E=mc^2
Where exactly did Einstein publish his ground-breaking formula?
1905, journal 'Annalen der Physik', 3-page supplement
When did Meitner first meet Einstein and what did she learn there?
1909 and she learnt about E=mc2
Why was it triggered at 2000 ft. above ground?
2000 ft. for maximum effect on the ground surface. Dropped to the ground, it would dig a big crater.
When were most typographical symbols created?
500 years ago
Why are atomic bombs so powerful?
A lot of energy from little mass, triggered by chain reaction
How does a spectroscope work?
A spectroscope breaks the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation of the visible range into the various wavelengths. Every element has a distinct electromagnetic 'bar code' so the spectorscope helps identify the elements at the light source
How did the astronomy establishment react to her findings?
At first, they disputed her findings, but after a few years she was vindicated.
When did the Americans start to develop their bomb and what was the name of the project?
Autumn 1941, Manhattan Project
Why was Lavoisier so unpopular during the French revolution?
Because he had been a tax collector and he built a wall around Paris to charge travellers
Why did nobody before Einstein notice the connection between mass and energy?
Because it cannot be noticed easily on earth.
Why did scientists assume that a lot of energy was hidden in the nucleus?
Because it contains the mass and it consists of protons held together by the strong nuclear force
Why was this also a religious conflict?
Because it is about how God 'runs' the world. Does he have to constantly add energy (E=mv) or is there a fixed amount of energy (E=mv2)? Leibniz said that God planned the world as a perfect place.
Why is it impossible to catch up with the speed of light?
Because when more energy is poured into an object to accelerate it, it swells up in size.
What happened in the first attack on the Norwegian plant?
But the planes crashed and all English soldiers were captured and killed.
How did du Châtelet prove that Leibniz was right?
By dropping weights with different speeds into a clay ground and measuring how deep it penetrates the clay.
How did Einstein establish a link between the two domains?
By thinking about the speed of light
What happened inside the bomb when it was triggered?
Chain reaction with a culmination right at the end of the blast
How fast is the speed of light?
300'000 km/sec.
What kind of apprenticeship did Michael Faraday make?
Bookbinder
What was different in the second sabotage attempt?
They sent in Norwegian resistance fighters who got to the plant on foot and on cross-country skis and they blew up the heavy water storage tanks.
How did the Germans produce Uranium dust?
They took people from the concentration camps who got poisoned.
In what ways were Faraday and Maxwell similar?
They were both religious and both had an experience of being outsiders (Faraday's background; Maxwell at boarding school)
Who was Voltaire?
He was a French author and scientist of the 18th century
Who was Enrico Fermi?
Italian physicist
What was the relationship between Humphrey Davy and Michael Faraday like?
Davy was sometimes like a mentor, but at other times he ignored him or accused him even of stealing ideas
What did the Allied forces do to win the race for the bomb?
Destroy the heavy water supply.
What is the inner property of light?
Electromagnetic radiation (waves) in the visible spectrum
How did the Allied forces try to sabotage the German bomb project?
English parachutists were sent with glider planes
Who was James Chadwick and what did he discover?
English physicist who discovered the neutron
Which two ways to build a bomb did America pursue?
Enriched Uranium or Plutonium (an artificial element)
What is the book about?
Equation E=mc2
What happens inside the sun to release so much energy?
Four hydrogen atoms fuse to one helium atom, releasing 0.7% of the matter in form of energy.
Who was the first scientist to try to measure the speed of light?
Galileo Galilei
Who was Heisenberg and why did he get in trouble with the SS?
German physicist: He had been working with Jewish scientists.
How did he get in touch with Humphrey Davy?
He bound the notes of his Davy's lecture and sent it to him
How did Cassini react to Roemer's success?
He denied Roemer's theory and did not accept Roemer's findings
What important technique did he provide in 1934? (Enrico Fermi)
He discovered how to add neutrons to the core by slowing them down with water
What was Einstein's economic and family situation around 1900-1905?
He had difficulty getting a job, eventually worked as a patent office clerk; he was married, they had to give up the first child to foster parents because they were so poor
What explains Faraday's ability to understand the connection between magnetism and electricity?
He had no concept of Newtonian physics with forces depicted in lines; his religion led him towards circles and waves, which made him understand electromagnetism
What kind of sabotage did the Norwegian Haukelid do?
He placed bombs on the ferry which transported the heavy water from the factory in Vermork, Norway
How did Einstein use the = symbol 'like a telescope'?
He said that you could look for energy also in a different field that nobody had considered before.
How did Einstein's family life develop as his theory became gradually accepted?
He separated from his wife as he became professor of physics in Berlin.
Why did Einstein write a letter to the American president in 1939 and what was the reply?
He wanted to warn him about Germany's attempts to build an atomic bomb. He put the letter away and couldn't believe that such a powerful bomb could be built.
How did Ole Roemer discover the speed of light?
He was an astronomer and examined the movement of the moons of Jupiter
How is Lavoisier's character described?
He was both very precise and also a romantic person wishing to discover secrets of nature.
How precisely did he discover it?
He was just thinking about nature.
What is the explanation given for the fact that Roemer discovered the speed of light?
He was outside the astronomy establishment in Paris
What happened to Heisenberg?
He was shortly imprisoned and then took up his scientific career again.
What happened to Oppenheimer after the war?
He was spied on by the American government and was not given a chance to continue his research.
What was Oppenheimer like and how did he motivate his team?
He was very sensitive and detected fears and desire in other people well, so he managed to motivate them
What happens on the ground?
Heat wave, vacuum and incredibly strong storms, radioactive fall-fallout
How well did Einstein do in his final physics university exams?
His ETH grades were only average
What saved him? (Heisenberg)
His mother arranged his release by contacting the mother of Heinrich Himmler, director of the SS.
How did Einstein's upbringing and background help him discover 'relativity'?
His parents encouraged him to be critical; and he was brought up in a Jewish tradition of discussing and debating religious texts. He brought this questioning attitude to his university teaching of physics.
What is the topic of part 5?
How the equation explains how stars 'work' and how life will end
What is the leading question of this chapter?
How were the different elements on earth created?
How could you explain the theory of relativity easily?
If a space shuttle accelerated to near the speed of light, it would increase in mass, but to people in the space shuttle, the environment would look weird and they would be normal. There is no objective reality.
What does the Law of the Conservation of Energy mean?
In closed system, the amount of energy is always the same.
Where did Einstein do his research?
In his office and in his free time, without any lab support
Which famous scientist had already developed a theory of mass and movement in the 1600s?
Isaac Newton
What does the term 'relativity' NOT mean?
It does not mean that there is only subjective, arbitrary findings. Einstein's theory of relativity describes an objective truth about the natural world.
In what ways is light different from other movement?
It is faster than anything else. It is the speed limit of nature.
Why is squaring the velocity of what you measure such an accurate way to describe what happens in nature?
It is related to the geometry of the world so it is very common in nature.
Why is -273° the coldest possible temperature?
It is the lowest temperature: meaning that the atoms are completely still.
What happens to matter approaching the speed of light?
It swells up and becomes bigger.
What happened to Hahn and Meitner's work in 1938?
Meitner had to flee from Germany and directed the experiments from Stockholm
Who were Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn?
Meitner was a Jewish physicist working together with the German chemist Otto Hahn
How is Ernest Rutherford's character described?
New Zealand physicist, egalitarian, great promoter of colleagues
What was the dispute between Leibniz and Newton about?
Newton thought that E=mv and Leibniz thought that the E=mv2
How much formal education did Faraday have?
No formal education
What happened at Heisenberg's first test in early 1941?
Nothing happened because there was too little uranium.
What was Heisenberg's bomb design based on?
Physics of E=mc2 and use of heavy water to slow down neutrons
Who was Marie Curie and how did she die?
Polish scientist, and she died of leukemia (cancer) from exposure to Radium
What material discovered in the 1890s gave hints about the equation?
Radium (radioactive substances)
Who was appointed as the day-to-day manager of the Los Alamos bomb construction team?
Robert Oppenheimer, a Hungarian physicist
How much heat is produced?
Several million degrees Celsius
How did Payne come up with a different interpretation of the spectroscope lines?
She re-interpreted the spectroscope lines and realised that the sun consists mostly of hydrogen.
What was Cecilia Payne's academic career?
She studied astronomy at Cambridge, but she was discriminated against as a woman, so she went to Harvard to write her PhD.
What was Emilie du Châtelet like?
She was his friend, and also interested in science
When did the Germans get the first successful test results?
Spring 1942
What was so ground-breaking and amazing about Einstein's discovery?
That he combined energy and mass, two seemingly separate fields
What break-through discovery about the atom did he make?
That most of the atom is empty space and the nucleus contains most of the mass
Why did the USA not pursue plans to build a bomb, while the Germans did?
The Americans were backward-looking and doubtful, the Germans were looking towards a bright, golden future.
What news did Niels Bohr bring from Europe in February 1944?
The Germans are quite close to building a bomb
Which two opposing views were there in the US concerning the deployment of the bomb in Japan?
The President's advisor was an old-fashioned man who said the army builds bombs in order to use them.
Why was the bomb deployed?
The President's advisor was an old-fashioned man who said the army builds bombs in order to use them.
Which break-through physical law did Lavoisier discover though experimentation?
The amount of mass in a closed system stays the same: law of conservation of mass
What is the condition inside the triggered bomb compared to?
The centre of the sun, and briefly just after the Big Bang
Why is there a central section about WW2?
The discovery led to the construction of the atomic bomb
How did Meitner manage to explain the Meitner-Hahn-Strassmann experiments in 1938?
The experiment split uranium into two separate particles of Barium and Krypton with a loss of mass: 1st instance of nuclear fission
What did astronomers believe about the sun's content at the time Einstein discovered that E=mc2?
The sun consists to 70% of iron.
What did Lavoisier discover when analysing the burning/rusting of metals?
The weight of rusted metal is higher because oxygen is attached to it.
What new energy source did Einstein discover and what effect does this have on the Law of the Conservation of Energy?
There is energy in mass itself. The amount of energy and mass is always the same.
What was Einstein taught in the 1890s about mass and energy?
They are not connected. They are two separate domains.
How did the scientists try to make Plutonium explode?
They arranged it in a sphere and put explosives on the outside, 'implosion'
What did finally happen to Germany's bomb building capacity?
They never succeeded and lost the industrial backup to build one
What was superior about the American bomb design?
They worked with engineers and chose a sphere structure, while the Germans used flat plates.
What does it mean for mass when c2 is such a large figure?
Very little mass contains a lot of energy
When and where did Einstein publish the equation?
When and where did Einstein publish the equation?
What is NOT the topic of the book?
biography of Albert Einstein
