrostatic force decreases as the square of the
distance. he electron is closer to each nucleus than the nuclei are to each other.)
Hence, correct placement of electrons could account for the bonds that hold molecules together. But, as
we have discussed, a Newtonian model of the atom does not work. If a negative electron were to orbit
a positive nucleus, then the electron should spiral down to the nucleus losing its energy by radiation,
until the atom collapsed. Even arguments of repulsion by the electrons are insuicient since the stable
hydrogen atom is known to have but a single electron. he only hope for understanding atomic structure
and chemical bonding is a diferent kind of mechanics.
As we have described, Bohr postulated quantum mechanics and Schrodinger developed wave mechanics
that, combined, give us our present understanding. Bohr made an interesting analogy: if we picture the
atom as large as the New York Empire State Building, the electron, the size of a marble, would be spinning
around the building seven million times every millionth of a second. And that there was more empty
space in the atom than between the planets in the solar system. he great mathematician and philosopher,
Bertrand Russell, expressed this idea as: “Science compels us to accept a quite diferent conception of
what we are pleased to call ‘solid matter’; it is in fact something much more like the Irishman’s net, ‘a
number of holes tied together with pieces of string.’ Only it would be necessary to imagine the strings
cut away until only knots were let.”60
Applying quantum mechanics to molecules requires large computational capabilities. Complete solutions
only started to become available in the 1960s with the advent of large scale computers. However,
approximation methods continued to make useful progress in chemistry.
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Gilbert Newton Lewis (1875–1946) of the University of California had already won the Davy Medal
of the Royal Society for contributions to thermodynamics. Lewis, born in Weymouth, Massachusetts,
was 10 years older than Bohr and was educated at Nebraska, Harvard, Leipzig and Gottingen. In 1902
he conceived of the cubical atom. Lewis’s atom expressed the octet rule in which atoms with completed
octets were stable, either on their own (as in the noble gases) or in combination with other elements in
compounds. his also gave rise to shells of electrons and inally, in 1916, Lewis proposed the covalent
bond where pairs of electrons were shared between atoms to give completed octets. (See Link 16.5.)
Link 16.5 Lewis’s Cubical Atom
http://bit.ly/14Zcn5j
he irst complete row of the period table is elements Li, Be, B, C, N, O, F, and Ne. Ater the irst two
electrons complete the 1st shell these elements have the following numbers of electrons in their second
shell, respectively: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. he coniguration of 8 (Ne) is very stable. (No compound of Neon
has ever been made.) F has enough electrons to ill 7 of the 8 corners of a cube. If two F atoms shared
one edge of a cube, they would each have the neon coniguration of 8 electrons around them.
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Irving Langmuir, an engineer, saw that elements helium and neon were stable elements as singular atoms.
So, atoms that could mimic the electron coniguration of these stable elements should also be stable.
Langmuir clariied the idea of valence as the number of electrons that had to be borrowed or loaned
to make an atom stable. Structures based upon stable electron conigurations, called Lewis structures,
take the chemist a long way in simple chemical bonding. For example, carbon with four outer electrons
needs four additional electrons and can have four bonds; nitrogen with ive outer electrons needs three
additional electrons and can have, hence, three bonds; oxygen with six outer electrons can have 2 bonds;
and luorine with seven outer electrons needs only 1 bond. Notice the following compounds of hydrogen
(which has one electron to share) with these elements are: CH4, NH3, H2O, and HF. And, the next row
of the periodic table works exactly the same way! (See Link 16.6.)
Link 16.6 Simple Covalent Compounds
http://bit.ly/1d89ZLP
By sharing electrons, all atoms can achieve a stable coniguration. Hydrogen, which has 1 electron to
share, can achieve a helium coniguration of 2 electrons. A neon coniguration of 8 outer electrons can
be achieved by luorine (which has 7 outer electrons) by sharing 1 electron; by oxygen (which has 6 outer
electrons) by sharing 2 electrons; by nitrogen (which has 5 outer electrons) by sharing 3 electrons; and,
by carbon (which has 4 outer electrons) by sharing 4 electrons. (Note that a dash – is used to represent
two electrons.)
Simple organic chemistry can be constructed completely, even involving double and triple bonds, on the
Lewis covalent bonding theory. Also, diatomic gases work with H2 and F2 each having a single bond, O2
a double bond and N2 a triple bond. (See Link 16.7.)
Link 16.7 Diatomic Gases
http://bit.ly/1cZvXRT
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Each of the atoms has its outer electrons in the same coniguration as helium or neon. However, not all
properties are correctly predicted by these conigurations. For example, O2 gas has diferent magnetic
properties than are predicted.
he Schrodinger wave equation and Bohr’s quantum mechanics gave rise to accurate electron
conigurations. Four quantum numbers were needed and these were dubbed with the classical labels,
n (principle quantum number or shell), l (angular-momentum quantum number), m (magnetic
quantum number) and s (spin quantum number.) he rules are: m = 1,2,3…; l = 0,1,2…m – 1;
m = -l, -l+1…0…l-1, l; and s = 1/2,-1/2. Hence, the irst shell can have only 2 electrons, the second
can have 8, the third 18, the fourth 32 and so forth. he so-called orbitals (l quantum number) were
also named from classical labels with l=0 called an s-orbital; l=1 a p-orbital; l=2 a d-orbital and l=3 an
f-orbital. he shapes of the irst two kinds of atomic orbitals are s=spherical and p=dumbbell. Now it
becomes possible to talk of covalent bonding as the overlap of atomic orbitals; hybridization thereof,
etc. (See Figures 16.8 and 16.9.)
Link 16.8 Atomic Orbitals
http://bit.ly/14ZcttB
Quantum mechanics predicts the probability density of electrons. Each atomic orbital can contain up to 2
electrons. he irst orbital, which contains the lowest energy two electrons, is called 1s and is spherically
symmetrical. (his means the electron has an equal probability of being anywhere in the spherical area.)
he next 2 electrons will be in the 2s orbital, still spherically symmetrical. he next 6 electrons are in
the 2px, 2py, 2pz orbitals each of which is symmetric along one of the three spatial axes. (here will be 1
electron in each of the three p-orbitals before the second electron is added to any of them.)
Link 16.9 Obital Overlap to Form Bonds
http://bit.ly/19wmA7E
he overlap between the 1s orbitals of two hydrogen atoms results in the formation of a chemical bond.
he two electrons that populate this overlap are mostly between the two nuclei thereby holding them
together to form the H2 molecule.
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his solved a particular problem in that simple compounds like O2 in a purely Lewis structure had all
paired electrons where experiments showed otherwise. (But, in the orbital picture, unpaired electrons,
shown by paramagnetism in O2 are predicted.)
Another great chemist, perhaps America’s greatest scientist, made repeated contributions to the theory
of bonding. Linus Carl Pauling (1901–1994) was born in Portland Oregon. He lived several years in
the small town of Condon, Oregon, where his father ran a drugstore. Pauling was inluenced by local
cowboys and Indians. One of the cowboys showed him how to sharpen a pencil with a knife and the
Indians taught him how to dig for edible roots. Pauling’s father moved the family to Portland to open a
larger drugstore but died at the age of 33 of a perforated ulcer. His mother, Belle, had economic problems
and deteriorating health.
Pauling was greatly inluenced by a friend, Lloyd Jefries, who showed him that sulfuric acid would turn
sugar into a black smoldering mass. Pauling read his father’s chemistry books and took all the science
courses at his high school and then quit without graduating because he was bored. He went on to Oregon
Agricultural College in Corvallis (now Oregon State University) majoring in chemical engineering and
graduating summa cum laude in 1922.
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Pauling had taken leave from college to help out in his mother’s inancial problems and during this time
read the papers of G.N. Lewis. Pauling went to the California Institute of Technology where he studied
both chemistry and physics in graduate school. He married Alva Helen Miller who had been his student
in Corvallis. Returning to Cal. Tech. he started publishing on crystal structures and in 1925 published
a paper that all crystals, no matter how complex, would have zero entropy at absolute zero. his is the
basis of the third law of thermodynamics.
From 1925 to 1927 Pauling was a Guggenheim Fellow studying quantum mechanics with Arnold
Sommerfeld at the Institute for heoretical Physics in Munich. He made major contributions to the
concept of applying quantum mechanics to chemical bonding. He developed rules of electrostatic valence
that help crystallographers select the most likely arrangements of crystals to test. Pauling represented
the best blend of theoretical and empirical reasoning. (here is oten a split between these approaches
and, in my opinion, is much of the resentment oten found between scholars in the natural sciences and
those in the social sciences.)
In the 1930s Pauling published critical papers on his theory of bond hybridization. he most famous
publication was his book: The Nature of the Chemical Bond and the Structure of Molecules and Crystals,
which was derived from his 1939 George Fisher Baker Lectures at Cornell. In 1954 he won the Nobel
Prize in Chemistry “for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application into the
elucidation of the structure of complex substances.”
Pauling also developed a theory of bonding for metallic crystals which amounted to shared orbitals
spread over the entire crystal. his successfully accounted for properties of metals such as high electrical
conductivity and malleability.
In 1949, Pauling became President of the American Chemical Society and took a very unpopular stance against
nuclear arms development. He appealed to the United Nations to end nuclear testing presenting signatures
of more than 9000 scientists from 44 countries. When Congress demanded he reveal the names of those
who helped him collect the signatures and he refused, he could have gone to prison for content of Congress.
(Pauling believed if he released the names, many scientiic colleagues in countries like the USSR would be put
in danger.) he State Department took away Pauling’s passport and he was denied foreign travel for a number
of years. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962 and was ultimately allowed international travel again.
In many ways, Pauling was the quintessential scientist, a theoretician, experimentalist and empiricist of
the irst order. He was a man unimpeded by the thinking of others. He was to go on to contribute vastly
to the determination of the structure of DNA, to the explanation of molecular diseases like sickle-cell
anemia and vitamin C therapy. He even attempted to develop a new theory of nuclear structure in the
1960s but had little success there.
Linus Pauling was such a charming, charismatic character, that the irst lecture I heard from him in
1959 is still fresh in my mind.
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17 The Computer Revolution (1900– )
17.1
Counting, Numbers, and Calculation
Science is quantitative and seeks mechanisms that both explain and predict the behavior of the physical
world. herefore, calculation is very important to science. heories can be supported or invalidated by
experimental data but this oten requires extensive calculation. he advent of computers, which became
widely available in the last few decades of the 20th century, has provided scientists with computational
capability that never existed before.
Counting preceded the invention of numbers and number systems. he oldest counting artifact is the
Lebombo bone that dates to 35,000 BCE. he bone has 29 notches suggesting it was a calendar stick
used for counting the days of the month. (A lunar month is approximately 29½ days.) (See Link 17.1.)
Tally sticks, like the Lebombo bone, are the irst known written records. Counting, or in the commercial
sense, accounting may have been the origin of writing. Counting days and months is a way to predict
seasons and determine when to store food, when to plant, and when to harvest. Commerce, in the form
of trading, clearly requires inventory and counting. When agriculture developed and tribes could stay
in one place, counting became important to land measurement.
Link 17.1 Lebombo Bone
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3909/ishango2le8.jpg
Number systems were developed by several civilizations including the Egyptians, Indians, and
Babylonians. Early number systems did not lend themselves to mathematical manipulation. (Try
multiplying Roman numerals like XI and VIII.) However, computation did develop as addition and
subtraction are particularly necessary for commerce. (Egyptians could determine land areas and even
solve quadratic equations that had real roots by drawing rectangles.) he decimal system we have today
was an Arab-Indian invention of the 5th century CE.
As with so many things, the Ancient Greeks were the irst to develop number theory. You will recall the
work of Pythagoras, Euclid, Archimedes, Diophantus, and Ptolemy that was discussed earlier. While
computation was diicult in the Greek number system, still they made astronomical measurements
and developed numerical tables such as Ptolemy’s Almagest, that could be used to predict star positions
accurately for up to 1000 years. Also, remember how Archimedes could calculate π and solve other
numerical problems. Archimedes actually proposed a number system in his treatise Sand Reckoner that
could express numbers up to 8 × 1063.
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Computation
In Latin, there are two verbs calculare and comput0. Calculare means to count or reckon. (Calculus meant
a small stone used for counting. Calx and calcium are also derived from calculare.) Computo means
to count by a mathematical method or to reason or reckon together. (Computation and computer are
derived from compute.)
he irst known constructed counting device was the Chinese counting board which appeared about
400 BCE. his same device evolved over time and by about 1200 CE had become the abacus which is
still in use today. It was the introduction of the abacus to Europe that permitted the establishment of
international banking during the Renaissance. (See Figures 17.2 and 17.3.)
Link 17.2 Chinese Counting Board
http://www.mathmojo.com/abacus/abax/abaxjpgs/Abax199.jpg
Link 17.3 Modern Abacus
http://www.vyvy.org/main/sites/vyvy.org/iles/abacus_touched.png
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In 1614, a Scottish mathematician named John Napier, who had worked out approximate formulas for
exponents, published a table of exponents he called logarithms. Napier’s logarithms could be used to
multiply and divide. (Log102 = 0.30103; log103 = 0.44712; adding these two logs gives 0.77815 which
is the log10 of 6. Napier converted the problem of multiplying and dividing into the simpler problem
of adding and subtracting.) Napier sent his tables to Kepler who used them in the analysis of Tycho’s
astronomical data. Only 8 years later William Oughtred, an English mathematician, marked logarithmic
scales on two rulers that he could manipulate to multiply and divide. Oughtred had invented the sliderule which was widely used by scientists and engineers until the pocket calculator became available.
(See Figures 17.4 and 17.5.)
Link 17.4 Logarithm Table
http://bit.ly/1f0XLRK
Link 17.5 Slide Rule
http://bit.ly/17341HU
In 1642, Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, built a mechanical adding machine that could add and
subtract and, in 1693, Leibniz increased the capability of mechanical calculators to multiply and divide.
he mechanical calculator became electro-mechanical in the late 19th century and then fully electronic
with the development of micro-circuitry in the latter half of the 20th century. With the miniaturization
of large-scale-integrated-circuits, the pocket calculator immerged and, even if a bit large for the pocket,
it became a hand-held device of great convenience completely replacing the slide rule. (See Figures 17.6
and 17.7.)
Link 17.6 Pascal’s Calculator
http://bit.ly/181UcHe
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Link 17.7 Modern Pocket Calculator
http://farm1.static.lickr.com/33/40890499_629164fa72.jpg
here were also ancient tables and methods for calculating astronomical positions. he Ancient Greeks
had mechanical devices such as the Antikythera device which was thought to be the irst mechanical
calculator. he Antikythera device was found in a shipwreck at the bottom of the sea among the Greek
islands in 1901. It has been dated to about 100 BCE and was apparently used to determine astronomical
positions of the solar system. (See Link 17.8.)
Link 17.8 Antikythera
http://paxarcana.iles.wordpress.com/2008/07/antikythera_mechanism.jpg
Ptolemy’s Almagest is a set of computational tables and formulas written in the 1st century CE for
determining star and planet positions. No originals remain but, fortunately it was translated by the Arabs
and rediscovered in the 12th century.
he astrolabe was an astronomical instrument which initially had two metal disks. One disk represented
the Earth and the other the Celestial Sphere. he astrolabe could be used for navigation because if you
knew the time, you could determine your latitude and vice versa. (See Link 17.9.)
Link 17.9 Astrolabe
http://www.agmgits.co.uk/resources/astrolabe_5.jpg
he astrolabe may have been invented around the 2nd century BCE. It is possible that Ptolemy used one.
he Arabs learned about the astrolabe from Greek writing and built more advanced instruments. he
sextant, which is used in modern times for celestial navigation, evolved from one form of astrolabe.
(See Link 17.10.)
Link 17.10 Sextant
http://www.clipperlight.com/SEXTANTARTICLE/sextant2.jpg
17.2
Mathematics and Digital Computers
Mathematics advanced rapidly ater the Renaissance. And, as we will see, certain developments in
mathematics were essential to the development of the digital computer. Descartes’ timely invention
of analytical geometry (1637) set the stage for Newton’s calculus (ca 1665) to produce mathematical
solutions that supported his mechanical explanations of the physical universe.
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Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707–1793), more than any other, systematized Newton’s physics.
Euler was probability the most proliic mathematicians of all time. He was also among the greatest. (Many
consider German Karl Friedrich Gauss to be the greatest mathematician of all time.) Most of his life Euler
published on the order of 400 pages of original mathematics every year. he irrational mathematical
constant e (2.71828…) is named ater Euler. (e is the base for natural logarithms and occurs in many
fundamental equations in science.)
Euler had various medical problems with his eyes and eventually went blind. However, he had memorized
all the major mathematical works and continued to publish by dictating to several secretaries. No longer
burdened by his poor eyesight that made writing diicult, Euler’s productivity actually increased to around
500 pages per year! Euler was a virtual Mozart of mathematics. He seemed to have unlimited creativity.
he irst person who attempted to move beyond the calculator to the computer was Charles Babbage
(1791–1871). Babbage studied mathematics at Cambridge and became the Lucasian Professor in 1828.
Babbage made numerous contributions including founding the Royal Statistical Society around 1833.
Babbage wanted to make accurate mathematical tables which, to that point, had been produced by hand
calculation, a process prone to error.
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Babbage designed a Diference Engine in 1821 to calculate polynomial functions. Since polynomials can
be used to approximate trigonometric and logarithmic functions, the diference engine would be able
to produce these as well. he diference engine was basically a very advanced calculator and not a true
computer. However, the concept was established that advanced calculation could be done mechanically,
not by hand, and produce better results. (See Link 17.11.)
Link 17.11 Babbage’s Diference Engine
http://ed-thelen.org/bab/bab-t-photo.jpg
Babbage built parts for his device but never completed it. However, in 1853, using Babbage’s design, two
Swedish engineers built the irst diference engine. Ever improved models were produced by the Swedes
and used to calculate mathematical tables. (To celebrate Babbage’s bicentennial in 1991, the diference
engine that Babbage designed was built. Both the diference engine and its printer worked as designed.)
Babbage realized that his design was limited because it required human intervention and in 1834 designed
an Analytical Engine which was a true mechanical computer. he computer would accept instructions and
data from cards with holes punched in them and also produce answers on punched-cards. he concept
came from the Jacquard loom which was invented in 1801. (See Link 17.12.)
Link 17.12 Babbage’s Analytical Engine
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/images/object_images/535x535/10303274.jpg
Again, Babbage could not obtain suicient funds to build his computer but he had created, as least in
concept, the irst programmable computer complete with memory and processor, data and instruction
input and output. Lady Ada, a mathematician, communicated regularly with Babbage. She wrote plans
for various uses of the computer and her plan to compute Bernoulli numbers is considered the irst
computer program. Babbage worked on the design of the analytical engine until his death.
17.3
Boolean Algebra
Charles Babbage’s life spanned that of George Boole (1815–1864) who became the single most important
mathematician, if not the most important individual, in the development of the digital computer.
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Before we discuss Boole, we need to diferentiate between analog and digital computers. In general, digital
means using numbers whereas analog means using some physical variable. (Digital devices are discrete
while analog devices are continuous.) Your automobile speedometer is an analog computer because it
uses the voltage generated by a magnetic pickup on the wheel of your car to move a pointer on an electric
gauge on your dash board to indicate the speed. On the other hand, a baseball catcher uses a digital
device (a hand with ingers) to send signals to the pitcher. (One inger means fastball and two means
curveball.) Analog signals are usually about 1% accurate and, with great diiculty, can be 0.1% or even
better. But, digital signals can be made more accurate by adding more digits, virtually without limit.
In the irst half of the 20th century there was considerable development of electronic analog computers.
here are circuits that easily solve diferential equations, the steady diet of certain kinds of engineering,
and analog computers can be built to simulate such things as a chemical manufacturing process. Fluid
analog computers have been used in rocket control and other applications. However, digital computers
can provide virtually unlimited accuracy and so science depends upon digital computers for accurate
calculations. (See Link 17.13.)
Link 17.13 Analog Computer
http://www.osnews.com/img/4101/chm4.jpg
George Boole was the opposite in life from Charles Babbage. His father was working class and there
was no chance for Boole to obtain a quality education. However, Boole’s father loved mathematics and
taught everything he knew to George who quickly surpassed him. A family friend taught George Latin
and he became luent in German, Italian and French as well. He studied the Principia and the work of
the great French mathematicians Laplace and Lagrange.
By 1840 the self-taught Boole was publishing original mathematics. He received a medal from the Royal
Society in 1844 and in 1847 published his seminal paper, he Mathematical Analysis of Logic, which
founded Boolean algebra or symbolic logic. Boole claimed that logic was really a ield of mathematics,
not philosophy as it had been considered since Aristotle invented it. Because of this work Boole was
appointed to the faculty of Ireland’s Queen College. Boole continued to publish until his untimely death
at 49.
Boole turned Aristotle’s formal logic into a mathematical form where symbols could be manipulated.
By representing TRUE as 1 and FALSE as 0, the operations AND, OR, and NOT, could be performed
mathematically. However, this requires new sets of rules.
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For the AND operator:
1+1=1
TRUE AND TRUE = TRUE
1+0=0
TRUE AND FALSE = FALSE
0+1=0
FALSE AND TRUE = FALSE
0+0=0
FALSE AND FALSE = FALSE
But, for the OR operator:
1+1=1
TRUE OR TRUE = TRUE
1+0=1
TRUE OR FALSE = TRUE
0+1=1
FALSE OR TRUE = TRUE
0+0=0
FALSE OR FALSE = FALSE
In the binary system (base 2) numbers are represented as a string of 1’s and 0’s. he following table shows
how decimal numbers (base 10) can be represented as binary numbers. (See Table 17.1.)
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Decimal
Binary
0
0
1
1
2
10
3
11
4
100
5
101
6
110
7
111
8
1000
9
1001
10
1010
11
1011
12
1100
13
1101
etc.
Table 17.1 Binary Representation of Decimal Numbers
he last binary number in the table,1101, represents:
1 × 23 + 1 × 22 + 0 × 21 + 1 × 20 = 8 + 4 + 0 + 1 = 13
Two binary numbers can be added, in fact, more simply than decimal numbers. If both are 0, then the
sum is 0; if one is 1 and the other 0, then the sum is 1; and, if both are 1 then the sum is 0 but a 1 is
carried to the let. (i.e. 0 + 0 = 0; 1 + 0 = 1; 0 + 1 = 1; and 1 + 1 = 10.)
%LQDU\'HFLPDO
Obviously, if we can add then we can subtract, multiply, and divide. Logical expressions can be written
that are the equivalent of the basic mathematical operations. his means that numbers can be converted
to binary, have mathematical operations performed and the result reconverted into decimal.
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17.4
The Computer Revolution (1900– )
Systems of Mathematics
Georg Cantor developed Set heory in 1847 based on Boolean algebra. Set theory provides another
mathematical tool that is useful in both theory and experimentation. During the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, mathematicians made progress on deining formal systems of mathematics with the goal of
inding a system that is complete. By complete, we mean a system of mathematics that can solve all
problems, prove all true theorems and disprove all false theorems.
One individual we need to introduce is Kurt Gödel (1906–1978) because he eliminated the possibility that
any system of mathematics could be complete. Gödel was Austrian but spent the last years of his life at
the Advanced Institute at Princeton. (Einstein was also a member of the institute and they were friends.)
Gödel’s major contribution was his Incompleteness heorem (1931) that proved there could never be a
complete set of mathematics. Gödel proved that in any system there would be theorems that were true
but could never be proven and theorems that were false but could never be disproven. An easy example
of the Incompleteness heorem to understand is called he Liar’s Paradox. If someone said to you: “I
am lying.” would you believe them?
17.5
Computing Machines
Claude Shannon (1916–2001), an American mathematician and electrical engineer, completed the step
from pure mathematics to practical computing in his masters’ thesis, A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and
Switching Circuits at MIT in 1937. He was only 21 when he showed that electronic switching circuits
could perform logical operations. Shannon brought Faraday and Boole together making the modern
digital computer possible. (See Figure 17.14.)
Figure 17.14 Switching Circuits for AND and OR
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In the AND circuit two switches are in serial order. hus, the circuit is complete only when both switches
are closed. If we assign True to a closed switch, False to an open switch, True to a current lowing through
the circuit and False to no current, then this circuit will give True when both Switches are True, and False
at all other times. In the OR circuit, the two switches are connected in parallel. Now the current lows
(True response) whenever one or both of the switches are closed (True) and only gives a False response
when both the switches are open (False).
In 1940 Shannon completed his PhD at MIT and became a fellow at the Advanced Institute and worked
on problems related to WW II. Later he joined Bell Laboratories and in 1956 became a chaired professor
at MIT. Among his accomplishments was the invention of Information heory. Information heory relates
to the quantiication of information and applies to a wide range of ields such as communications, species
diversity in biology, and statistical thermodynamics.
Shannon wrote a computer program to play chess in 1948 and he built an electronic mouse that would
search through a maze and, once inding the correct path, could complete the maze from any starting
position.
Alan Turing (1912–1954) was born in London and attended Cambridge where he graduated in 1934 with
a distinguished degree. In 1936, he published a landmark paper on computing that deined a machine
that would be capable of solving any conceivable mathematical problem for which an algorithm could be
written. Such a computer, now called a Turing Machine, would have internal states; internal operations,
an ininitely long tape; and a read/write head.
Turing was an excellent long-distance runner and completed a marathon in 2 hours and 48 minutes only
11 minutes worse than the 1948 Olympic winner and 20.5 minutes longer than the record at that time.
(he record at the writing of this book is 2 hours 3 minutes and 59 seconds.) Turing did not compete
in the Olympics because of an injury.
Turing continued his education at Princeton and received his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1938. During
WWII, he worked on the English efort in cryptography and helped break the German Enigma Code.
Turing built an electromechanical machine that speeded up the breaking of coded message. (See Link
17.15.) Breaking the Berman code gave the British and Americans the ability to know where the German
U-boats (submarines) would be stationed and greatly reduced our loss of ships resupplying England.
Link 17.15 Enigma: German Code Machine
http://bit.ly/1cZwoMc
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During the war, Turing also worked in the U.S. at Bell Laboratories on the development of secure speech
devices. Back in England he designed a portable machine for secure voice communications. For his
contributions to the war efort Turing was made an Oicer in he Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
Ater the war, Turing worked at the National Physical Laboratory on the design of the Automatic
Computing Engine. In 1948 Turing was appointed to the Mathematics Department at the University of
Manchester where he founded the artiicial intelligence movement, claiming the computer could rival the
human brain. Turing worked on artiicial intelligence and mathematical biology for the rest of his life.
In 1950 he published a seminal paper in artiicial intelligence, Computing Machinery and Intelligence.
Turing was a homosexual and lived a tragic life in England where homosexuality was still against the
law. He was burglarized, and when the police investigated, they learned of his homosexuality. He was
charged and convicted. He was given a choice of going to prison or undergoing an intense estrogen
therapy. (Also, his security clearance was removed.) He chose the estrogen therapy that had severe sideefects, including depression. In 1954 Alan Turing committed suicide.
Just as the revolutionary extremes of the French caused the father of modern chemistry, Antoine Laurent
Lavoisier, to be guillotined; the Victorian attitude of the English caused the father of modern computer
science, Alan Mathison Turing, to take cyanide.
.
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Norbert Wiener (1894–1964), an American scientist, published Cybernetics or Control and Communication
in the Animal and the Machine in 1948. Wiener developed the theory of regulation and signal transmission
applied to technical devices, living beings and even societies. His ground-breaking work continues to
ind many applications in our cybernetic world.
John von Neumann (1903–1957) was born in Budapest, Hungary, to a wealthy family. He was a prodigy,
showing incredible aptitude in mathematics and doing graduate level mathematics by the age of 12. He
completed both a Ph.D. in mathematics and a diploma in chemical engineering in 1926. Von Neumann’s
work in quantum mechanics was very important. He also made contributions to mathematics (including
set theory), computer science, and economics. Von Neumann’s heory of Games and Economic Behavior
(1944, with Oskar Morgenstern) founded the ield of Game heory.
In 1930 Von Neumann became one of the irst four faculty members at the Advanced Institute at Princeton.
(Einstein and Gödel were also in this group.) Von Neumann remained in the U.S. and became a citizen
in 1937. He participated in the Manhattan project and helped design the atomic bomb. (It is possible
that the brain cancer that killed him in 1957 was induced by his observation of the test of the atomic
bomb at Trinity Site on July 16, 1945.)
Von Neumann’s greatest contribution to the development of computers was designing a lexible
architecture so that both instructions and data could be stored. Up to this time, computers were
programmed by setting external switches. In a paper in 1945 von Neumann proposed a new design in
which a single storage area would contain both the instructions for performing the calculation and data.
he von Neumann architecture is the basic design for all modern computers. (See Link 17.16.)
Link 17.16 Von Neumann Architecture
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ref/pgss/lecture/11/vonNeumannArch.gif
Von Neumann was able to contribute both to the theoretical and the practical. He was very interested in
the human brain and was working on understanding how it processed data and solved problems when
he died. His last book, he Computer and the Brain (1958) is still exciting to read. Von Neumann had
been invited to deliver the Sillman Lectures at Yale in 1956. He had prepared his lectures but was too
ill to go to Yale. he Computer and the Brain was assembled from his lecture notes by his wife, Klara
von Neumann.
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The Conservation Movement and Ecology (1900– )
18 The Conservation Movement
and Ecology (1900– )
American settlers had a frontier world-view during the 19th century. he West was a place of opportunity.
he frontier ethic stressed individual hard work and responsibility.
In the Code of Moses, God had given humanity dominion over nature. he Native Americans were not
using the land. Americans were taming the land from coast to coast.
However, as North America became more settled some Americans began to worry about exhausting
nature’s storehouse. Early advocates of conservation included: Henry David horeau, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, George Catlin, and Horace Greeley. Among the most famous conservationists were John Muir
(1838–1914) and heodore Roosevelt (1858–1919).
18.1
National Parks
In 1872, the irst national park, Yellowstone National Park was established in parts of Wyoming, Montana,
and Idaho. In 1892, John Muir founded the Sierra Club in San Francisco. he Sierra Club continues
today as an environmental organization with hundreds of thousands of members across the United States
and an ailiate group in Canada. John Muir had been instrumental in the establishment of Yosemite
National Park in 1890. (See Link 18.1.)
Link 18.1 Yosemite National Park
http://bit.ly/17IFCFB
In 1902 congress passed the Reclamation Act which promoted irrigation and water reclamation in the
west where rainfall was inadequate. By 1907, an independent bureau within the Department of the
Interior was created to manage the projects.
In 1903, under the heodore Roosevelt administration, the irst national wildlife refuge was established
at Pelican Island, Florida. In 1905 the U.S. Forest Service was created and the Audubon Society founded.
From 1912 through 1916 the National Park System was created.
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President heodore Roosevelt’s term in oice (1901–1909) has been called America’s Golden Age of
Conservation. Roosevelt set aside millions of acres of forest preserves and transferred administration
from the Department of Interior to the Department of Agriculture. He appointed his friend Giford
Pinchot (1865–1946) head of the U.S. Forest Service. Pinchot’s philosophy was the “greatest good for
the greatest number for the long run.”61
18.2
Preservationists vs. Wise-Use Advocates
While Muir and Roosevelt were both leading igures in the environmental movement, their environmental
philosophies were diferent. Muir was the leader of the group called Preservationists while Roosevelt was
the nominal head of the Wise-Use advocates.
Preservationists, like Muir argued that large tracts of public land should remain untouched for future
generations. he Wise-Use faction, led by Roosevelt, believed that government should protect public lands
from harm through scientiic and eicient management that promoted sustainable yield and multipleuse. Wise-Use was well-stated by Pinchot: “he irst great fact about conservation is that it stands for
development.”62 And, “the art of producing from the forest whatever it can yield for the service of man.”
hese statements, which incorporate the progressive faith in scientiic management, does not move
signiicantly away from the Mosaic Code that declares humans as stewards of nature and her resources.
In 1901, San Francisco mayor James D. Phelan and Giford Pinchot proposed damming the Tuolumne
River that ran through dramatic and pristine Hetch Hetchy Valley adjacent to Yosemite National Park.
San Francisco needed drinking water. John Muir, formally a close friend of Roosevelt and Pinchot,
thought damming Hetch Hetchy was nothing short of environmental sacrilege. A bitter battle lasted 12
years before the dam was inally built and the valley looded. Even today, Preservationists continue to
press to have the dam removed.
When Muir died in 1914, the leadership of the Preservationists passed to Aldo Leopold (1887–1948)
who believed that humans should try to protect nature, not conquer it. In 1949, Leopold published A
Sand County Almanac, a classic in environmental literature. his book and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring
(1962) are the two most inluential books of the post-war environmental movement.
In a unique way, Leopold began his essay about his farm in Wisconsin’s Sand County region with a
fascinating historical metaphor, cutting up an old tree blown down in a storm. As he places the saw on
the tree, Leopold relects that he irst cuts through recent history as represented by the rings of the tree.
Quickly, he cuts through to his college years, then past his youth to the year of his birth.
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As Leopold saws on – past wet years and dry years, past ire, lood, lightning and storm – the tree’s
biography is revealed by each cut of the saw. Leopold relects that the stories he sees unfolding as he
saws through the tree tell not only about the tree, but also the tree’s relationship and interaction with
the environment in which it lived. Sometimes dramatically, other times most subtly, Leopold inds
evidence of disease and pests during the Great Depression, of deer who had rubbed antlers against the
tree during years of Prohibition, of woodpeckers who had gleaned ants during World War I, of farmers
who had strung fencing when Teddy Roosevelt was president, of lovers who had let their mark during
the Gay Nineties, of Indians who had camped beside the tree during the Civil War. Of course, eventually,
Leopold cuts through to the pith of the tree – the center of history, so to speak – and as he does so his
saw begins to cut back towards the present. (See Link 18.2.)
Link 18.2 Illustration of Tree Rings
http://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/media/images/tree_rings_h.jpg
Leopold’s book is a delightful read but also relects an interesting reverse picture of history which begins
from the present and works its way to the past. Conventional academic history’s approach, of course,
begins in the past and works its way towards the present. What would it be like to study the history of
science beginning with today and working your way back to Aristotle?
In 1935, Leopold and Robert Marshall of the U.S. Forest Service founded the Wilderness Society.
According to Leopold, America needed to develop a new ethic that recognized that we are part of, not
independent from, natural processes. Leopold called for an ethic which not only guides our relationships
towards fellow human beings, but also deines our ethical relationships with frogs and ponds, grasses
and soil, birds and the air.
Imagine trying to tell a farmer that he should treat his dirt ethically. Imagine suggesting to an inner city
denizen that she has an ethical responsibility for the weeds and worms in the neighboring vacant lot.
Certainly, Leopold’s idea, carried to the extreme, is unworkable.
In the last year of Leopold’s life, 1948, the U.S. sufered an environmental disaster. Donora, Pennsylvania
is 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh in the lovely Monongahela Valley with hills rising on all sides – the
perfect topography for a weather condition known as thermal inversion. Normally, higher air is cooler
and denser providing a mechanism for mixing the air. (he heavier, cold air falls down through the lighter,
warm air causing a general mixing.) However, in an inversion, the higher air is warmer and there is no
mixing. he air can become stagnant and stay in the same area for days or even longer. (See Link 18.3.)
Link 18.3 Donora, Pennsylvania
http://www.pollutionissues.com/images/paz_01_img0071.jpg
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Between October 26 and 31 in 1948, a prolonged thermal inversion trapped pollutants from steel mills,
a zinc smelter, a sulfuric acid plant, and other industrial plants in the Donora area. Almost half of the
town’s 14,000 inhabitants fell ill and 20 died from breathing the polluted air. he incident raised questions
about whether belching smokestacks were an unambiguous sign of economic progress.
18.3
Food Chains and Ecology
Rachel Carson (1907–1964) began her career as a biologist working for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries.
Her specialty was marine biology and oceanography. A proliic writer on the oceans and environmental
topics, in 1949 (the same year Leopold published A Sand County Almanac), Carson became editor-inchief of the Bureau’s publications.
In 1951, she published he Sea Around Us, a popular natural history of the oceans which highlighted
the harm that humans were doing to the seas. he Sea Around Us, which won Carson the National Book
Award, was on the best-seller list for 86 weeks, sold more than 2 million copies, and was translated into
32 languages. It made her independently wealthy.
In the 1950s Americans became increasingly aware of air-born pollutants. Population was growing and
industry increasing in the post-war boom. Smog became a national joke, as well as a worry. Radioactive
fallout from atmospheric nuclear weapon tests by the U.S. Russia, Britain, and France was a major concern
about public health and safety.
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But most people were oblivious to the threat of pesticides. In fact, DDT (dichloro-diphenyltrichloroethane), discovered during World War II, was regarded as a miracle chemical. DDT, which
helped conquer malaria by killing mosquitoes, had made ighting in the jungles of the Paciic Islands and
Southeast Asia much safer for American troops. Ater the war, Americans launched another ofensive
against insects that destroyed crops and trees and transmitted disease. Farmers, foresters, city and
recreational managers sprayed and sprayed. An entire industry of aerial spraying developed. he farmers’
dream of killing all the destructive insects seemed to be coming true. (See Link 18.4.)
Link 18.4 DDT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT
DDT is an excellent pesticide but it is long-lived and exposure causes neurological efects in humans.
DDT was banned for use in the United States in 1972, but continues to be used in parts of the 3rd world.
In the Spring of 1958, Olga Huckins, who lived in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, watched impassively as
a small plane sprayed to control mosquitoes near her home and private bird sanctuary. he following
day, Huckins witnessed the agonizing death of several birds in her sanctuary. Huckins wrote her friend
Rachel Carson to inquire about the efects of pesticides on birds and other wildlife.
Carson discovered that there were almost no independent, analytical studies on the environmental
efects of DDT or other pesticides. During the 1950s the AEC (Atomic Energy Commission) had funded
pioneering research on plant metabolism using radio-active tracers. his research had conclusively
established the pathways and mechanisms of numerous food chains, which in turn helped to deine
biological communities. In addition, the AEC had sponsored radio-active tracer research that also
outlined several food webs and provided raw data for ecosystem theory. he AEC was interested in
following the pathway through the environment of radio-active fallout from weapons testing. Carson
realized that the same methodology could be used to assess the environmental impact of pesticides.
In 1962, Carson published her indings in Silent Spring, a warning that continued use of DDT would
soon silence the woods and meadows of New England and the rest of America. Sternly, she warned: “For
the irst time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to dangerous chemicals,
from the moment of conception until death.”63 Already, Americans had been told that in their bones they
would carry to the grave radioactive strontium from atmospheric weapon tests. Carson predicted an
even darker fate if pesticide spraying were continued. (Strontium is chemically very similar to calcium
and inds its way into the bone structure. A major radioactive product of nuclear explosions is 90Sr which
has a half-life of 28.8 years and emits β- particles.)
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The Conservation Movement and Ecology (1900– )
Carson’s book was enormously popular with the public, and read by numerous scientists, politicians,
and policy makers. Shamefully, the chemical industry mobilized to counter the threat of her book. Some
reviewers noted that Silent Spring was more a popular book than a scientiic treatise. Others contended
the book was full of inaccuracies, made selective use of scientiic indings, and failed to give a balanced
account of the beneits of DDT.
Still others alleged that as a woman she could not understand highly technical science; or that she was
hysterical; or she was a radical nature-lover trying to panic America into buying her books.
Among environmentalists, Rachel Carson became a hero, saint, and martyr. hrough the intense
controversy over Silent Spring she sufered from terminal cancer, while defending her research and
answering her critics. Carson died eighteen months ater publishing Silent Spring from metastasized
breast cancer.
Ten years later (1972) Congress re-wrote the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)
of 1947 authorizing the Environmental Protection Agency to evaluate, regulate, and restrict the use of
all commercial pesticides.
Scientiically, the signiicance of Carson’s inluence is the fact that the public, politicians, and policy
makers have accepted the general idea of Ecosystems, that organisms at the top of the food chain, such
as eagles and humans, can be profoundly afected by chemical events taking place much farther down
the food chain. his acceptance, if not understanding, of ecosystem theory has caused a profound change
in the way Americans understand their relationship to nature.
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19 Modern Geology (1900– )
19.1
The Age of the Earth
he discovery of radioactivity provided the foundation for inally making an accurate determination of the
age of the Earth. Ernest Rutherford had discovered in 1907 that radioactive elements had characteristic
half-lives. He quickly understood that this could be used for dating materials by measuring the relative
amounts of parent daughter combinations to see how many half-lives of decay had occurred. Later, with
the discovery of isotopes, this process would become much more accurate.
Radioactive decay follows a reverse geometric progression. During the period of a half-life, one-half of
a radioactive isotope decays. During the next half-life one-half of the remaining one-half decays so only
one-fourth is let. And so forth. (See Link 19.1.)
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Link 19.1 Radioactive Decay
http://bit.ly/1734I3M
If you plot the logarithm of the amount remaining against time, a straight line is produced.
Link 19.2 Radioactive Decay – Logarithmic
http://bit.ly/18MFDJK
For this discussion, it is useful to know that naturally occurring uranium has two principle isotopes,
U and 235U, that have half-lives of 4.468 × 109 years and 7.038 × 108 years, respectively. Each of these
238
radioisotopes decays through a series of other radioisotopes with shorter half-lives and eventually
becomes a stable lead isotope . 238U becomes 206Pb and 235U becomes 207Pb. (232h, with a half-life of 14.05
billion years, eventually becomes 208Pb. All other known isotopes of lead are themselves radioactive.)
Since the 238U isotope is more than 99% of naturally occurring uranium, measuring the uranium and lead
contents of rocks gives a means of estimating the age of the rock, assuming only uranium was present at
the beginning. For example, if the ratio of uranium to lead is 1, a half-life has passed and the material is
4.5 billion years old. If, however, the ratio of uranium to lead is only ⅓, it means 75% has decayed (25%
remains) and two half-lives have passed. (See Link 19.3.)
Link 19.3 Uranium/Lead Ratio
http://bit.ly/18INND3
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Arthur Holmes (1890–1965) was born in Low Fell, Gateshead, England, and, ater high school, enrolled
in the Royal College of Science in London to study physics. He quickly became interested in geology and
graduated with his bachelor’s degree in 1910. Radioactivity had been discovered about 15 years earlier
and its application to geochronology was already being attempted. Holmes studied for a doctorate degree
but had inancial problems because his scholarship paid him only about $100 a year.
In 1911, Holmes went to Mozambique to prospect for minerals but was stricken with malaria. He became
so ill a death notice was telegraphed home. However, he recovered and returning to the Royal College
studied uranium-lead ratios in rocks. He concluded this radiometric method of dating rocks was more
accurate than the geological sedimentation and cooling studies of the Earth.
Holmes wrote in his remarkable irst book, he Age of the Earth – which was published in 1913, the
same year he received his doctorate degree – that the Earth was at least 1.6 billion years old. his greatly
extended the estimate of Kelvin and others of 10–100 million years. Holmes’s estimate provided time
for evolution and uniformitarianism. Holmes became a professor at the University of Durham and then
later at the University of Edinburgh where he stayed until his death. By the 2nd edition of he Age of the
Earth, Holmes was estimating the Earth to be between 1.6 and 3.0 billion years old.
In 1919 Aston invented the mass spectrometer and it became possible to separate isotopes and measure
their masses and percentages accurately for the irst time. Radiometric measurements continued to be
improved and the chemistry of minerals was studied by Holmes and others to help verify the assumption
that uranium was isolated from lead in certain minerals.
Zircon, a mineral which appears in various colors, has the chemical structure ZrSiO4. It is a very hard
mineral that withstand heating as high as 2500oC. Uranium atoms can replace zirconium atoms in the
crystal structure but lead is ejected. Since uranium but not lead could be part of the crystal when it
was formed, it can be dated by measuring the uranium/lead ratio. Zircon has been used to age rocks,
meteorites and other materials.
he age of the Earth is now known to be 4.54 ± 0.05 × 109 years. he oldest meteorites studied have
an age of 4.567 billion years. he moon has been dated at 4.4–4.5 billion years and Martian meteorites
that have landed on Earth are around 4.5 billion years. he canyon diablo meteoritic material in the
Barringer Crater (Meteor Crater) in Arizona also agrees with this date. he sun has been dated based
on its mass and luminosity compared to other stars. Again the age agrees and we are forced to conclude
that the sun and solar system were formed about 4.5 billion years ago.
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Studies of the sun have also shown that about one-half of the sun’s hydrogen has been converted to
helium by nuclear fusion. his means that the sun will use up all of its hydrogen in another 5 billion
years. he sun will then cool and collapse and the gravitational heating from the condensed helium will
start another fusion process to produce carbon. his will raise the temperature of the sun and the planets.
he helium fusion stage will last about 1 billion years and the Earth will be heated in this process and all
its water will be boiled away. Finally, the sun will expand and become a red giant absorbing the planets
Mercury and Venus and probably the Earth as well.
he oldest fossils that have been found are 3.5 billion years old. since we know the Earth to be 4.5 billion
years old, we conclude that life began on Earth sometime within its irst billion years.
19.2
Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics
Many school children who have looked at a world globe have noticed that the east coast of South America
would it nicely against the west coast of Africa. For the irst half of the 20th century this was explained as
a simple coincidence. But, as we will learn, there is a far more profound explanation for this observation.
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Geologists divide the Earth into three principle zones and several lesser levels. (See Link 19.4) he
center zone is the core and is thought to be mostly molten iron. However, the inner core may be solid.
Remember that gravitational forces become very strong as you approach the center of a large object, so
strong in fact if there is enough mass the temperature rises to the level necessary to initiate hydrogen
fusion and a star is born. (he planet Jupiter has about 60% of the mass necessary to become a star.)
Link 19.4 Earth Zones
http://bit.ly/1f5eKT0
he core is around 15% of the volume of the Earth and above it is a viscous layer called the mantle which
makes up about 84% of the volume of the Earth. he inal 1% of the Earth is called the crust, a solid
layer about 70% covered by water. he oceans hold about 96.5% of all Earth’s water and are, on average,
2.65 miles deep. he deepest part of the ocean is about 6.9 miles.
Magma is molten rock that lies beneath the surface. When it comes above the surface we call it lava.
(For some reason, we continue to call it lava ater it cools and solidiies.) Lava lows directly into the
lowest parts of the oceans.
he upper mantel (inner asthenosphere) is about 200 km (125 miles) thick and is composed of plastic,
lowing rock while the rest of the mantel (lithosphere) is rigid rock. he slow movement of continents
is caused by the very slow, but extremely powerful, currents in the asthenosphere.
he crust is just 5 miles thick. he magma is molten rock beneath the crust and is in three categories:
granitic, which is 75–80% silica; andesitic, which is 52–63% silica; and basaltic which is 45% silica. he
greater the silica content, the more viscous or rigid is the rock and the granitic rock is the hardest. he
continents are granitic rock. Steam also lows out of volcanos covering the Earth with water. he water
from within the Earth probably came from comets. he lava lows seen from volcanos are basaltic. When
granitic rock is ejected from volcanos, it is blown out in great chunks.
Edward Suess (1831–1914) who was born in London and became a professor of geology at the University
of Vienna, claimed in the late 19th century that the continents were once joined together. (See Link
19.5) In his 1885 three-volume Das Antlitz der Erde he claimed there had been land bridges connecting
the continents into a supercontinent that he named Gondwana and that was surrounded by the Tethys
Ocean. His work was based upon fossils of similar ferns that occur in South America, Africa, and India.
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Link 19.5 Gondwana
http://bit.ly/1apJUqw
Alfred Wegener (1880–1930) was born in Berlin and studied physics, meteorology, and astronomy. He
received a doctorate in astronomy from Friedrich Wilhelms University in 1905. He and his older brother
invented the use of weather balloons to track air movements. He made expeditions to Greenland and
continued to work as a meteorologist until joining the German army in 1914.
Wegener was wounded twice in WWI and, while recovering, studied maps that were mounted on the
walls of his bedroom. He decided to cut out the continents and found that he could get about an 80-85%
it of the continents to each other.
Next Wegener made cutouts along the lines of the continental shelves instead of the coast lines. Now
he found the it above 90%, a fact that convinced him that all the continents had once been joined in
the form of a single mass he called Pangea. Pangea would have been broken apart about 200 million
years ago. (See Link 19.6) Wegener irst published his idea of continental drit in 1922 in he Origin of
Continents and Oceans. Most of the experts were extremely critical of the idea of continental drit and
Wegener’s conclusions were rejected.
Link 19.6 Pangea
http://bit.ly/1d3R1G7
Wegener presented his ideas again in 1926 at a symposium of the American Association of Petroleum
Geologists who again rejected continental drit. In 1929 he made his third expedition to Greenland and
in 1930 his fourth and last.
he last expedition was supposed to establish three permanent stations in Greenland so that scientists
could spend the winter there. However, a late thaw caused Wegener and this team to get six weeks
behind schedule and, running out of fuel, they sent a message that they would return. hey needed to
get enough supplies so that two men could spend the winter in the camp.
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Wegener set out with the team by dog sled on September 24 to re-supply the western camp. he weather
was too bad and most of the group turned back. Wegener continued but died en route and the Greenlander
who went with him was never found. he following spring, on May 12, 1931, Wegener’s body was found
halfway between the two camps. His grave was marked by a pair of skis.
Criticisms of Wegener’s ideas were based on the known rigidity of the granitic rock of continents.
Geologists could not identify any source of energy suicient to move a continent.
Until WWII, geologists thought that ocean bottoms were lat. Sonar had been invented shortly before
1913 and was further developed by WWII because of its ability to locate submarines. (Actually in 1490
Da Vinci inserted a tube into water and putting the other end to his ear found that he could locate ships
by listening to their sounds. And, in the late 19th century, underwater bells were used in addition to light
houses to warn ships of underwater hazards.)
In WWII the Atlantic Ocean was mapped and it was found that there were mountain ranges and valleys
instead of a lat bottom. Post WWII geologists continued this mapping and found mountain ranges in
every ocean. Volcanos were found and in the Paciic Ocean a deep sea trench. Other ocean trenches
were found and they were always parallel to the cost line and parallel to mountain ranges on land. (See
Link 19.7.)
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Link 19.7 Ocean Trenches
http://bit.ly/14hEZUJ
For example, there is a trench of the coast of the states of Oregon and Washington aligned with the
Cascade mountain range and another of the coast of Peru and Chile aligned with the Andes mountain
range. here is another trench (the Marianas Trench) of the east coast of Honshu, the main island of
Japan. (See Link 19.8) his is the deepest trench on Earth and is almost 7 miles below sea level.
Link 19.8 Marianas Trench
http://bit.ly/169dQPX
Oceanic mountain ranges are called ridges. Using a magnetometer, a device that shows the direction
of magnetic ields, Fred Vine (1939– ) and Drummond Matthews (1931–1997) showed that magnetic
bands on each sides of oceanic ridges are reversed and the bands are mirror images. (See Link 19.9) his
reversal of magnetic bands showed that the ocean bottom was moving away from a ridge, i.e. the ridge
had been pushed up from bottom. So new ocean is being made at the ridges and disappearing into the
trenches. (See Link 19.10)
Link 19.9 Ocean Ridge
http://bit.ly/1bRdbk
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Link 19.10 Ocean Ridges and Trenches
http://bit.ly/19HUNo5
Arthur Holmes had supported Wegener’s theory of continental drit. In his Principles of Physical Geology,
published in 1944, Holmes proposed there were convection cells in the Earth caused by heat from the
Earth’s core. (See Link 19.11)
Link 19.11 Convection Cells
http://bit.ly/1d3Recd
In 1960, an American Harry Hess (1906–1969), who was a geologist and U.S. Navy oicer, put together
one of the key supports of Holmes’s, and hence, Wegener’s theory. he United States had built 250
seismic stations to watch for Soviet underground nuclear tests. hese stations showed a layer between
100 miles and 250 miles below the crust (the asthenosphere) that was plastic so rocks could low. Hess,
in a report to the Oice of Naval Research, proposed that plates on which continents sit are moving away
from the oceanic ridges. Each plate is typically bounded on one side by a ridge and on the other by a
zone of subduction where the edge of one plate is moving beneath another. (See Link 19.12) his is how
continents can collide! A dramatic example is the highest mountain range on Earth, the Himalayas, which
were created by the collision of a plate broken of Africa with the Asian subcontinent. (See Link 19.13)
Link 19.12 Continental Drit and Plate Movement
http://go.grolier.com/atlas?id=mtlr093&tn=/atlas/printerfriendly.html
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Link 19.13 Formation of the Himalayas
http://bit.ly/16JeIB0
he theory of plate tectonics was inally accepted in 1965, some 35 years ater Wegener’s death and half
a century ater Wegener had cut out pieces of maps and itted them together.
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Afterword
20 Afterword
What can we say about the future of modern science? We have discussed the developments and
breakthroughs that brought science to its present state. And, we have presented details of many individuals
whose imagination, and sometimes just plain luck, carried science to new levels. Will we continue to see
in the 21st century the kind of remarkable advancement that has characterized the roughly four centuries
of modern science? Prediction is always dangerous, especially in writing. Nothing can date a book about
science faster than prediction. And yet, the temptation is irresistible.
Would we have predicted at the time of the death of Galileo (1642) that in only 25 years mathematics
would be discovered that could describe accurately all the experiments with mechanics that Galileo
attempted? When Galvani thought he had discovered animals were the source of electricity (late 1700s),
would we have expected that the next century would see the elucidation of electricity and magnetism
and that light would be characterized as an electro-magnetic wave?
In 1900 science was in turmoil because the discovery of the electron, radioactivity and x-rays seemed
to be destroying Newtonian physics. But, little did the scientists of that time know that this crisis would
result in a new physics, this one based on quantum mechanics and relativity.
But what of the 21st century? Will it take us to yet another level of science, to theories and phenomenon
of which we don’t yet even suspect? Some scholars claim science is coming to an end, that it has gone
as far as it can in explaining the universe and all that remains is working out the details. But remember
Diderot who thought that the 18th century was approaching the end of knowledge. He predicted there
would not be three great geometers (mathematicians) in 100 years.
Some believe today that little is let to be discovered. But, I disagree. I think the confusion in certain
areas of science today speaks of another great awakening. Perhaps there will be another Newton or
Einstein. We are, ater all, about due. I am sure that we have many interesting discoveries yet to make
and, unfortunately, those discoveries will continue to be as dangerous as they are useful. (Bernoulli’s
equations made lying possible and the airplane was used in war barely a decade ater the Wright Brother’s
irst light.)
I think one frontier of science may be the social sciences. Neurobiology is moving closer to psychology
and statistical mechanics is starting to simulate population dynamics. Clearly the world needs social
systems, both political and economic, that work better. Malthus was right, the disaster of unlimited
population growth is still in front of us. he 20th century was the bloodiest in history and the 21st is not
of to a great start. We have to develop new ethics for the global society and new ways to provide basic
necessities everywhere.
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Afterword
In the classical sciences, there is much yet to be understood and I believe the next 50 to 100 years will add
greatly to our already vast understanding. In biology, as we have already mentioned, the neurosciences
are moving rapidly with the help of magnetic resonance imaging and large scale computer modeling.
Understanding consciousness is the key to understanding humanness. Genomics is telling us more and
more about the evolutionary ladder, what we are, and how we might advance our own abilities.
Geology will achieve fuller understanding of world-wide phenomena. Crises (such as global warming) and
what to do about them will only be solved through study of the Earth (geo-logy). Chemistry will design
molecular machines and perhaps be the avenue by which we achieve quantum computing. Quantum
computing ofers unimaginable capabilities to analyze and study data and systems.
Physics will hopefully see the reconciliation of quantum mechanics and relativity. Perhaps string theory
will be the solution. But, however this is accomplished, it could possibly set the stage for the long sought
heory of Everything. Cosmology must, and I think will, reconcile the various theories of the creation of
the universe and give us the answer to this ultimate question.
here will be incredible practical uses of this new science. Consider the great problems that face us:
energy, clean water, health care, human rights. Many of these problems are a matter of inadequate
resources. Where resources are insuicient, the strong tend to take from the weak, and human rights
are forgotten. Fusion power could provide virtually unlimited energy to the world and problems like
water puriication and transportation would be quickly solved.
Most of all, advanced, inexpensive communication would mean people could stay where they were: to
work, to learn, to be healed. Many of our problems arise from the fact that, to have an advanced society
with an advanced economy, people must be moved from place to place, regularly and rapidly. If we could
work, study and play in a virtual world, many of these issues would go away.
It is tempting to say of science that we’ve only just begun. But, I don’t think that is true, I believe we
have built a solid foundation and will continue to climb but will never reach the level that we think
Galileo, Faraday and Darwin were unimportant. And, I believe we will reach a new level of education
and sophistication in dealing with science.
he easy problems have been solved. We have moved on to the hard ones and, if we are to have the
full advantage of scientiic knowledge, then we must have a society that understands science and can
apply it properly. I think one of the greatest frontiers of science must be science education, and not just
elementary school, high school, or college education, but continuous education for our entire population.
How else will we ever know the innovators from the hucksters? In the future, I hope everyone will be
able to know the diference.
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Afterword
Finally, in the Preface I promised to address the reason I used the word Evolution in the title to describe
the development of modern science, rather than Foundation, Beginning, Advent, or some other possibility.
In he Essential Darwin, Kenneth Korey explains that Darwin’s Law of Evolution has three requirements:
Exponential growth; variation; and inheritance.64
Since the 17th century, which saw the likes of Galileo, Descartes, and Newton, scientists and scientiic
investigation has grown at an exponential pace. Explanations of phenomena, such as evolution, have
seen the varied ideas of Lamarck, Darwin, and Agassiz. Scientiic societies, through publication,
correspondence, and meetings, have guaranteed the inheritance of facts and ideas from one generation
to the next.
he evolution in the way we think about the world may be science’s greatest contribution. Modern science
began with curiosity and skepticism, and it will mark, more than any other event, the passing of human
beings through history. If you doubt this, draw up your own list of the 100 most important people in
history. Notice how many of them are scientists!
Watch and participate in the ongoing Evolution of Modern Science. Come on in, the water’s ine.
homas L. Isenhour
Norfolk, VA USA
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Appendices
21 Appendices
21.1
Appendix 1 – Arithmetic and Geometry
he Greek origin of arithmetic is a combination of the verb arithmein, to count, and tekhne, an art. hus,
arithmetic (Latin to French to Old English) is the art of counting. From counting we easily get the ideas
of addition and subtraction. hey are just extensions of counting. And from addition and subtraction
we get multiplication and division. Multiplication is just a series of additions and division a series of
subtractions.
he Ancient Greeks did more with numbers than just counting. hey developed number theory which
is the study of integers. For example, they knew about prime numbers, those are numbers like 7, 19,
and 43 that can only be divided by themselves or by 1. Euclid himself proved that there are an ininite
number of prime numbers. (his is an elegant and sophisticated proof.)
Classical geometry is basically constructive. hat means that geometric igures may be drawn and used
to construct other igures within a set of known geometric proofs. Geometry inds great application in
engineering.
Euclid (ca 330–275 B.C.) systematized geometry in his 13 Volume Elements of Geometry that dominated
western mathematics for 1000 years. Euclid’s Elements remains one of the greatest mathematical works
of all time.elements or Paracelsus‘s principles. Boyle was a faithful NewtonianEuclid introduced two
abstract concepts, the Deinition and the axiom. An axiom is a An axiom is a self-evident statement. For
example, a circle inscribed in a square will always have an area less than that of the square. (See Figure
A.1.) It is obvious that no matter what size square we make, a circle inscribed in that square will have
an area that is only part of the area of the square.
Euclid showed how to develop geometry from a series of points, straight lines, deinitions, and axioms.
(Unfortunately, Euclidean geometry leads away from the idea of zero or negative numbers. For example,
can you imagine a circle with a negative radius? he absence of zero and negative numbers in the
mathematics of the west greatly retarded the advance of science.)
Elements of Geometry starts with 23 deinitions, ive postulates and ive common notions. Here are the
famous ive postulates:
1. It is possible to draw a straight line from any point to another point. (Two points deine a
straight line.)
2. It is possible to produce a inite straight line continuously in a straight line. (A straight line
contains an ininite number of points.)
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Appendices
3. It is possible to describe a circle with any center and radius.
4. All right angles are equal.
5. If a straight line falling on two straight lines make the interior angles on the same side less
than two right angles, the straight lines meet on the side on which the angles are less than
two right angles line. (Parallel lines never meet.)
In Euclidian geometry, we prove theorems by constructive methods. (he origin of the word is Greek: Ge
means Earth and metro means measure. Geometry is measuring the Earth.) An example is a carpenter’s
method for cutting the end of a board at a 45-degree angle. A carpenter will lay a nail across the end of
the board and then use his inger to mark the same length down one edge of the board. He then draws
a line from the other edge of the board to the point marked on the edge. he result is a right triangle
formed by the side and end of the board and the line. Since the side meets the end of the board at a
right angle and the two legs are the same length, their angles must be equal and, hence, 45 degrees. (See
Figure A.2.)
Greeks multiplied by constructive methods. To multiply two numbers you make them the sides of a
rectangle – the area of the rectangle is the product. To multiply three numbers use a cube. he volume
of the cube is the product of the three numbers.
he Pythagorean theorem was known in various parts of the world well before Pythagoras. (For any
right triangle, h2 = a2 + b2, where h is the hypotenuse and a and b are the sides. he Mesopotamians had
the relationship around 1800–1900 BCE.) he Pythagoreans were a secret Greek society that developed
a great deal of arithmetic and geometry. Among their discoveries were irrational numbers. (Numbers
that cannot be represented by the ratio of two integers. Such numbers, like π and √2 have an unending
string of digits.)
Archimedes (287–212 BCE) estimated п (the ratio of the circumference of circle to the diameter) as
described in Chapter II. Archimedes, who was probably the irst mathematical physicist, said: “Give me a
lever long enough, and I shall move the Earth.” He clearly understood the idea of mechanical advantage,
all that is involved in levers and pulleys.
ArchimdedsArchimedes integrated irregular areas by inscribing triangles. Doing so, he was on the verge
of discovering calculus. But, of great limitation was the fact that the Greeks did not have algebra.
here is a certain chicken and egg problem in the relation being mathematics and science. Nothing in
Archimedes time required calculus but when, in Newton’s time, the development of physics required
calculus, it was invented. Some say the need for calculus caused it’s invention.
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Appendices
he scientiic paradigm of 1700 years between Archimedes and Newton prevented, in my opinion, the
developmental use of algebra and later calculus. As we study Aristotle, you will see why I draw this
conclusion. Basically, negative numbers and ininities are necessary for algebra and calculus. Aristotle
opposed these concepts for religious reasons.
21.2
Appendix 2 – Formal Logic
hales of Miletus (ca 624–546 BCE) is credited with the invention of philosophy. hales refused help
from gods, spirits, ghosts or any other agents unacceptable to a rational mind. hales attitude may have
been the origin of the conlict of science and religion.
Aristotle (ca 384–322 BCE) invented formal logic which is based upon premises and conclusions and
uses Truth Tables to determine the validity of conclusions. For example, we might say the following: “If
I have enough money and it snows, I will go skiing.” Our premises are: A (I have enough money) and
B (it snows). Our conclusion is: C (I will go skiing).
he logical construction of this argument is: (A AND B) → C
A Truth Table can list all possibilities:
A
B
C
T
T
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T
F
F
F
T
F
F
F
F
With the AND operation only one set of conditions (both premises being True) leads to a True conclusion.
he OR operation can be inclusive or exclusive. he inclusive OR (OR) is True when either or both
premises is True. he exclusive OR (XOR) is True when either but not both of the premises is True.
“NOT” is the inal operator which reverses the premise.
Aristotle also gave us the syllogism in which a major premise and a minor premise lead to a conclusion.
(Sometimes this is stated as two premises leading to a conclusion.) In logic this is expressed as: If A →
B and B → C then A → C, where “→” means “implies.” For example:
All mammals have hair (major premise)
Marmots are mammals (minor premise)
Marmots have hair (conclusion)
“All mammals have hair” AND “Marmots are mammals” → “Marmots have hair.”
(Do not make the mistake of making the minor premise “Marmots have hair” and then concluding
“Marmots are mammals.” he major premise, “All mammals have hair” is not exclusive because there
could be non-mammals that have hair.)
Electronic computers are easily constructed for binary operations and binary codes consisting of 0’s
and 1’s can be used to represent TRUE and FALSE. (e.g. a switch can be either on or of, a spot on a
magnetic tape can be magnetized as a north pole or south pole, etc.) Because formal logic expressions
can be written to perform arithmetic operations such as addition and subtraction, digital computers
operate in binary. We will discuss this concept further when we discuss Boolean Algebra in Appendix 7.
21.3
Appendix 3 – Algebra
Zero was invented in diferent civilizations. Zero was used as a place marker in numbering systems. (For
example: 2, 20 and 200 or 83 and 803. In each of these cases the 0 is used to determine whether, as in
the irst example, the 2 refers to 2 ones, 2 tens, or 2 hundreds.)
Around 900 BCE, India had a symbol for zero. he Babylonians invented a number system but had no
zero, and the Mayans had zero around 100 CE. Hindus adopted zero to their mathematics about 500
years later and the Arabs, who invented algebra, around the 8th century.
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Zero was brought to Europeans around 1000 CE and Fibonacci introduced the zero to European
mathematics in 1202 AD. Aristotle’s idea that zero was impossible had held mathematics back. But
consider how diicult it is to calculate without a number system. Following is a comparison of
multiplication in our base 10 system to multiplication in Roman numerals:
'HFLPDO1XPHUDOV
[
[
[
[
RU
[
[
[
[
5RPDQ1XPHUDOV
,[;;9 ;;9
,,[;;9 /
,,,[;;9 /;;9
,9[;;9 &
,,[9 ;
;;[9 &
;;;[9 0
;;[/ 0
here are no rules for arithmetic in Roman Numerals. How would you add II and II and get IV? (And,
if you think addition or multiplication would be diicult, consider long division!) Quantitative science
is virtually impossible without a number system. Quantitative commerce is also very diicult and that
means that banking is can only be local, not international
But, with a number system you need only learn the multiplication table of the basic digits. For example,
in the decimal system, we only need to learn from 1 × 1 through 9 × 9 to be able to multiply all possible
combinations of numbers.
he Greeks did use formulas for calculation. e.g. h2 = a2 + b2 But they did not discover the rules for
manipulating variables to get new relationships.
In algebra we move from the formula to the equation. An equation can represent numbers by symbols
and we can manipulate the symbols to get new relationships. Consider a circle with radius (r) equal to
5 centimeters. (r = 5cm.) From the formula for the area (A) of a circle, A = πr2, can calculate the Area
to be 78.5 cm2. (A = 3.14 × [5 cm]2 = 78.5 cm2.)
If we wanted a square of the same area, we could calculate the side (s) of such a square by
s = √A = √(78.5 cm2) = 8.86 cm.
But if we treat the two formulas (formulae) as equations, we can determine the relationship of side of a
square to the radius of circle that would have the same area.
Acir = πr2 and Asq = s2
Acir = Asq
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πr2 = s2
and
s = r√∏
Now we have derived a general relationship between the ratio of a circle and the side of a square that
have the same area, no matter what that area is. Applying it to the case above we can calculate the side
without reference to the actual area by: s = r√∏ = 5 cm × √(3.14) = 8.86 cm. Diophantus (ca 200–284
CE), a Greek mathematician in Alexandria, wrote the irst treatise on algebra (Arithmetica) and created
such equations but dismissed all those that gave negative numbers as solutions.
Around 830 CE, Al-Khowarizmi, a Persian scientist and mathematician, wrote Al-Jabr Wa’l Muqabalah,
and gave methods for solving all equations of irst and second degree with positive roots. (“Al-Jabr”
translated from Arabic means “from science.”) Al-Khowarizmi’s algebra allows the manipulation of
symbols to derive new relationships.
he great Persian Poet, astronomer and mathematician, Omar Khayyam solved cubic equations about
1100 using geometric methods, an important step towards unifying geometry and algebra. Khayyam
pointed out that algebra is not just a collection of tricks for obtaining an answer but a science deeply
related to geometry. (Descartes inally uniied algebra and geometry with his invention of analytical
geometry, which is the subject of Appendix 4.)
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Causality, the relationship between events, is the most fundamental concept in science. Causality is well
expressed by the general equation of algebra, y = f(x), y is a function of x. Notice the importance of the
word function in the previous sentence. his equation is not just saying that y can be calculated from x
but that y behaves according to x. he very idea that the universe is ordered and can be understood, the
bedrock of science, is embodied in this concept.
Modern science, which begins about the end of the Renaissance, is a search for functional relationships.
When we write Newton’s law of gravity: F = m1m2/r2, we are saying that the force of gravity between two
objects is the product of the masses of the objects divided by their distance squared. And, we know from
this equation how that force changes with changes in mass or distance. We can, accordingly, determine
the orbit of a satellite or trajectory of a baseball. It is the manipulation of the symbols that allows algebra
to both generalize known information and discover new knowledge. For example, if we have an equation
for the movement of a spacecrat away from Earth as a function of time, Newton’s Law of Gravity can be
combined with that equation to give the force of gravity on the spacecrat as a function of time.
Remember Zeno’s paradox of a race between Achilles and a Tortoise. Because the Tortoise is slower, we
give her a head start. Even though we know Achilles is very swit, whenever he runs to the position of
the Tortoise, the Tortoise will have moved away, however little. Zeno uses this idea to claim that Achilles
can never catch the Tortoise. Let’s see how Algebra would deal with this race.
Let the starting point of the race = 0 km; let Achilles run 25 km/hr; let the Tortoise run 5 km/hr (Turbo
Tortoise); and let the Tortoise have a 10 km head start. he equations are:
DA = 0 + 25T
DT = 10 + 5T
where DA is the distance of Achilles from the starting point; DT is the distance of the Tortoise; and T is
the total time of the race.
Achilles will catch the Tortoise when they are in the same position, that is, when DT = DA. Let’s call this
time Tc.
DA = 0 + 25Tc and DT = 10 + 5Tc
DA = DT and 0 + 25Tc = 10 + 5Tc
25Tc – 5Tc = 10
20Tc = 10
Tc = 10/20 = 1/2 hour or 30 minutes.
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hus Algebra disagrees with Zeno’s paradox and actually tells us the time when Achilles catches the
Tortoise.
Algebra can carry this even farther and generalize the equation for the starting points of the Tortoise
and Achilles (ST – SA) and the rates at which each of them run (Ra – RT). he time that Achilles will
catch the Tortoise will be Tc = (ST – SA)/(Ra – RT).
Notice that as long as the Tortoise has a head start, (ST > SA), and Achilles runs faster (Ra > RT), Achilles
will catch the Tortoise, (Tc > 0), that is, Tc will be positive. But, if Achilles is slower than the Tortoise,
(Ra < RT), then Tc will be negative, a result that is not physically meaningful. You can play with this
equation and ind some other interesting results.
Here is another problem the answer to which seems obvious, but the obvious is oten wrong. Algebra
will come to the rescue. Assume the Earth is exactly 25,000 miles around at the equator. A little mouse,
who is 1 inch high, lives on the south side of the equator but crosses to the north side every morning to
eat breakfast. A cable is made that is 25,000 miles and 1 foot long. he cable is suspended uniformly in
a circle directly over the equator. Of course, the cable does not touch the Earth. Does the little mouse
have to climb over the cable or can he walk under it? Intuitively, it would seem that the mouse must
climb over the cable. Let’s see.
CE = πD = 25,000 miles
where C = Circumference of Earth and D is diameter of Earth
Cc = π (D + 2H) = 25,000 miles + X
H is height of cable over the Earth and X is additional length of cable
Subtracting the irst equation from the second we have:
2Hπ = X
H = X/2π
For X = 12 inches, H = 1.91 inches. he mouse walks under the cable!
21.4
Appendix 4 – Analytical Geometry
here is a story that Descartes was sitting at a table watching a ly and realized that he could locate the
ly if he knew its distance from the loor and two of the adjacent walls. Today we refer to Cartesian
coordinates when we use the X-Y-Z coordinates in three-dimensional space or use the conventional
X-Y coordinates to describe objects in two-dimensional space. (See Figure A.3.) (Each coordinate is at
right angles (orthogonal) to the others. For certain applications it is useful to talk about n dimensions
in an n-dimensional hyperspace in which case each of the n dimensions would be perpendicular to all
of the others.)
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It is now possible to solve Galileo’s relativity problem and many other problems by redeining coordinate
systems. If forces are described as vectors, the vectors may be added algebraically to ind the resultant
vector. For example, a cannon ball moves as a result of momentum and acceleration by gravity. Adding
the constant forward movement vector to the continuously changing downward movement vector will
give the equation for a parabola which correctly describes the path of the cannon ball.
Stability of an object sitting on the surface of the Earth is deined by whether movement causes the center
of mass to move towards or away from center of Earth. A body in a perfect circular orbit is continuously
falling towards the attracting body but never comes closer to the attracting body. (See Figure A.4.) hus
if we slow down the satellite it falls to a lower orbit which becomes elliptical. If we accelerate the satellite
it moves to a higher, elliptical orbit. Notice, when a space shuttle wants to return to Earth, it points its
rockets in the direction of its orbit and ires them, thereby loosing speed so that it falls towards the Earth.
he invention of analytical geometry clearly set the stage for the invention of calculus.
Figure A.5 shows a graph of the race between Achilles and the Tortoise. Using the data from Appendix
3 above, both of their positions are plotted versus time. Because the lines cross, it is shown that Achilles
must catch the Tortoise.
Figure A.6 gives a proof of the Pythagorean heorem using analytical geometry.
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21.5
Appendices
Appendix 5 – Calculus
Y = f(x); y is a function of x is the essence of basic algebra. Symbol manipulation, associated with
arithmetic, unleashes the power to describe phenomena, to reference and relate one phenomenon
to another. Mathematically, the syllogism was our irst method of combining information to derive
new information. With algebra, it becomes possible to construct proofs, formulas and equations and
manipulate them to make new discoveries much the same way that grammar allows us to combine words
into sentences and sentences into essays.
Ininity, even as introduced by so simple a concept as Zeno’s Paradoxes, poses a major challenge to
mathematics. How can we deal with functions when values approach ininity, or in some cases, when
they approach zero? (See Figure A.7.) his igure shows graphically the behavior of some functions as
they approach a limit.
However, for many functions, we cannot determine algebraically how they will behave at a limit. his
is the problem that Calculus solves for Algebra. Calculus is, in many ways, is easier to think about than
algebra. In a sense, calculus is just algebra carried to the limit of Zeno’s ininite series and ininitesimal
steps.
Consider a straight line: y = f(x) = mx + b where m and b are constants, called, respectively, the slope
and the intercept. In our algebraic treatment of Zeno, the speed of the tortoise was the slope (m) and
the starting point in the race was the intercept(b).
For any line, straight or otherwise, we can approximate the slope over an interval as: Δy/Δx. For example,
as you drive your car along the highway, the speedometer indicates the momentary speed. You can
calculate the average speed by dividing a distance by the time it takes. If we travel 60 miles in one hour,
our average speed is 60 miles per hour. Likewise, if we travel 30 miles in one-half an hour, our average
speed is 60 miles per hour. he speedometer might range from 45 to 70 during the trip so the average is
only approximately correct at any given moment. As we shorten the time interval, the calculated slope
becomes closer to the instantaneous slope.
he exact slope at any point would be: G\G[ /LPǻ\ǻ[
ǻ[ĺ
he limit of Δy/Δx, as we make the x interval shorter and shorter and inally zero, is called the derivative,
dy/dx. Diferential calculus is a method of inding these limits (or derivatives).
Consider the straight line, y = mx + b. We know that the limit, that is the slope, must be m at all times.
But, let’s see how we would arrive at this by calculus.
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ǻ\ \ǻ\ \ P [ǻ[ E± P[E P[Pǻ[EP[E
Pǻ[
G\G[ /LPǻ\ǻ[ /LPPǻ[ǻ[ /LP ǻ[ǻ[ P /LPP P
ǻ[ĺǻ[ĺǻ[ĺǻ[ĺ
While the above solution is trivial, since we already knew the answer, it is instructive. We can use this
same delta method on functions that are not linear and do not have obvious solutions.
Consider the parabola that a cannon ball describes. Algebraically this is described as:
y = ax2 + bx + c where x is the distance the ball has traveled and y is its height above the ground.
he slope is continuously changed. At irst, dy/dx is positive and the cannon ball is rising above the
Earth. But, gravity decreases the ball’s upward velocity eventually stopping the climb and for an instant
the slope (change of height with distance) is zero. hen, the slope becomes more and more negative as
the ball falls ever more rapidly to the Earth.
From the equation above, we can calculate the height, y, at any distance, x. We can also estimate the
slope over any interval by calculating two diferent y’s for two diferent x’s and computing the ratio to
give Δy/Δx. But from algebra, we cannot calculate the slope at an instantaneous value of x because Δx=
0. Nor can we calculate at what x the ball will be highest nor what that height will be. We can, however,
determine all of these using calculus.
First we need to determine dy/dx for any x by taking the limit of Δy/Δx as Δx→0. We use the same
trick as above to accomplish this.
Δy/Δx = {(y+Δy)-y}/Δx
We use the function: y = f(x) = ax2 + bx + c and solve for y+Δy and y.
y+Δy = f(x+Δx) = a(x+Δx)2 + b(x+Δx) + c = ax2 + 2axΔx + a(Δx)2
+ bx + bΔx + c
y = ax2 + bx + c
hen
y + Δy – y = ax2 + 2axΔx + a(Δx)2 + bx + bΔx + c – ax2 – bx – c
y + Δy – y = 2axΔx + a(Δx)2 + bΔx
Next Δy/Δx = {(y+Δy)-y}/Δx = {2axΔx + bΔx + a(Δx)2}/Δx
Δy/Δx = 2ax + b + aΔx
Finally dy/dx = Lim Δy/Δx = 2ax + b
Δx→0
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Now we can, using calculus, calculate the slope (dy/dx) at any value of x; the slope is just 2ax + b. And,
we can calculate the value of y at any point, as we always have because y = ax2 + bx + c. Finally, we want
to know the values of x and y when the cannon ball is at its maximum height. We will call these xmax
and ymax. his is easy to determine because the maximum height will occur at the x position when the
slope is zero, that is, when the cannon ball’s upward motion has been stopped by gravity, and dy/dx = 0.
at ymax, dy/dx = 2axmax + b = 0
and xmax = -b/2a
Finally, this value of xmax, -b/2a, can be used to calculate ymax.
ymax = axmax2 + bxmax + c
ymax = a(-b/2a)2 + b(-b/2a) + c
ymax = a(b2/4a2) – b2/2a + c
ymax = b2/4a – b2/2a + c
ymax = b2/4a – 2b2/4a + c
ymax = -b2/4a + c
In summary, we started out with an analytical equation for a parabola: y = ax2 + bx + c. We then
diferentiated this equation to produce the diferential equation: dy/dx = 2ax + b
In calculus, if we can diferentiate, as we’ve done by the delta method, we can integrate. his is important
because in many situations in nature, we can write the diferential equation but not the analytical function
that it represents. For example, when Newton realized that acceleration is constant, that is the rate of
change of a falling object is constant (g) then he could write the equation: V = gt, where V = velocity,
t = time, and g is a constant.
But V (velocity) = dy/dt. hat is, velocity is the change of position, y, with time. So we write the diferential
equation: dy/dt = gt. It is beyond the scope of this presentation to show how we do it, but we can integrate
this equation and get y = 1/2gt2. (You can apply the delta method of diferentiation and show that you
get the original diferential equation back.) he result of this equation (constant acceleration) is that the
distance an object falls is proportional to the square of the time it falls.
Now that we can use calculus to do simple diferentiation, we are inally in a position to show the law
in Zeno’s logic. Let’s deal with the form of Zeno’s paradox about walking across the room. Zeno would
have us divide the path into smaller and smaller steps until we are taking ininitely small steps, each of
which, of course, takes an ininitely short time. To get across the room, therefore, we must make ininite
number of ininitesimal steps. (Remember Euclid’s second proposition: a line has an ininite number of
points. Hence one must conclude that each point is of ininitesimal size.)
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Deine the distance across the room as X, and the size of each step as ΔX.
To cross the room in one step: ΔX = X and 1 × ΔX = X.
To cross the room in two steps: ΔX = X/2 and 2 × ΔX = 2 × X/2 = X.
To cross the room in three steps: ΔX = X/3 and 3 × ΔX = 3 × X/3 = X.
To cross the room in n steps: ΔX = X/n and n × ΔX = n × X/n = X.
Zeno challenges us by making the steps smaller and smaller until they become ininitesimal. We must
answer the question of what is the value of nΔX at the limit when ΔX→0? (Note: as ΔX →0, n →∞.)
/LPQǻ; /LP^Q ;Q ` /LP^ QQ ;` /LP; ;
ǻ;ĺǻ;ĺǻ;ĺǻ;ĺ
Notice, the key is that n/n = 1, no matter how large n becomes. he limit of (n/n) as ΔX→0 (or n →∞) is 1.
Given the marvelous tool of calculus that he invented, Newton was able to calculate such things are
orbits by showing what the curvature of the path of an object like the Moon becomes as it constantly
changes direction due to the Earth’s gravitational ield. While calculus can become very complex, just
like music and literature, it still relies upon these fundamental methods of dealing with problems that
generate ininities and zeros that cannot be treated by conventional algebraic or geometric methods.
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21.6
Appendices
Appendix 6 – Statistics
Statistics can be used for analyzing noisy data. For example, if you had several people measure your
height in centimeters (cm), you might get results like this: 176, 178, 177, 176, 179, 177, 177, 174, 175,
175 cm. (1 inch = 2.54 cm. You are about 5 feet 10 inches tall.) How would you determine the correct,
or at least best, answer?
Statistics developed out of probability theory. he mathematics of the 17th and 18th century laid the
foundation for modern statistics. Let’s treat the problem above in a standard way. If we assume, and
this assumption is very important, that the diference in the numbers is caused by random errors, we
can analyze the distribution of results. he binomial theorem tells us the results of a large number of
random errors having equal probability of increasing or decreasing the true value. he following curve
shows the binomial distribution. (See Figure below.)
http://www.comfsm.fm/~dleeling/statistics/normal_curve.gif
In this igure, μ is the mean (or average) value, and σ is the standard deviation. If we call xi the ith of n
values, then μ = Σxi/n and σ = √[Σ(xi – μ)2/(n-1)]. In this case, μ = 176.4 cm and σ = 1.5 cm. From the
igure, we can see that 68.2% of the results will lie between μ – σ and μ + σ. his means that we have a
68.2% conidence that the answer is in the range 176.4 ± 1.5. Further, we can have a 95.4% conidence
that the answers lie in the range 176.4 ± 3.0 and a conidence of 99.7% that the answer lies in the range
176.4 ± 4.5. But we can never have 100% conidence!
he binomial distribution is oten called a normal, or Gaussian, distribution. However, there are subtle
diferences between the binomial and Gaussian distributions.
here are several important issues to consider in using statistical interpretation of data. One is that there
are distributions other than the binomial distribution. his becomes particularly important in dealing
with subatomic phenomena. Most distributions, however, give similar error values and, when dealing
with social science data, the distribution choice is not very important, so usually use the binomial
distribution because of its simplicity.
In using statistical analysis there are two other important issues. he irst assumption is that the error
is random. here are also systematic errors which simple statistics cannot detect. For example, suppose
the tape measure used by everyone to measure your height was not accurate. No amount of statistical
analysis can deal with this kind of systematic error. If the tape measure was supposed to be 100 cm
long and it was actually only 90 cm long, every measure would be too large and so would be the mean.
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he second assumption is that random sampling has taken place. For example, in taking polling data, it is
assumed that a random sample of the population has been measured. It is necessary to do independent,
complex analysis to guarantee the randomness of sampling. Simply surveying the students in this class
would not be an accurate measurement of the students at this university. he students at the class were
available at this time, needed or wanted to take this class, etc. hat would not be true of the student
body in general.
While statistical analysis is the main stay of many areas of social science research, particularly
psychometrics, it is also important in physical and biological science. Epidemiology, statistical mechanics,
and other areas depend extensively on the mathematics of probability and statistics.
21.7
Appendix 7 – Boolean Algebra and Set Theory
In the 19th century, an English mathematician, George Boole, invented an algebraic form of logic.
Boole’s seminal publication was Mathematical Analysis of Logic (1847) which founded Boolean algebra
or symbolic logic. Until this time, Aristotle’s formal logic was considered a branch of philosophy. Boole
showed that it could also be represented mathematically.
Boole found a way to turn Aristotle’s formal logic into a mathematical form where the symbols could
be manipulated.
If 1 = True and 0 = False, then we have logical operations such as A ∩ B, where ∩ represents the logical
operator AND. Boolean operations then become:
Boolean Operator
Logic Equivalent
1+1=1
True AND True = True
1+0=0
True AND False = False
0+1=0
False AND True = False
0+0=0
False AND False = False
Digital switching devices are easily designed to perform all Booelan functions. Hence with Boolean
algebra it becomes very convenient to do logic.
All numbers can be represented the base 2 (binary) number system. For example, 1101 is binary for
13. (1 × 23 + 1 × 22 + 0 × 21 + 1 × 20 or 8 + 4 + 0 + 1 = 13.) Using Boolean algebra is it easy to design a
mechanical way to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of binary numbers. Binary
numbers are much more easily represented in mechanical and electronic systems then the numbers to
the base 10 that we naturally use, presumably because we have ten ingers and starting counting this way.
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Binary numbers can be represented by a set of circuits, each representing a power of two, which can
be turned on or of. his maps directly into logical expressions by considering an on circuit as true and
an of circuit as false. Simple electronic devices can be constructed to accomplish AND, OR and NOT
logical operations. he entire computer revolution is based upon Boolean algebra.
Set theory, which is another important way to describe systems, also arises directly from Boole’s work.
Georg Cantor, a Russian born mathematician who moved to Germany at an early age, developed the
basic relationships between objects and their memberships in sets.
Just as we have logical operators such as AND to determine commonness between individual objects,
Set heory has operators such as the union of two sets that determines their common members, etc. Set
theory has many applications in other areas of mathematics and is also important in areas of theoretical
physics and chemistry.
21.8
Appendix 8 – The Ancients Revisited – Titus Lucretius Carus
Titus Lucretius Carus, or Lucretius, as he is known, lived from about 99 BCE to about 55 BCE. He was
a Roman Poet who wrote De Rerum Natura, On the Nature of the hings. his epic poem was written to
free Romans of superstition and fear of death.
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Lucretius, worried that his Roman colleagues could no longer read the Greek philosophers and scientists,
translated their works into his Latin poem of six books for their ediication. here are several English
translations.
Out of personal interest, I have deined what I think are the 12 greatest discoveries of science. (I started
out to make a list of 10 but it became too hard to eliminate the last 2 and I ended up with 12.) hen I
used On the Nature of hings to determine what the Greeks had to say on each of these topics. Finally
I scored the Greek performance rating their knowledge on each discovery as: 2 – good understanding;
1– partial understanding; and 0 – no understanding. Here is my list of discoveries and my rating of the
Greek understanding based on Lucretius.
HELIOCENTRICITY(2) – Aristarchus of Samos (ca 310 to 230 bc), a student of Aristotle, measured
the relative sizes of the Sun, Moon, and Earth, worked out their masses and concluded that the Earth
went around the much heavier Sun.
THE CELL(0) – Could not be discovered before invention of microscope.
MECHANICS(2) – “Give me a lever and a place to stand and I shall more the Earth.” Archimedes. (He
also worked out Law of the Lever.)
NATURAL HISTORY(2) – “…it is in the highest degree unlikely that this Earth and sky is the only
one to have been created and that all those particles of matter outside are accomplishing nothing. his
follows from the fact that our world has been made by nature through the spontaneous and casual
collision and the multifarious, accidental, random and purposeless congregation and coalescence of atoms
whose suddenly formed combinations could serve on each occasion as the starting-point of substantial
fabrics – Earth and sea and sky and the races of living creatures. On every ground, therefore, you must
admit that there exist elsewhere other clusters of matter similar to this one which the ether clasps in
ardent embrace.” Lucretius
UNIFORMITARIANISM(2) – Lucretius points out that the wind is due to un-seeable particles; the
Earth is molded by wind and rain; the Earth, sun and stars are constructed from condensing atoms; the
oceans, although fed by rivers do not increase in size because water is lost to the sky; he slips a little by
claiming volcanoes are formed by underground winds, although I suppose you could call the luid forces
of the magma a kind of wind. At least he was sure they weren’t caused by demons.
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Appendices
ATOMIC THEORY(2) – “Material objects are of two kinds, atoms and compounds of atoms. he
atoms themselves cannot be swamped by any force for they are preserved indeinitely by their absolute
solidity.” “While there are many atoms of the same kind, there are also diferent kinds.” “he number
of diferent kinds of atoms is inite.” “Nature resolves everything into its component atoms and never
reduces anything to nothing.”
ELECTROMAGNETISM(1) – “Sunlight moves faster in empty space than it moves through air.”
“Lightning is composed of smaller atoms and can pass through other substances.” Lucretius also explains
magnets attracting iron by a particle process. i.e. he had the concept of force ields which, as in quantum
mechanics, requires particles. Lucretius also points out that particular incidences of light give rise to
diferent colors.
EVOLUTION(2) – Lucretius’s Book Five is on Cosmology and Sociology. “For the nature of the world
as a whole is altered by age. Everything must pass through successive phases. Nothing remains for ever
what it was. Everything is on the move. Everything is transformed by nature and forced into new paths.
One thing, withered by time, decays and dwindles. Another grows strong and emerges from ignominy.
So the nature of the world as a whole is altered by age. he Earth passes through successive phases…”
“monstrous and misshapen births were created. But all in vain. Nature debarred them from increase.
hey could not gain the coveted lower of maturity nor procure food nor be coupled by the arts of Venus.
For it is evident that many contributory factors are essential to be able to force the chain of a species in
procreation. First, it must have a food-supply. hen…”
THERMODYNAMICS(1) – “Nothing is ever created out of nothing.”
GENETICS(2) – “Seeds are required to produce plants, animals and man.” “Everything grows gradually
from a speciic seed and retains its speciic character.” “Children you see of a two-sided likeness,
combining features of both mother and father…” “…children…recall features of great-grandparents.”
“…latent seeds, grouped in many combinations from an ancestral stock handed down from generation
to generation.” “…evokes a random assortment of characters,…voice or hair; for these characters are
determined by speciic seeds…” “…the embryo is always composed of atoms from both sources, only it
derives more than half from the parent it more closely resembles.”
RELATIVITY(1) – “Similarly, time by itself does not exist;…It must not be claimed that anyone can
sense time by itself apart from the movement of things or their restful immobility.”
QUANTUM MECHANICS(1) – “When the atoms are traveling straight down through empty space by
their own weight, at quite indeterminate times and places they swerve ever so little from their course.”
“If atoms never swerve so as to snap the bonds of fate…what is the source of free will possessed by
living things…?”
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Appendices
Summary
Discovery
Rating
HELIOCENTRICITY
2
THE CELL
0
MECHANICS
2
NATURAL HISTORY
2
UNIFORMITARIANISM
2
ATOMS & ELEMENTS
2
ELECTROMAGNETISM
1
EVOLUTION
2
THERMODYNAMICS
1
GENETICS
2
RELATIVITY
1
QUANTUM MECHANICS
1
TOTAL SCORE = 18/24 Not bad for 2200 years ago.
homas L. Isenhour
May 31, 2013
AXA Global
Graduate Program
Find out more and apply
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Appendices
Figure A.1 Circle inscribed in square.
It is axiomatic that the area of a circle inscribed in a square is smaller than the area of the square.
Figure A.2 Marking the end of a board at a 45-degree angle.
To mark the board and cut a 45° angle, irst measure the end, A, and then measure an equal distance
from the end on one side, B. Connecting from the ends of A and B gives a 45° angle. he side of the
board to the end is a right angle (90°) and, since the two sides of the triangle are equal, the other two
angles are also equal. A triangle has a total of 180° and that means that each of the other two angles
must be (180°–90°)/2 = 45°.
308
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Appendices
Figure A.3 Two and Three-Dimensional Coordinate Systems
Each coordinate, (X and Y or X, Y, and X), is at a right angle (90°) to each of the other coordinates. On a
2 – dimensional surface, knowing X and Y completely deines the location of a point. In 3 – dimensional
space, knowing X, Y and z completely deines the location of a point.
Figure A.4 Body in perfect circular orbit.
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Appendices
Momentum carries the body forward (X – axis) while gravity accelerates the body downward (Y – axis).
he combined forces – measured as vectors – causes the body to move in an arc. If the combination is
correct, the body will travel in a circle or perfect orbit.
ĐŚŝůůĞƐǀƐ͘dŽƌƚŽŝƐĞ
^ĞƌŝĞƐϭ
^ĞƌŝĞƐϮ
dŽƌƚŽŝƐĞ
ĐŚŝůůĞƐ
dŝŵĞ;ŚŽƵƌƐͿ
Figure A.5 Achilles racing the Tortoise.
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The Evolution of Modern Science
Appendices
Achilles runs at 25 km/hr and the Tortoise at 5 km/hr. he Tortoise has a 10 km head start. Ater 0.5
hours, they are at the same place.
Figure A.6 Proof of Pythagorean Theorem
1. Draw Outer Square.
2. Divide each side into two unequal segments, a and b. (herefore Side of Outer
Square = a + b.)
3. Draw Inner Square from division points on each side.
4. Label internal side of Inner Square c.
5. A Right Triangle is deined by sides a, b, and c.
6. Area of the Triangle = ab/2.
7. Area of Outer Square = (a + b)2
8. Area of Outer Square = Area of Inner Square + 4 x Area of Triangle
9. Area of Outer Square = c2 + 4ab/2
herefore:
10. (a + b)2 = c2 + 4ab/2
11. a2 + 2ab + b2 = c2 + 2ab
12. a2 + b2 = c2
Y = 1/(X+1)
as X → 0, y → 1
as X → ∞, Y → 0
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Appendices
zсϭͬ;yнϭͿ
ϭϬϬ
ϳϱ
ϱϬ
ϯϱ
z
Ϯϱ
ϮϬ
ϭϳ
y
ϭϰ
ϭϮ
Figure A.7 Graphs of functions.
M = M0/(1 – V2/C2)1/2
as V/C → 0, M → M0
as V/C → 1, M → ∞
zсϭͬ;yнϭͿ
ϭϬϬ
ϳϱ
ϱϬ
ϯϱ
z
Ϯϱ
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y
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312
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The Evolution of Modern Science
Bibliography
22 Bibliography
Alioto, Anthony M., History of Western Science, 2nd Ed., Prentice Hall, Englewood Clifs, New Jersey, 1987.
Asimov, Isaac, How Did we Find Out the Earth is Round, Walker & Company, United States of America,
1972.
Boorstin, Daniel J., he Discoverers, Vintage Books, New York, 1985.
Bragg, Melvyn, On Giant’s Shoulders: Great Scientists and heir Discoveries, John Wiley and Sons, London,
2000.
Carson, Rachel, Silent Spring, Houghton Milin, Boston, 1962.
Copernicus, Nicholaus, On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres, Prometheus Books, New York, 1995.
Darwin, Charles – Carroll, Joseph, On the Origin of Species, Broadview Press, Ontario, Canada, 2003.
Dobbs, Betty Jo Teeter, & Jacob, Margaret C., Newton and the Culture of Newtonianism, Humanities Press
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Eves, Howard, Great Moments in Mathematics Before 1650, Math. Assoc. of America, United States of
America, 1983.
Eves, Howard, Great Moments in Mathematics Ater 1650, Math. Assoc. of America, United States of
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Fischer, Robert B., Science, Man and Society, W.B. Saunders, Philadelphia, 1971.
Galileo, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, University of California Press, Berkeley,
California, 1953.
Gould, Stephen Jay, Ever Since Darwin, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1973.
Gribbin, John & Gribbin, Mary, Richard Feynman – A Life in Science, Penquin, New York, 1998.
Hager, Tom, Linus Pauling, Oxford University Press, New York, 1988.
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The Evolution of Modern Science
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Hal Hellman, Great Feuds in Science: Ten of the Liveliest Debates Ever, John Wiley and Sons, New York,
2001.
Humes, Edward, Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America’s Soul, Harper
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Jafe, Bernard, Crucibles: he Story of Chemistry, Dover, New York, 1930.
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Leopold, Aldo, A Sand County Almanac, Oxford University Press, New York, 1949.
Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe, Johns Hopkins Press, London, 1995.
Lurie, Edward, Louis Agassiz – A Life in Science, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1960.
Marks, John, SCIENCE and the Making of the Modern World, Heinemann, London, 1983.
Morgan, Michael Hamilton, Lost History, the Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, thinkers, and Artist,
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Newton, Isaac, he Principia, Prometheus Books, New York, 1995.
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Porter, Duncan M. & Graham, Peter W. Ed., he Portable Darwin, Penguin, USA, 1993.
Quammen, David, he Reluctant Mr. Darwin, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, 2006.
Sagan, Carl, he Demon-Haunted World, Ballantine Books, New York, 1996.
Singh, Simon, Big Bang, Harper Perennial, New York, 2004.
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Stein, Sherman, Archimedes – What Did he Do Besides… Math. Assoc. Of America, United States of
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Watson, James D, he Double Helix, Atheneum Publishers, New York, 1968.
Weinberg, Steven, First hree Minutes, HarperCollins, New York, 1977.
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315
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The Evolution of Modern Science
Endnotes
23 Endnotes
1.
Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America’s Soul, Humes, Edward,
Harper Collins, New York, 2007.
2.
Pappus VIII. p. 1060 (ed. Hults).
3.
he Demon-Haunted World, Sagan, Carl, Ballantine Books, New York, 1996.
4.
First hree Minutes, Weinberg, Steven, HarperCollins, New York, 1977, pp. 154–155.
5.
Lost History, the Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, thinkers, and Artist, Morgan, Michael
Hamilton, National Geographic, Washington, DC, 2007, p. 112.
6.
Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love, Sobel, Dava, Walker &
Company, New York, 1999.
7.
A History of Western Science, Alioto, Anthony, 2nd ed., Prentice Hall, Englewood Clifs, New
Jersey, 1987, p. 218.
8.
SCIENCE and the Making of the Modern World, Marks, John, Heinemann, London, 1983, p. 49.
9.
Principia Philosophiae, Descartes, Rene, 1644.
10. Principia, Newton, Isaac, 1687, Translated by Andrew Motte, 1729.
11. he Copernican Revolution, Kuhn, homas, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1957.
12. Isaac Newton, letter to Robert Hooke, 1676.
13. Elements of Chemistry, Lavoisier, Antoine,1789, translated by Robert Kerr, 1790.
14. Diderot, D., L’Interpretation de la Nature, (1754); quoted in Buchdahl, G., he Image of Newton
and Locke in the Age of Reason, (London: Sheed and Ward, 1961), pp. 80–1.
15. he Social Contract, Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 1762.
16. A History of Western Science, Alioto, Anthony, 2nd ed., Prentice Hall, Englewood Clifs, New
Jersey, 1987, p. 194.
17. Elements of Chemistry, Lavoisier, Antoine,1789, translated by Robert Kerr, 1790.
18. Method of Chemical Nomenclature, Lavoisier, Antoine, 1787.
19. Crucibles: he Story of Chemistry, Jafe, Bernard, 4th ed., Dover, New York, 1976, p. 92.
20. Experimental Enquiry into the Proportion of the Several Gases or Elastic Fluids, Constituting the
Atmosphere, Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, 1, 244-58 (1805),
Read Nov. 12, 1802.
21. CRUCIBLES: THE STORY OF CHEMISTRY, Jafe, Bernard, 4th ed., Dover, New York, 1976, p. 99.
22. Ibid. p. 131.
23. Review: [untitled}, Sarton, G., Isis, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Jan., 1934), p. 273.
24. Maxwell, James Clerk, “On Physical Lines of Force,” Philosophical Magazine, 21, 1861, pp. 20–4.
25. Morse, Samuel B., irst electric telegraph message sent from Washington, DC to Baltimore on
May 24, 1844.
26. Williams, L. Pearce, ed. he Selected Correspondence of Michael Faraday, vol. 2, Letter 670,
Cambridge University Press, London, 1971, pp. 881–883.
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Endnotes
27. Williams, L. Pearce, ed. he Selected Correspondence of Michael Faraday, vol. 2, Letter 670,
Cambridge University Press, London, 1971, pp. 881-883.
28. homson, William, On the age of the sun’s heat, Macmillan’s Mag., 5, 288-93; PL, 1, 394-68
(1862).
29. Darwin, Charles, he Autobiography of Charles Darwin, John Murray, London, 1876.
30. Wallace, Alfred Russel, My Life: A Record of Events and Opinions, 1905.
31. Darwin, Charles, letter to Charles Lyell, June 18, 1858.
32. Gould, Stephen Jay, Ever Since Darwin, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, 1977, pp. 24–5.
33. Gould, Stephen Jay, Ever Since Darwin, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, 1977, p. 37.
34. Lincoln-Douglas debate for an Illinois seat in United States Senate, Charleston, Illinois,
September 15, 1858.
35. Darwin, Charles, he Autobiography of Charles Darwin, John Murray, London, 1876,
pp. 238–9.
36. Gould, Stephen Jay, Ever Since Darwin, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, 1977, p. 33.
37. Lurie, Edward, Louis Agassiz – A Life in Science, abridged edition, University of Chicago Press,
Chicago, 1960, p. 255.
38. Ibid., p. 260.
39. Ibid., p. 264.
40. Ibid. p. 261.
41. A Free Examination of Darwin’s Treatise on the Origin of Species and of its American Reviewers,
Gray, Asa, Reprinted from the Atlantic Monthly for July, August, and October, 1860, Trubner &
Co., London, 1861.
42. Karl Max letter to Ferdinand Lassalle, January 16, 1861.
43. A History of Western Science, Alioto, Anthony, 2nd ed., Prentice Hall, Englewood Clifs, New
Jersey, 1987, pp. 296–7.
44. he Future of an Illusion, Freud, Sigmund, 1927.
45. Francis Galton: he Life and Work of a Victorian Genius, Forrest, D.W., Taplinger, New York,
1974, p. 189.
46. Calvin, J., Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 vols, Battles, F.L. (trans.) London: SCM (1961/2).
47. James Woodrow, Evolution, An Address Delivered May 7th, 1884, Before the Alumni of the
Presbyterian Seminary of Columbia, South Carolina.
48. Evolution and Dogma, Zahm, John Augustine, 1896.
49. Social Statics, Herbert Spencer, Pt. II, Ch. 17, he Rights of Children, 1851.
50. Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie, Carnegie, Andrew, Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1920.
51. John D. Rockfeller was reported to have said this in a Sunday-school address.
52. What Social Classes Owe to Each Other, Sumner, William Graham, Harper & Brothers, 1883.
53. he Quantum Mechanics of Black Holes, Hawking, Stephen, Scientiic American, 236, 1977, p. 40.
54. Microscopical Researches into the Accordance in the Structure and Growth of Animals and Plants,
Schwann, heodor, 1839, Trans. Smith, Henry, he Sydenham Society, London, 1847.
317
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Endnotes
55. Experiments in Plant-hybridisation, Mendel, G., 1866, trans. Mendel’s Principles of Heredity,
Bateson, W., Cambridge, 1902.
56. Ibid.
57. Ibid.
58. Ibid.
59. Ibid.
60. Crucibles: he Story of Chemistry, Jafe, Bernard, 4th ed., Dover, New York, 1976, pp. 245–6.
61. Letter for Giford Pinchot from James Wilson, reported to have been written by Pinchot himself,
March 3, 1905.
62. Conservation in the Progressive Era, Stradling, David, University of Washington, Seattle, 2004.
63. Silent Spring, Carson, Rachel, Houghton Milin, Boston, 1962, p. 16.
64. he Essential Darwin, Jastrow, Robert, General Editor, Little Brown & Company, Canada, 1984.
318
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