Table of Contents
This book is dedicated to the
Fannie and John Hertz Foundation
PREFACE
The idea for this book began over four decades ago when Edward Teller began teaching physics appreciation courses at the University of Chicago.
Then, as now, Dr. Teller believes that illiteracy in science is an increasingly great danger to American society, not only for our children but also for our growing adult population.
On one hand, the future of every individual on this globe is closely related to science and its applications. Fear of the results of science, which has become prevalent in much of the Western World, leads to mistaken decisions in important political affairs. But this book speaks of no fears and of no decisionsonly of the facts that can prevent one of them and indirectly guide the others.
From the perspective of this book, a second point is even more significant. The first quarter of this century has seen the most wonderful and philosophically most important transformation in our thinking. The intellectual and aesthetic values of the points of view of Einstein and Bohr cannot be overestimated. Nor should they be hidden at the bottom of tons of mathematical rubble.
Our young people must be exposed to science both because it is useful and because it is fun. Both of these qualities should be taken at a truly high value.
Adults should be interested in science because it is a part of our cultural heritage and because the new technologies that are entering our society should be understood by as many of us as is possible.
It is our hope that this book will enable many otherwise-educated adults to catch up on the new physics so that they can properly contribute to the dialogue on the scientific and technological decisions that will shape our future. Also, we invite them to join us in an appreciation in the sheer joy of science.
The reader will find that equations are used in the text. Some writers avoid any and all equations, fearing that they will frighten off readers. We have deliberately included them to summarize the words in the text, and the lay reader need not be afraid to glance at them and even make a small attempt to decode them (the key to the code is always provided in the text). Like the sketches which also illustrate the words in this book, equations should be thought of as a form of summary.
To capture the essence of his lectures, Dr. Teller and his daughter, Wendy, began working on a manuscript. (As you will see, the footnotes in the text sometimes contain a dialogue between ET and WT.) They were joined in their effort by Wilson Talley (who also appears in the footnotes, joining the original WT).
The precipitating event that led to the completion of this book was an action by the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation. The Foundation, established by the founder of the Hertz Corporation and the Yellow Cab Company, began a series of experiments in undergraduate education, including students at primary and secondary schools. Among other projects, it was decided that Dr. Teller would be supported in teaching an updated Physical Sciences Appreciation course to high school students and teachers in the Livermore Valley area of California. The course was sponsored by the Foundation, the University of California, Davis/Livermore Department of Applied Science, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. We are indebted to those literally hundreds of students, as well as the thousands who have heard Dr. Teller speak on the appreciation of science over the past decades.
Along the way to completing this book, we owe a particular debt to several individuals. Paul Teller, Edwards son, read portions of the manuscript. Joanne Smith, Patty French, and Judy Shoolery took dictation, typed, and retyped various parts. Helen Talley, Wilsons wife, entered much of the original manuscript into the Macintosh and then gamely read subsequent versions for intelligibility. Because the proof of concept of the book was the course given at Livermore, we should credit Sue Anderson, Matt DiMercurio, Tom Harper, Barbara Nichols, Jaci Nissen, Maria Parish, Kathryn Smith, and Charlie Westbrook for their assistance in keeping that activity on line.
PROLOGUEA WARNING
... Denn die Bcher ohne Formeln
Haben meistens keinen Sinn...
From an apocryphal adaptation
of the Three Penny Opera
I will use mathematics because physics without mathematics is meaningless. Some readers dont know mathematics so I will try not to use mathematics without explaining it, and those readers who already know it will have to be patient and might even enjoy it, since I will try to explain in an unusual way. I want to warn youI will say quite a few things that everybody understands and I will say a few things that nobody understands and even some things that nobody can understand. I take this liberty because it is an actual picture of what scientists do. If somebody follows everything I say (it may happen) I will be very pleased. But I do not expect it, because the world is usually so put together that everyone runs into something he doesnt understand and experiences the limit of what he can understand. I would like to demonstrate that these limits exist.
I have one more philosophical (i.e., irrelevant) remark. It is often claimed that knowledge multiplies so rapidly that nobody can follow it. I believe that this is incorrect. At least in science it is not true. The main purpose of science is simplicity and as we understand more things, everything is becoming simpler. This, of course, goes contrary to what everybody accepts.
I will start by explaining Einstein which is considered the most complicated of tasks. Nobody can understand Einstein. An American soap advertisement claims its product is 99.44% pure. This, in America, is a very good standard. I claim that 99.44% of the western intellectuals have no idea what Einsteins theory is, what it means. I want you to join the remaining 0.56%.
I claim that relativity and the rest of modern physics is not complicated. It can be explained very simply. It is only unusual or, put another way, it is contrary to common sense.
The human mind is made in such a way that if I say something that you think is absurd the automatic reaction is that your earflaps come down and you stop listening. You should make an effort and continue to listen, remembering that I am going to say things that are obviously wrong; in fact, they are true.
Chapter 1
RELATIVITY
Space and Time of the Physicist
In which a simple, absurd but correct proposal
of Einsteins is described which establishes
the framework for physics.
I begin with the theorem of Pythagoras. As you probably know, Pythagoras was a Greek who lived in southern Italy. He was a philosopher, which, at that time, meant he was also a mathematician. He was a physicist. Unfortunately, he became involved in politics and therefore got into trouble. (In that, as in many other regards, some followed in his footsteps.)
The theorem of Pythagoras was known to the Babylonians a thousand years before Pythagoras, but to our knowledge Pythagoras was the first to prove it. The proof I will give is different from the one that Pythagoras found. It is also not precise, but it can be made precise if anybody is really interested in precision.
