Lesson Plan 1.

Unit 1 : Energy in Society

Topic Title: Physics for Development
Time Frame: 1 day

I - OBJECTIVES

General Objectives:
1. Cite the role of energy in the development of human society from the industrial
age to the knowledge-based society.
2. Trace the development of technology in the country and relate it to international
and worldwide developments.
3. State some worldwide developments in Physics that had implications to society
and had changed humanity’s thinking about nature.

Specific Objectives:
1. Cite the contributions of physics to society
2. Describe how physicists contributed to the body of knowledge called science and
to technology

II – SUBJECT MATTER

A. Lesson Title: Physics for Development

B. References:
1. Pabellon, Josefina Ll. and Genelita B. Tubal. Physics 3rd Edition. Diwa
Learning Systems. Pp1-10; 149-152
2. http://www.timelinescience.org/years
3. http://timeline.aps.org/APS/index.html
4. http://www.psigate.ac.uk/newsite/physics_timeline.html

C. Materials:
Cartolina cut outs
Pentel pen

III – LEARNING ACTIVITIES

A. Lesson/Activity Proper
1. Prepare an area in the classroom for the “Physics Timeline.” Divide this area
into centuries or any appropriate timescale.
2. Ask students or their groups to write the breakthroughs, contributions, etc. on
a piece of cartolina.
3. Let the groups paste these along the timeline.
4. After all of them have done their share, encourage them to ask questions or
clarify a particular discovery/event/contribution related to Physics.

Unit 1. Energy in Society Lesson Plan 1.3 – Physics for Development I-10
 5. Ask them which events / discovery / contribution do they consider as major
breakthroughs in Physics (Refer to Teacher’s Notes) for guidance.

B. Valuing
1. Appreciation of the contributions of physicists to science.

IV – ASSESSMENT

Give points for students who:

1) cited one contribution
2) explained or asked questions about a specific contribution

V – ASSIGNMENT

Answer briefly but concisely:

1. Which do you consider as the greatest physics invention among all the ones
mentioned in the timeline? Why do you think so?
2. Who among the physicists do you admire the most? Why is this so?

Unit 1. Energy in Society Lesson Plan 1.3 – Physics for Development I-11
 Teacher’s Handout

SAMPLE PHYSICS TIMELINE1

FIRST PRINCIPLES: Pre-1600

440BC Leucippus of Miletus introduces the concept of the atom, an indivisible unit of
matter
400BC Democritus puts forward an "atomic theory" [Democritus of Abdera]
360BC Aristotle discovers that free fall is an accelerated form of motion
250BC Archimedes develops the principles of buoyancy and levers
100 Hero of Alexandria describes experiments he has undertaken with air, and also
writes about light, mirrors and very simple machines
1015 The Arabian physicist "Alhazen" explains how lenses work and develops parabolic
mirrors
1150 Bhaskara is one of the first to describe a "perpetual motion" machine
1220 Nemorarius publishes "Mechanica", which contains the law of levers and the law of
composition of movements
1270 "Perspectiva", a treatise of optics, refraction, reflection and geometrical optics is
published by Witelo
1355 Jean Buridan develops the idea of impetus
1586 Stevinus notes that two items of different weights dropped at the same time
strike the ground together - first real observations of gravity
1590 Galileo's "De motu" (on motion) is published; this work refutes Aristotelian
physics
1592 Galileo develops the thermoscope

Aristotle (384BC-322BC)
A mathematician and logician of great renown, Aristotle's ideas formed the basis for much
Western thinking for over 1500 years. He was born in Stagirus in Northern Greece in
384BC, the son of a doctor. Following his father's death a decade later, Aristotle was
educated by Proxenus and subsequently became a student at Plato's Academy in Athens.

Aristotle travelled widely, his movements often dictated by political uprisings; having
finally established his own academy, he taught and spoke on a huge array of subjects in his

1
Taken from http://www.psigate.ac.uk/newsite/physics_timeline.html

Unit 1. Energy in Society Lesson Plan 1.3 – Physics for Development I-12
later life, including mathematics, astronomy, physics, logic, zoology and economics, as well
as the traditional Greek interests of poetry and philosophy. Much of his published writings
came to prominence after his death, particularly his work in physics and mathematics;
together with his great works on logic, these influenced the thinking and work of countless
generations of scholars.

Archimedes (c.287BC - c.211BC)

Born in Syracuse, Sicily, around 287BC, Archimedes was raised in a scientific
family; his father, Phidias, was an astronomer. He studied in Alexandria under
the followers of Euclid, and quickly gained renown as the greatest
mathematician of his age. His early work focused on mechanical problems and
calculus, and he is credited with many inventions, including war machines, the pulley system,
and the planetarium.

Archimedes is known for his work in the fields of hydrostatics and static mechanics and
published many writings in his time. He remains one of the top mathematicians and
scientists the world has seen.

THE FIRST GREAT DISCOVERIES: 1600-1800

1600 Gilbert describes magnetism [Magnet and Magnetism FAQ]

1608 Hans Lippershey invents the telescope
1609 Galileo constructs his own telescope, which he uses to make a whole series of
discoveries

Galileo also establishes the principle of falling bodies descending to Earth at the
same speed
1621 Snell's Law of refraction of light
1642 Principles of hydraulics published by Pascal
1643 Torricelli invents the mercury barometer and observes the first vacuum
1656 The pendulum clock is invented by Christiaan Huygens [Huygens' Clocks]
1662 Boyle's Law published
1665 Newton's law of universal gravitation
1676 Hooke's Law
1687 "Principia" published. Newtons' great work includes his 3 laws of motion and also
the law of universal gravitation [Newton's Laws]
1690 Although he first established it in 1678, Huygens published his wave theory of

Unit 1. Energy in Society Lesson Plan 1.3 – Physics for Development I-13
 light in this year
1704 Isaac Newton put forward the corpuscular theory of light
1714 Fahrenheit invents the mercury thermometer
1742 Anders Celsius invents the temperature scale named after him
1748 Lomonosov formulates the laws of conservation of mass and conservation of energy
1752 Benjamin Franklin performs his famous "kite experiments" and shows that lightning
is a form of electricity [Benjamin Franklin - A Documentary History]
1761 Latent heat and specific heat described by Joseph Black
1787 Charles' Law established (gases)
1798 Rumford discovers the link between heat and friction

The mass of the Earth is determined by Cavendish

1800 The voltaic cell is invented by Alessandro Volta

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

Born in Pisa in 1554, Galileo became one of the most influential and important
scientists the world had seen. Although famed for his later astronomical work,
his early studies included pendulums, motion, falling bodies and the invention of
the "thermoscope", a primitive thermometer. Having adopted the Copernican
theory of the solar system, Galileo then turned his attention to the stars.

Having learned of the development of the telescope, Galileo refined the design in 1609, and
very quickly made a number of observations and discoveries which would prove among the
most ground-breaking in history. Looking at the Moon, Galileo observed craters and
mountains, before switching his focus to the planets. He discovered four Moons of Jupiter
and observed "handles" around Saturn, which of course were later shown to be rings.
However, it was his study of the phases of Venus which finally showed Copernicus' theory
that the planets revolve around the Sun and not the Earth to be correct. The observation
of sunspots was also a very important milestone.

Galileo fell into massive disfavour with the church because of his Copernican beliefs, and
having received an earlier (1616) warning, he was forced to recant his views about the
movement of the Earth in 1633 by the Inquisition - it is widely believed that at the end of
his recantation, he muttered "E pur se muove" ("nevertheless, it moves")! Galileo also
worked in other areas, developing elementary hydrostatics, the principle of inertia and
introducing relativity to physics.

Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

Isaac Newton is one of the most famous scientists in history. Born in
Woolsthorpe on Christmas Day 1642 (the year of Galileo's death), Newton's
visionary work revolutionised physics and astronomy from the 1660s onwards.
Basing his early work on mathematics, Newton discovered the general binomial

Unit 1. Energy in Society Lesson Plan 1.3 – Physics for Development I-14
theory in 1665, but it was the following year that he began to take an interest in falling
bodies and motion. He began to study the way bodies fell (the story of the apple and the
tree is a legendary tale) and concluded that a force inversely proportional to the square of
the distance from a body to its centre of rotation kept the Moon and planets in their
orbits.

Having discarded his ideas for over a decade, the Cambridge-resident Newton collaborated
with Hooke in 1679 to revive his interest in elliptical orbits, but it was under the influence
of Edmund Halley that he developed his ideas for publication. In September 1687,
Newton's "Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica", known simply as the "Principia",
was published. This work contained the three laws of motion and a discussion of orbital
motion. The two subsequent volumes dealt in turn with the motion of fluids and with
gravitation, the latter probably the most significant scientific breakthrough to that time.

Newton's theory of gravitation finally provided the theoretical basis for the Copernican
system and Kepler's laws, and heralded the birth of celestial mechanics. The Principia can
thus be regarded as arguably the most important scientific work ever published, and
Newton as one of the most important and influential scientists to date. Intriguingly,
Newton never mentioned Hooke's contributions to the inverse square law, fuelling a feud
between the two men which raged for many years. Newton died in London in March 1727.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Although most renowned in the scientific world for his work with electricity
and lightning, Franklin had many other interests and stimuli, including
printing, economics, music and politics - indeed he is one of America's
Founding Fathers and signed the Declaration of Independence. Born in 1706
in Boston, he took up an apprenticeship as a printer with his brother at age 12, before
moving to Philadelphia and then London. Having returned to Philadelphia, he started his own
printing company in 1728.

Having focused on family life in the 1730s, Franklin turned his attention to science, and
began work on electrical experiments, publishing his first results in 1747. In June of 1752,
Franklin performed his famous kite experiment, when he held up a metal rod attached to a
child's kite in the midst of an electrical storm, allowing lightning to strike it. Having
invented the lightning rod as a safety device, Franklin travelled the world as a
representative of the Philadelphia Assembly and latterly the American Philosophical
Society. He entered politics and in 1775 was elected to the Continental Congress. He signed
the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Having performed many great acts of statesmanship, including the fight against slavery and
negotiating treaties with Britain, France and other European states, Franklin died in
Philadelphia in 1790.

MAJOR BREAKTHROUGHS: 1801-1900

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1801 Thomas Young discovers interference of light
1808 Modern atomic theory is put forward by John Dalton [Atomic Theory]
1816 Fresnel explains the refraction of light
1819 Hans Oersted discovers electromagnetism
1820-23 The laws of electrodynamics are established in this period by Andre Ampere
1821 Dynamo principle described by Faraday
1827 Ohm's law of electrical resistance established

Robert Brown observes what becomes known as Brownian motion

1829 Graham's Law of gaseous diffusion
1831 Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction
1833 Faraday introduces the laws of electrolysis and coins terms such as electrode,
anode, cathode, ion, cation, anion, and electrolyte
1836 The first reliable source of electric current is produced, using copper and zinc.
This becomes known as the Daniell Cell
1842 Principle of conservation of energy put forward by Julius Mayer

Doppler effect discovered

1843 Joule describes the mechanical equivalent of heat
1849 French physicist Armand Fizeau measures the speed of light
1851 Foucault demonstrates the rotation of the Earth

Kelvin proposes "absolute zero"

1859 First spectrographic analysis performed by Bunsen and Kirchhoff
1861 The discovery of osmosis
1873 Maxwell describes light as electromagnetic radiation
1887 Hertz predicts the existence of radio waves - he successfully detects them a
year later
1895 Rontgen discovers X-rays
1896 Radioactivity is discovered by Becquerel [Radioactivity]
1897 J. J. Thomson discovers the electron [Life, the Universe and the Electron]
1899 Ernest Rutherford discovers alpha and beta rays

Foundation of the American Physical Society [APS Homepage]

1900 Max Planck puts forward his quantum theory

Unit 1. Energy in Society Lesson Plan 1.3 – Physics for Development I-16
 Gamma rays are discovered by Villard

John Dalton (1766-1844)

Renowned primarily for originating modern atomic theory, Dalton was
attracted to gas chemistry from his early love of meteorology. In 1801 he
published his Law of Partial Pressures for ideal gases and within 2 years had
also published a table of comparative atomic weights.

His study of colour blindness is commemorated in the name of Daltonism, the red-green
strain of the affliction from which he suffered.

Michael Faraday (1791-1867)

Born in Southwark, the son of a blacksmith, Faraday began his working life as a
bookbinder from age 14. His interest in science led him to the Royal Institution,
where he worked as a chemical assistant until 1821. Having gained several
promotions, he became Fullerian Professor of Chemistry in 1833, a position
created especially for him, and which he held until his death.

Faraday's work in physics and chemistry was exceptional, with many notable achievements
and discoveries, including discovering electromagnetic rotations in 1821, electromagnetic
induction in 1831 and the laws of electrolysis in 1833. He established the wave theory of
electromagnetism. Faraday died at Hampton Court, where he had resided as a favourite of
Queen Victoria; he is buried in Highgate Cemetery.

Marie Curie (1867-1934)

Born Madja Sklodowska in Poland, Curie, in conjunction with husband Pierre,
discovered radium and polonium via a study of pitchblende in 1898. Her
subsequent work with radioactive materials led to the development of
medical applications of radium.

A double Nobel Prize winner in chemistry and physics, Curie eventually contracted
leukaemia and died in 1934.

THE ATOMIC AGE: 1901 - PRESENT

1905 Einstein puts forward his special theory of relativity [Dummies Guide to Special
Relativity]
1908 Geiger and Rutherford invent the Geiger counter

Unit 1. Energy in Society Lesson Plan 1.3 – Physics for Development I-17
1910 Marie Curie's "treatise on radioactivity" published
1911 Rutherford discovers the atomic nucleus
1913 Niels Bohr puts forward the orbiting electron atomic theory [Bohr Theory]
1914 Rutherford discovers the proton
1915 Lawrence and William Bragg discover X-ray crystallography
1916 Einstein's general theory of relativity is published
1918 Aston discovers mass spectrography and isotopes
1925 Discovery of the Pauli Exclusion Principle
1926 Wave mechanics introduced by Schroedinger
1927 Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle is established
1931 Ernest Lawrence develops the cyclotron
1932 Neutron discovered by Chadwick

Urey discovers deuterium

Cockroft and Walton use a particle accelerator to split the atom

Carl Anderson discovers the positron, the electron antiparticle

1933 Ruska builds the first electron microscope [Electron Microscopy]
1934 Tritium discovered by Oliphant
1937 The Nobel Institute of Physics is established in Stockholm
1938 Hahn and Strassmann discover nuclear fission
1942 The first controlled nuclear chain reaction is performed at the University of
Chicago by Enrico Fermi
1943 The world's first operational nuclear reactor is activated at Oak Ridge,
Tennessee
1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombed using the first (and only existing!) nuclear
fission bombs
1946 The first synchrocyclotron is built at Berkeley
1952 Development and explosion of the world's first thermonuclear device - the "H
bomb"
1954 CERN (Centre Europeen de Recherche Nucleaire) founded
1955 Couran and Reines discover the neutrino
1960 Mossbauer Effect discovered

Theodore Maiman develops the first laser using a ruby cylinder

1964 Gell-Mann and Zweig discover the quark
1979 Cronin and Fitch discover asymmetry of elementary particles
1980 Rohrer and Binnig invent the scanning tunnelling microscope
1983 Research at CERN shows evidence of "weakons" (W and Z particles); this

Unit 1. Energy in Society Lesson Plan 1.3 – Physics for Development I-18
 validates the link between weak nuclear force and electromagnetic force
1986 First high-temperature superconductor discovered
1989 The Large Electron Positron (LEP) collider comes into operation at CERN. This is
a particle accelerator with a diameter of almost 17 miles
1991 LEP experiments confirm the existence of 3 generations of elementary particles
1992 Development of material that becomes superconducting at -103°C, 45°C higher
than the previous highest
1993 Fermilab in Chicago discovers the "top quark", first predicted in 1984

Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937)

Ernest Rutherford gained renown as one of the major scientists of the late
19th and early 20th centuries and made some of the most important
breakthroughs in the history of physics. Born and educated in New Zealand,
Rutherford left his homeland in 1895, already holding three scientific
degrees. He joined the Cambridge laboratory of J. J. Thomson (the discoverer of the
electron) and was quickly recognised as an exceptionally gifted researcher.

Having taken up a Professorship in Montreal, Rutherford's work with the atom and
radiation led him to the discovery of alpha and beta rays, for which he first gained
prominence. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1908 to his astonishment, as
he considered himself first and foremost a physicist! He developed radioactive dating, and
then the Geiger counter, achievements which would have ensured the fame of any scientist
- but which rank low down in Rutherford's list of achievements!

In 1911, Rutherford made perhaps his most important breakthrough, when he discovered
the atomic nucleus, and in conjunction with Bohr, he developed modern atomic theory.
Rutherford was knighted in 1914. At the end of the First World War, he became the first
person to split the atom. Rutherford spent much of the rest of his career as a mentor and
speaker, and was elected to the Peerage in 1931; even though he was instrumental in
initiating many of the greatest scientific discoveries of his age, Rutherford refused to be
co-credited with work such as the discovery of the neutron and the splitting of the atom.
In 1937, Rutherford died while waiting for a delayed operation on a hernia; following his
tragic death, his ashes were interred in Westminster Abbey.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

One of the most easily recognisable scientists in history, Albert Einstein was
a German-Swiss-American physicist whose name has become synonymous with
relativity and nuclear physics. Born to a German-Jewish family in 1879, the
young Einstein had an unexceptional education, skipping lectures and leaving
the University of Zurich in 1900 a modest graduate. Working at a patent office, he started
to devote a lot of time to research in fundamental physics, and gradually attracted respect
for his published findings.

Unit 1. Energy in Society Lesson Plan 1.3 – Physics for Development I-19
Having published his special theory of relativity in 1905, Einstein finally returned to
academia in 1909, as Associate Professor at Zurich. He began to meet and consort with
prominent scientists, and finally made his major breakthrough in 1915, when he completed
his general theory of relativity, published the following year - this of course included the
famous E=mc2 equation.

After the end of WW1, Einstein became a German citizen, but the hostile attitude of the
Nazi party led him to leave Germany in 1932, renouncing his citizenship. He moved to the
US in 1933, eventually acquiring citizenship in 1940. His passionate debates with the likes
of Bohr, Heisenberg and Pauli occupied much of the 1920s and 1930s, and ultimately led to
Einstein's involvement in atomic research during the Second World War. Despite playing a
major role in the development of the atomic bomb, Einstein was an advocate of nuclear
disarmament and the foundation of the United Nations. He died in 1955, one of the most
celebrated scientists of the 20th century.

Niels Bohr (1885-1962)

A Danish physicist who proposed the Bohr model of the atom while working with
Rutherford in Manchester. Bohr postulated that a hydrogen atom consisted of a
central proton nucleus with a single electron in a circular orbit; he also said that
the electron energy was quantized.

Having escaped Denmark in WW2, Bohr helped to develop the atomic bomb, though he was
dismayed by its subsequent use.

Unit 1. Energy in Society Lesson Plan 1.3 – Physics for Development I-20