Re: [Phys-L] Resources about "the atomic hypothesis"...

[Dan Schroeder <dschroeder@weber.edu>]

If they haven't all disabled Java on their browsers, they could play with this:

http://physics.weber.edu/schroeder/software/MDApplet.html

Cheers,

Dan


On Jan 23, 2013, at 10:00 AM, phys-l-request@phys-l.org wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
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>   1. Resources about "the atomic hypothesis"... (Jeff Loats)
>   2. Re: Resources about "the atomic hypothesis"... (John Denker)
>
> From: Jeff Loats <jeff.loats@gmail.com>
> Date: January 22, 2013 8:48:42 PM MST
> To: Forum for Physics Educators <Phys-L@phys-l.org>
> Subject: [Phys-L] Resources about "the atomic hypothesis"...
> Reply-To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
>
>
> Greetings!
>
> That line, "the atomic hypothesis" is a pulled from a famous quote by
> Feynman:
>
> "If, in some cataclysm, all scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and
> only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures, what
> statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe
> it is the *atomic hypothesis* (or atomic *fact*, or whatever you wish to
> call it) that *all things are made of atoms — little particles that move
> around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little
> distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another.*In that
> one sentence you will see an *enormous* amount of information about the
> world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied."
>
> Taken from here <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman>, in this
> case.
>
> I am planning to give a talk to an honors class about this idea and about
> how humans live on the wrong scale to be able to perceive this easily. As
> part of the talk I need to supply some kind of reading/viewing material for
> the students to engage with before hand.
>
> Does anyone know of a good lay-person level discussion of this in any
> format? Some rudimentary web searching didn't get me anywhere.
>
> Thanks for any suggestions you might have.
>
> Jeff
>
> --
> Jeff Loats, Ph.D. | Associate Professor
> Metropolitan State University of Denver | Department of Physics
> Office: NC 3123F
> Phone: 303-900-2175
> Email: jloats1@msudenver.edu or jeff.loats@gmail.com
> Website: www.msudenver.edu/physics/loats/
>
> "Knowing how to think empowers you far beyond those who know only what to
> think." ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson
>
>
>
>
> From: John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>
> Date: January 23, 2013 12:13:01 AM MST
> To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
> Subject: Re: [Phys-L] Resources about "the atomic hypothesis"...
> Reply-To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
>
>
> On 01/22/2013 08:48 PM, Jeff Loats wrote:
> > Does anyone know of a good lay-person level discussion of this in any
> > format? Some rudimentary web searching didn't get me anywhere.
> >
> > Thanks for any suggestions you might have.
>
> This is probably not exactly what you want, but parts of it
> might be useful:
>  ``Introduction to Atoms''
>  http://www.av8n.com/physics/atom-intro.htm
>
> In particular, a nice picture and other not-too-technical 
> evidence for the existence of atoms -- and the size of atoms -- 
> is at
>  http://www.av8n.com/physics/atom-intro.htm#sec-evidence
>
>
>
>
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