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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 071 902 SE 015 539 TITLE Project Physics Reader 5,Models of theAtom. INSTITUTION Harvard Univ., Cambridge,Miss. HarvardProject Physics. SPONS AGENCY Office of Education (DHEW) Washington,D.C. Bureau of Research. BUREAU NO BR-5-1038 PUB DATE 68 CONTRACT OEC-5-10-058 NOTE 272p.; Authorized TnterimVersion EDRS PRICE MF-$0.65 HC -$9.87 DESCRIPTORS *Atomic Theory; Instructional Materials; *Physics; Quantum Mechanics; Reading Materials; Relativity; Science Materials; Secondary Grades; *Secondary School Science; *Supplementary Reading Materials IDENTIFIERS Harvard Project Physics ABSTRACT As a supplement to Project Physics Unit 5,a collection of articles is presented in this reader for student browsing. Nine excerpts are given under the following headings: failure and success, Einstein, Mr. Tompkins and simultaneity,parable of the surveyors, outside and inside the elevator, the teacherand the Bohr theory of atom, Dirac and Born, the sea-captain'sbox, and looking for a new law. Six book passages are selected from related publications to deal with aspects of Thomson's model, mathematical representation of relativity, introductory quantum mechanics, . Schrodingex's work, moon explorers' discoveries concerned with the island of research, relativity, possibility of inadequacies in education policies, evolution of physicist's picture of nature, fundamentals of wave mechanics, and physical and engineering problems in space travel, Illustrations are included for explanationpurposes. The work of Harvard Project Physics has been financially supported by: the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation,the United States Office of Education, and Harvard University. (CC) zObLi...003 This reader is the' authorized interim version ofone of the many instr'uctional materials being, developed by Harvard Project Physib, including text units, laboratory experiments, and teacher guides.Its development has profited from the help of many'of the colleagues listed ,at the front of the text units. Copyright() 1968, Project Physics Incorporated. (..Copyright is claimed until. April 1,1969. After April 1, 1969, all portions of this work not identified hereinas the subject of previous copyright.shdfl 'be in the public domain. The authorized interim version of the Harvard Profe.ct Physitscourse is being distributed at cost by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. by arrangement with Projecr ii'hyics Incorporated,a non-profit educational organization. r. All persons making use ofany pert of these materials are requested to acknowledge the source and the financial support given to Project Physics by the agencies named below, and to include a statement thafthe publkation of such material is not necessarily endorsed by Harvard Project Physics or any 9f the authors of this work. ; The work of Harvard Project Physics has been financially supported by the Carnegie Corporation of NeW York, the Ford Fou,ndation, the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the United States Office of Edi:ia'ation and Harva 'rd University. Consult the Project Physics text fora partial- list of the current and recent staff, consultants and advisorycorn- m ittee . r , 03- 073510 -6 I 90123 69 9876S432 Project Physics Reader An Introduction to Physics5Models of the Atom Authorized Interim Version 1968-69 Distribute,: by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, inc. New YorkToronto This is not a physics textbook.Rather, it is a physics reader, r col!ection of some of the best articles and book passages on physics. A few areon historic events in scien-.e, others contain some particularly memorable descript on of what physicists do; still others deal with philosophy of science, or with the impact of scientific thought c' the imagination of the artist. There are old and new classics, and also some little- known publications; many have been suggested for in- clusion because some teacher or physicist remembered an article with particular fondness. The majority of articles is not drawn from scientific papers of historic importance themselves, because material from many of these is readily available, either as quotations in the Project Physics text or in special collections. This collection is meant for your browsing.If you follow your own reading interests, chances are good that you will find here many pages that convey the by these authors have in their work and the excitement of their ideas.If you want to follow up on interesting excerpts, the source list at the end of the reader will guide you for further reading. 1 Failure and Success 1 Charles Percy Snow An excerpt from his novel The Search, published in 1934 and 1958. 2 Structure, Substructure, Superstructure 13 Cyril Stanley Smith Chapter from Structure in Art and in Science, edited by Gyorgy Kepes, published in 1965 3 The Island of Research 26 Ernest Harburg 1966 4 The "Thomson" Atom 27 J. J Thomson Chapter from the book, The World of the Atom, edited by H A Boorse and L Motz, published in 1966 5 Einstein 39 Leopold Infeld Excerpts from his book, Quest, The Evolution of a Scientist, published in 1941 6 Mr Tompkins and Simultaneity 59 George Garnow Excerpt from his book, Mr Tompkins In Paperback, published in 1965 7 Mathematics and Relativity 65 Eric M. Rogers Chapter from his textbook, Physics for the Inquiring Mind, 1960 8 Relativity 98 Anonymous A limerick published in 1955 9 Parable of the Surveyors 99 Edwin F Taylor and John Archibald Wheeler Excerpt from their book, Space. 'me Physics, W H Freeman and Company Copyright @1966 10 Outside and Inside the Elevator 105 Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld Excerpt from their book, The Evolution of Physics, 1938 and 1961 11 Einstein and some Civilized Discontents 115 Martin Klein Article from the journal, Physics Today, January 1965 12 The Teacher and the Bohr Theory of the Atom 121 Charles Percy Snow An excerpt from his novel The Search, published in 1934 and 1958 13 The New Landscape of Science 125 Banesh Hoffmann Chapter from his book, The Strange Story of the Quantum, 1959 14 The Evolution of the Physicist's Picture of Nature 151 Paul A M. Dirac Popular article published in 1963 15 Dirac and Born 161 Leopold Infeld Excerpt from Quest 16 I am this Whole World: Erwin Schrbdinger 171 Jeremy Bernstein Chapter from Bernstein's book, A Comprehensible World On Modern Science and its Origins, published In 1961 17 The Fundamental Idea of Wave Mechanics '81 Erwin Schrodinger Schrodinge's Nobel Prize lecture given in December 1933 18 The Sentinel 193 Arthur C Clarke Chapter from his book, Expedition to Earth, 1953 19 The Sea-Captain's Box 205 John L Synge Excerpt from his book, Science Sense and Nonsense, published in 1951 20 Space Travel: Problems of Physics and Engineering 221 Harvard Project Physics Staff 1960 21 Looking for a New Law 245 Richard P. Feynman Excerpt from his book, The Character of Physical Law, publishedi.) 1965. o Failure and Success Charles Percy Snow Almost as soon as I took up the problem again, it struck me in a new light. All my other attempts have been absurd, I thought: if I turn them down and make anotherguess, then what? The guess didn't seem probable; butnone of the others was any good at all. According tomy guess, the structure was very different from anything one would have imagined; but that must be true, since the obviousstructure didn't fit any of my facts. Soon I was designingstructures 1 with little knobs of plasticine for atoms and steel wiresto hold them together; I made up the oldones, for comparison's sake, and then I built my newone, which looked very odd, very different from any structure I had ever seen. Yet Iwas excited"I think it works," I said, "I think itworks." For I had brought back to mindsome calculations of the scattering curves, assuming various models. None ofthe values had been anything like the truth. Isaw at once that the new structure ought to give something muchnearer. Hurriedly I calculated: it was a long and tiresome andcom- plicated piece of arithmetic, but I rushed throughit, making mistakes through impatience and havingto go over it again. I was startled when I got theanswer: the new model did not give perfect agreement, but itwas far closer than any of the others. So far as I remember, the real value at one point was 1.32, my previous three modegave 1.i, 1.65 and 1.7, and thenew one just under 1.4. 'I'm on it, at last,' I thought.'It's a long shot, but I'm on it at last.' For a fortnight I sifted all the evidence fromthe experi- ments since I first attacked the problem. Therewere a great many tables of figures, and a pile of X-ray photographs (for in my new instrument inCambridge I was using a photographic detector); and I hadbeen through most of them so often that I knew them almost byheart. But I went through them again, more carefully thanever, trying to interpret them in the light of thenew structure.`If it's right,' I was thinking, 'then these figuresought to run up to a maximum and then run down quickly.' And they did, though the maximumwas less sharp than it should have been. And so on through experimentswhich repre- sented the work of over ayez, ; they all fitted th,t structure, with an allowance for a valuea shade too big here, a trifle too small there. There were obviously approximationsto make, I should have to modify thestructure a little, but that it was on the right lines Iwas certain. I walked to my 2 rooms to lunch one morning, overflowing with pleasure; I wanted to tell someone the news; I waved violently to a man whom I scarcely knew, riding by on a bicycle:I thought of sending a wire to Audrey, but decided to go and sec her on the following day instead: King's Parade seemed a particularly admirable street, and young men shouting across it were all admirable young men.I had a quick lunch;I wanted to bask in satisfaction, but insteadI hurried back to the laboratory so that I could have it all finished with no loose ends left, and then rest for a while.

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