Science 10: Module 1

What is reality?
The idea that our perception of reality may be distorted and that there could be alternative
valid views of reality.
● The city council of Monza, Italy barred pet owners from keeping goldfish in curved
bowls because it is cruel to keep a fish in a bowl with curved sides as the fish would
have a distorted view of reality.
● This raises the question of whether our own view of reality is undistorted or if we
ourselves could be inside a big goldfish bowl and our vision distorted by an enormous
lens.
● The goldfish's picture of reality is different from ours, but their scientific laws could
still hold true even though they are more complicated than the laws in our frame of
reference.

Ptolemy's model of the cosmos and how it became the basis for much of Western thought.
● Ptolemy's model had the earth at the center of the universe, with the planets and
stars moving around it in complicated orbits involving epicycles.
● This model was adopted by the Catholic Church and held as official doctrine for
fourteen hundred years.
● Copernicus put forward an alternative model in 1543 in his book "On the Revolutions
of the Celestial Spheres", which challenged Ptolemy's model and marked a
significant shift in Western thought.

Copernican model of heliocentrism was controversial in its time.

● The idea of the sun being at rest and the planets revolving around it in circular orbits
was not new but was met with resistance.
● The Copernican model was believed to contradict the Bible, which was interpreted
as saying that the planets moved around the earth.
● The debate over whether the earth was at rest led to Galileo's trial for heresy in 1633
for advocating the Copernican model.

Galileo was found guilty, confined to house arrest, and forced to recant his beliefs.
● Galileo was found guilty of advocating a belief that was contrary to the Holy Scripture.
● He was confined to house arrest for the rest of his life.
● Galileo was forced to recant his beliefs and is said to have muttered under his breath
“Eppur si muove,” “But still it moves.”

In 1992, the Roman Catholic Church acknowledged that it had been wrong to condemn
Galileo.

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There is no picture- or theory-independent concept of reality.
● The Ptolemaic and Copernican systems can both be used as a model of the universe,
and our observations of the heavens can be explained by assuming either the earth
or the sun to be at rest.
● The advantage of the Copernican system is simply that the equations of motion are
much simpler in the frame of reference in which the sun is at rest.
● In a simulated virtual reality, events would not necessarily have any logic or
consistency or obey any laws, but if consistent laws were enforced, there would be
no way to tell there was another reality behind the simulated one.

Instead of a theory-independent concept of reality, we should adopt a view of model-

dependent realism.
● Model-dependent realism is the idea that a physical theory or world picture is a model
(generally of a mathematical nature) and a set of rules that connect the elements of
the model to observations.
● Model-dependent realism provides a framework with which to interpret modern
science.

Philosophers have argued about the nature of reality and classical science is based on the
belief in a real external world.
● Classical science believes that objects exist with definite physical properties.
● Theories in classical science attempt to describe objects and their properties.
● The distinction between observer and observed has no meaningful significance in
classical science.

Realism is a difficult viewpoint to defend in modern physics.

● According to quantum physics, a particle does not have a definite position or
velocity until it is measured.
● Individual objects may not have an independent existence and may only exist as part
of an ensemble of many.
● The holographic principle suggests that our world may be shadows on the
boundary of a larger, five-dimensional space-time.

Success in scientific theories does not necessarily prove that they represent reality.
● Different theories can successfully describe the same phenomenon through
disparate conceptual frameworks.
● Many scientific theories that had proven successful were later replaced by other
equally successful theories based on wholly new concepts of reality.

Anti-realists suppose a distinction between empirical knowledge and theoretical knowledge.

● Observation and experiment are meaningful, but theories do not embody any deeper
truths underlying the observed phenomena.
● Some anti-realists have wanted to restrict science to things that can be observed.
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Model-dependent realism short-circuits the argument between the realist and anti-realist
schools of thought.
● Model-dependent realism asserts that all we can know is based on models and that
these models may be adjusted based on new observations or experiments.

Model-dependent realism suggests that it is not necessary to determine whether a model is

real or not, but rather whether it agrees with observation.
● If two models agree with observation, one cannot say that one is more real than
another.
● One can use the model that is more convenient in the given situation, such as using
the goldfish's picture when inside the bowl.
● Our perception of the world is shaped by our human brains and the interpretive
structure they create, resulting in a mental picture or model.

Model-dependent realism also applies to everyday mental models that we create to

interpret and understand the world.
● There is no way to remove the observer from our perception of the world, which is
shaped by our sensory processing and way of thinking.

The human brain processes data received from the optic nerve to create a mental picture
or model.
● The brain fills in gaps, assumes visual properties of neighboring locations are similar,
and interpolates to create a mental picture of three-dimensional space.
● The brain can adapt to changes, such as seeing things the right way up despite
wearing glasses that turn the images upside down.

Model-dependent realism solves the problem of the meaning of existence, such as how
one knows that a table still exists when one can't see it.
● A model in which the table disappears when one leaves the room would be awkward
and not agree with observation.
● Electrons are a useful model that explains observations and phenomena, even
though they cannot be seen.

Quarks are subatomic particles that cannot be observed directly and always occur in
groups of three or in pairings of a quark and an anti-quark.
● The binding force between quarks increases with separation, making isolated, free
quarks impossible to exist in nature.
● The quark model provides a simple and attractive explanation for the properties of
protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom.

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The existence of quarks was controversial in the years after the quark model was first
proposed because they were unobservable.
● Physicists were accustomed to accepting particles that were only inferred to exist
from statistical blips in data pertaining to the scattering of other particles.
● Opposition to the existence of quarks faded as the quark model led to more correct
predictions.

Model-dependent realism can provide a framework to discuss questions such as the

nature of time and the creation of the world.
● The account given in Genesis is one possible model, favored by those who maintain
that it is literally true despite evidence to the contrary.
● The big bang theory, which explains the most about our present observations,
including the historical and geological evidence, is a more useful model.
● Neither model can be said to be more real than the other.

Some scientists propose a model in which time goes back even further than the big
bang, but it is not clear if such a model would be useful in explaining present observations
because the laws of the evolution of the universe may break down at the big bang.
● The laws of the evolution of the universe may break down at the big bang, so a model
that encompasses time before the big bang might have no observable consequences
for the present.
● It might be more reasonable to stick with the idea that the big bang was the creation
of the world.

A good model should have the following characteristics:

● Elegance
● Few arbitrary or adjustable elements
● Agreement with and explanation of existing observations
● Detailed predictions that can be disproven or falsified by future observations.

The criteria for a good model are subjective, but elegance is highly valued among scientists
because it compresses many particular cases into one simple formula.
● Elegance is related to a lack of adjustable elements, since a theory with many fudge
factors is not elegant.
● A theory should be as simple as possible, but not simpler.
● A model that is contorted to match a specific set of observations is unsatisfying, more
of a catalog of data than a theory that embodies useful principles.

Aristotle's theory that the world was made of four elements and that objects acted to fulfill
their purpose was elegant but did not make definite predictions.
● One of Aristotle's predictions was that heavier objects should fall faster because their
purpose is to fall.

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 ● Galileo observed that different weights gathered speed at the same rate, contrary to
Aristotle's prediction.

Ptolemy added epicycles to the circular orbits of heavenly bodies to make his model more
accurate, but adding complexity to a model to match specific observations is unsatisfying.
● A model that accurately describes a specific set of observations but does not embody
useful principles is not a good model.

Scientists evaluate the quality of a model based on its elegance, lack of adjustable elements,
ability to explain existing observations, and ability to make detailed predictions about future
observations.
● A good model is elegant, meaning it is simple and able to economically compress a
number of particular cases into one simple formula.
● A good model contains few arbitrary or adjustable elements, and does not rely
on fudge factors or parameters that must be fixed to match observations.
● A good model explains all existing observations and makes detailed
predictions about future observations that can disprove or falsify the model if
they are not borne out.

The standard model, which describes the interactions of the elementary particles of nature,
is often viewed as inelegant due to its reliance on dozens of adjustable parameters.

Scientists are impressed when new and stunning predictions prove correct, but when a
model is found lacking, the tendency to modify a theory fades to the degree that the
alterations become artificial or cumbersome, and therefore "inelegant."

The need for a new model arises when the modifications needed to accommodate new
observations become too baroque, as was the case with the static universe model, which
gave way to the idea of an expanding universe based on Edwin Hubble's observations.
● Hubble observed the light emitted by galaxies, which carries a characteristic
signature based on each galaxy's composition, and analyzed their spectra to
determine their velocities.
● Hubble found that nearly all galaxies were moving away from us, and the farther away
they were, the faster they were moving, leading to the conclusion that the universe is
expanding.
● Despite attempts to explain Hubble's observations within the context of a static
universe model, the most natural and accepted model became that of an expanding
universe.

In our pursuit of understanding the laws that govern the universe, we have created several
theories and models that have evolved our understanding of the universe's fundamental
constituents.

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 ● Examples of these theories and models include the four-element theory, Ptolemaic
model, phlogiston theory, and the big bang theory.
● With each new theory, our concepts of reality and fundamental constituents of the
universe have changed.

Newton's theory of light proposed that light was made up of particles or corpuscles.
● The corpuscle theory explained why light travels in straight lines and why light is
bent or refracted when passing through mediums.
● The corpuscle theory could not explain a phenomenon called Newton's rings, which
can be accounted for by the wave theory of light.

The wave theory of light explains Newton's rings through a phenomenon called
interference.
● Interference occurs when waves, such as water waves or light waves, meet and
either constructively or destructively interfere with one another.
● In Newton's rings, bright rings are created through constructive interference, while
dark rings are formed through destructive interference.

The concept of waves and particles is central to our understanding of the universe.
● The idea of waves entered human thought from observations of the ocean and other
liquids.
● The concept of particle theory was familiar from rocks, pebbles, and sand.
● Wave/particle duality is foreign to everyday experience but is consistent with model-
dependent realism.

There is no single mathematical model or theory that can describe every aspect of the
universe.
● The network of theories called M-theory is made up of theories that describe
phenomena within certain ranges.
● The various theories in the M-theory network agree wherever their ranges overlap.
● No single theory within the M-theory network can describe every aspect of the
universe.

Quantum theory and the approach of alternative histories posit that every possible version
of the universe exists simultaneously in what is called a quantum superposition.
● This view of the universe has passed every experimental test to which it has been
subjected.

The Cosmic Calendar

Human beings are young compared to the age of the world.
● Significant events in our lives are measured in years, whereas the age of the world
is measured in millennia.

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 ● Family genealogies are measured in centuries, while recorded history is measured
in millennia.
● The immensity of time intervals involved in the history of the world makes it difficult
for us to understand.

Despite the difficulty in grasping the immensity of time, we are able to date events in the
remote past.
● Geological stratification and radioactive dating provide information on archaeological,
paleontological, and geological events.
● Astrophysical theory provides data on the ages of planetary surfaces, stars, and
the Milky Way Galaxy.
● The Big Bang is the earliest event about which we have any record, and it involved
all matter and energy in the present universe.

The cosmic chronology can be imagined as the fifteen-billion-year lifetime of the universe
compressed into the span of a single year, with every billion years of Earth history
corresponding to about twenty-four days of the cosmic year, and one second of that year to
475 real revolutions of the Earth about the sun.
● The events of our history books are so compressed on this scale that it is necessary
to give a second-by-second recounting of the last seconds of the cosmic year.
● Detailed records exist only for the very end of the cosmic year.

The author presents the cosmic chronology in three forms:

● a list of some representative pre-December dates;
● a calendar for the month of December;
● and a closer look at the late evening of New Year's Eve.

The chronology corresponds to the best evidence now available, but some of it is rather
shaky, and it may turn out that some events happened earlier or later than indicated.
● For example, it is possible that plants colonized the land in the Ordovician rather than
the Silurian Period, or that segmented worms appeared earlier in the Precambrian
Period.
● In the chronology of the last ten seconds of the cosmic year, it was impossible to
include all significant events, such as advances in art, music, and literature, or the
historically significant American, French, Russian, and Chinese revolutions.

The construction of tables and calendars that represent the history of the universe is
humbling.
● The Earth condenses out of interstellar matter in early September in a cosmic year.
● Dinosaurs emerge on Christmas Eve in a cosmic year.
● Men and women originate at 10:30 P.M. on New Year's Eve in a cosmic year.

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All of recorded history occupies the last ten seconds of December 31 in a cosmic year.
● The time from the waning of the Middle Ages to the present occupies little more than
one second in a cosmic year.

PRE-DECEMBER DATES
1. Big Bang ~January 1
2. Origin of the Milky Way Galaxy ~May 1
3. Origin of the solar system ~September 9
4. Formation of the Earth ~September 14
5. Origin of life on Earth ~ September 25
6. Formation of the oldest rocks known on Earth ~October 2
7. Date of oldest fossils (bacteria and blue-green algae}
8. ~October 9
9. Invention of sex (by microorganisms)~ November 1
10. Oldest fossil photosynthetic plants ~November 12
11. Eukaryotes (first cells with nuclei) flourish~November 15

DECEMBER 31
● Origin of Proconsul and Ramapithecus, probable ancestors ofmapes and men ~ 1:30
P.M.
● First humans ~ 10:30 P.M.
● Widespread use of stone tools ~11:00 P.M.
● Domestication of fire by Peking man ~11:46 P.M.
● Beginning of most recent glacial period ~11:56 P.M.
● Seafarers settle Australia 11:58*.M.
● Extensive cave painting in Europe ~11:59 P.M.
● Invention of agriculture ~11:59:20 P.M.
● Neolithic civilization; first cities ~11:59:35 P.M.
● First dynasties in Sumer, Ebla and Egypt; development of astronomy~11:59:50 P.M.
● Invention of the alphabet; Akkadian Empire ~11:59:51 P.M.
● Hammurabic legal codes in Babylon; Middle Kingdom in Egypt ~11:59:52 P.M.
● Bronze metallurgy; Mycenaean culture; Trojan War; Olmec culture: invention of the
compass ~11:59:53 P.M.
● Iron metallurgy; First Assyrian Empire; Kingdom of Israel; founding of Carthage by
Phoenicia ~11:59:54 P.M.
● Asokan India; Ch'in Dynasty China; Periclean Athens; birth of Buddha ~11:59:55
P.M.
● Euclidean geometry; Archimedean physics; Ptolemaic astronomy; Roman Empire;
birth of Christ ~11:59:56 P.M.
● Zero and decimals invented in Indian arithmetic; Rome falls; Moslem conquests-
~11:59:57 P.M.
● Mayan civilization; Sung Dynasty China; Byzantine empire; Mongol invasion;
Crusades ~11:59:58 P.M.
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 ● Renaissance in Europe; voyages of discovery from Europe and from Ming Dynasty
China; emergence of the experimental method in science ~11:59:59 P.M.
● Widespread development of science and technology; emergence of a global culture;
acquisition of the means for self-destruction of the human species; The first steps in
spacecraft planetary exploration and of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. ~
Now: first second of New Year's Day.

The end of the first cosmic year has just occurred, and the future of what happens on and
near Earth at the beginning of the second cosmic year depends on human scientific
wisdom and sensitivity.

The Structure Of Science

The structure of physics is built around a small set of general theories that describe a wide
range of phenomena and objects.
● Physics is not structured around objects or the physical structure of the world, but
rather around a set of general theories.
● Mechanics and electromagnetism are two examples of general theories in physics
that describe a wide range of phenomena and objects.
● Most of the special branches of physics draw upon more than one general theory.
● The arrangement of the book is according to the broad theories that form the most
natural and beautiful structure of physical science, with some exceptions such as the
chapter on elementary particles.
● Particles are the basic building blocks of the universe and come first in the survey of
physics, despite the lack of satisfactory general theories in this field.

The Theory and Experiment Of Science

Science is empirical and theory is essential to tie facts into a coherent whole.
● Areas of science without developed theories exist, but theories are necessary to
explain the facts.
● Empirical testing is the ultimate measure of validity for scientific ideas.
● Scientists must test their ideas rigorously and with detachment to avoid falling in love
with flawed theories.

Theories tying facts together are the hallmark of science and provide a challenge and
reward to scientists.
● Scientists strive to understand nature beyond empirical facts.
● Theories can reveal new ways of looking at nature and unexpected relationships
between different facts.
● A single equation can explain a vast range of phenomena and elevate science to a
position of stature and nobility.

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Every theory has to remain tentative for two reasons.
● The theory is likely to be capable of making an infinite number of different predictions,
but man's finite capabilities limit his ability to test the predictions.
● No theory is unique. An alternative theory may be found, which is more satisfying to
man, even if it is neither better nor worse experimentally.

The scientist's faith in simplicity may cause him to reject a complicated and cumbersome
theory.
● Simpler description of nature is believed to exist, even if no better alternative theory
is at hand.

The progress of science involves experimental facts, laws tying the facts together,
hypothesis, test of the hypothesis against past facts, prediction of new facts and further tests,
theory, elaboration, and application.

The evolution of theories in physical science does not follow a set pattern, but some
elements can be discerned throughout the history of science.
● Tycho de Brahe's accurate observations of planetary positions proved to be vital
experimental facts in the evolution of the theory of mechanics.
● Johannes Kepler discovered the laws of planetary motion which tied together the
facts and made further progress possible.
● Newton drew together contributions to mechanics and created the theory of
mechanics, which accounted for past observations and led to the prediction of new
ones, passing its most crucial test in 1846 when the planet Neptune was discovered
where it was predicted to be.

Theory and experiment often develop side by side through mutual cross-fertilization.
● The experimenter without ideas can discover an endless sequence of useless facts.
● The theorist unbridled by the limitations of experiment can produce a stream of
fanciful ideas that have nothing to do with nature.

Public Attitudes towards Science

The world has changed significantly in the last hundred years, and it will continue to do
so in the next hundred.
● The past was not ideal; life was challenging for the vast majority of the population.
● Privileged minorities enjoyed certain benefits, but they also had to do without modern
medicine.
● Childbirth was highly risky for women in the past.

It is impossible to turn back time and forget the knowledge and techniques that have been
developed.
● Even if government funding for research were cut off, the force of competition would
still bring about advances in technology.
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 ● Human initiative and ingenuity make it impossible to prevent further developments
entirely.
● The only way to prevent progress would be a global totalitarian state, but even
then, it would only slow down the rate of change.

We should strive to ensure that science and technology bring about positive changes.
● In a democratic society, the public needs to have a basic understanding of science
to make informed decisions and not leave them to experts.
● The public has an ambivalent attitude toward science, expecting the benefits of
science and technology to continue but also distrusting it because of a lack of
understanding.
● This distrust is evident in the portrayal of the mad scientist in popular culture and
supports for Green parties.
● However, the public also has a great interest in science, particularly astronomy, as
evidenced by the large audiences for science programs and science fiction.

The public needs a basic understanding of science to make informed decisions about
important issues like acid rain, the greenhouse effect, nuclear weapons, and genetic
engineering.
● The basis for this understanding must lie in what is taught in schools.
● Science is often taught in a dry and uninteresting manner in schools, which causes
children to learn it by rote to pass exams and not see its relevance to the world around
them.
● Scientists and engineers tend to express their ideas in the form of equations, which
can be intimidating and not necessary for a qualitative grasp of scientific concepts.

Pop culture representations of science can help put across new developments, but even
the most successful popular book is read by only a small proportion of the population.
● Only television can reach a truly mass audience.
● Some television programs present scientific wonders as magic without explaining
them or showing how they fit into the framework of scientific ideas.
● Producers of television science programs have a responsibility to educate the public,
not just entertain them.

The most urgent science-related issue that the public will have to make decisions on in the
near future is nuclear weapons.
● Nuclear war could mean the end of all human life on earth within days.
● The danger of nuclear war still exists as long as there are enough weapons to kill the
entire population of the world many times over.
● Relatively minor powers are now acquiring nuclear weapons which is more worrying.

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It is important that the public realize the danger and put pressure on all governments to agree
to large arms cuts to lessen the danger by reducing the number of weapons.

Other dangers that could destroy us all exist even if we manage to avoid a nuclear war.
● Civilization tends to destroy themselves when they reach our stage.
● The public can play a role in preventing this by making informed decisions and
pressuring governments to act responsibly.

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 Science 10: Module 2

A critique of Hubble’s Classic Paper a Century After

Edwin Hubble's 1929 PNAS paper on the observed relation between distance and
recession velocity of galaxies unveiled the expanding universe and forever changed our
understanding of the cosmos.
● Hubble's paper presented the observational evidence for the expanding
universe, showing that galaxies are receding away from us with a velocity that is
proportional to their distance from us.
● Hubble's graph of the observed velocity vs. distance for nearby galaxies revealed a
linear relation between galaxy velocity and its distance, known as the Hubble Law,
which indicates a constant expansion of the cosmos.
● The Hubble Constant represents the constant rate of cosmic expansion caused by
the stretching of space-time itself, and its value today is about 70 km/s/Mpc.

The expanding universe is a very large, old universe that has been evolving for 14 billion
years and contains dark matter, dark energy, and billions of galaxies.
● The Hubble Law shows that distant galaxies are moving away from us faster than
nearby galaxies, indicating that the universe is expanding at a constant rate.
● The Hubble Time, which reflects the time since a linear cosmic expansion has
begun, is about 14 billion years based on the current value of the Hubble Constant.
● The discovery of the expanding universe has inaugurated the field of observational
cosmology, which has uncovered an amazingly vast universe.

Hubble's remarkable observational relation was obtained using 24 nearby galaxies for
which both measured velocities and distances were available.
● Most of the velocities were from the pioneering spectroscopic Doppler-shift
observations by the famous astronomer Vesto Melvin Slipher.
● The distances to these galaxies had been measured by Hubble from the apparent
brightness of their stars and, for the four most distant galaxies in the sample, from
their galactic brightness.
● Hubble used stars (or galaxies) as “standard candles” and compared their known
intrinsic luminosity with their observed apparent brightness to yield the distance to
each object.

Hubble binned the individual 24 galaxies into nine groups based on their proximity in
direction and distance; this was a good way to minimize the large scatter.

Hubble used an additional 22 galaxies for which velocities were available but no
individually estimated distances.
● For these galaxies, Hubble used the mean velocity of the 22 galaxies and estimated
their mean distance from their mean observed brightness.

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Hubble's work rested on the accumulated body of scientific data at the time, including
velocities determined by Slipher and numerous attempts at distance measurements using a
variety of standard candles.
● Hubble used Cepheid stars to calibrate his distances, which were discovered by
Henrietta Swan Leavitt in 1912.

Hubble was fortunate to use the most powerful telescope in the world at that time, the 100-
in. Hooker telescope at Mount Wilson, which enabled him to identify individual stars in
galaxies and thus reveal their distances.

Despite a large systematic calibration error, Hubble had succeeded in unveiling convincingly
the remarkable relation between velocity and distance.
● Hubble concludes: "For such scanty material, so poorly distributed, the results
are fairly definite."

Hubble's paper was the definitive work that convinced the scientific community of the
existence of this observed relation and thus of an expanding universe.
● Previous works by Lemaitre and Robertson laid out the theoretical foundation, but
Hubble's paper was the definitive work that convinced the scientific community.

Hubble’s diagram of velocity vs. distance shows a clear trend of increasing velocity with
distance, suggesting that the universe is expanding in all directions.
● Einstein introduced a cosmological constant into his equations to keep the universe
static, as it was then believed to be.
● Friedmann (1922) and Lemaitre (1927) papers suggested a possible but inconclusive
relation between velocity and distance, which would be expected for the nonstatic
universe.
● Hubble’s discovery provided the turning point for the expanding universe, and
numerous observations of the Hubble Law have been carried out to much greater
distances and with much higher precision.

Over the decades since Hubble’s discovery, the observed Hubble Diagram using
Supernovae type Ia (SNIa) as distance indicators presents a beautiful linear relation
observed to these distances, a remarkable triumph to Hubble’s results.
● Hubble’s values for his distances in 1929 were wrong, by a large factor of ∼7, but
despite this large difference and its major implications for the expansion rate and age
of the universe, Hubble’s fundamental discovery of the expanding universe is not
affected.
● The underlying linear v ∼ d relation remains unchanged, and the well-calibrated value
for the expansion rate Ho is Ho = 70 (±∼2) km/s/Mpc.

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Hubble's discovery inaugurated the field of observational cosmology and opened up a
magnificent vast universe to be explored.
● Observations of the large-scale structure of the universe, clusters of galaxies, SNIa
and the cosmic microwave background radiation have revealed an amazing universe.
● The universe is flat and contains 5% baryons, 25% exotic nonbaryonic dark matter,
and 70% dark energy that causes the current expansion rate of the universe to
accelerate.
● The nature of the mysterious dark energy that causes this acceleration is not yet
known.

Using Hubble's Law enables the crucial determination of Hubble distances to galaxies and
quasars.
● In turn, these distances enable the determination of the 3D location and distribution
of millions of galaxies and quasars from their observed spectroscopic Doppler shift
(redshift) velocities obtained from large redshift surveys of galaxies.
● The evolution of galaxies and quasars from the young ∼1-billion-year-old universe to
today is enabled by measuring these distances.
● An accurate determination of the age of the universe has also been enabled from
the precisely measured Hubble Constant, when combined with the cosmological
parameters above, to be 13.8 ± 0.1 billion years.

The linear relation observed at small distances starts deviating from linearity at large
distances due to the specific cosmology of the universe, including the cosmic mass
density and the amount and nature of the dark energy.
● The small deviation from linearity, seen at large distances, is the observational
evidence for the accelerating universe.

Hubble's discovery has opened up remarkable research in numerous other areas, such as
the large-scale structure of the universe, the evolution and properties of galaxies and
quasars, and the evolution of the universe as a whole.
● Such research includes measuring distances to galaxies from their spectroscopic
redshifts and photometric redshifts obtained from multiband imaging surveys.
● An accurate determination of the age of the universe has also been enabled from the
precisely measured Hubble Constant.

Hubble's discovery portrays an amazing scientific tale that changed the course of science
by revealing the expanding universe.
● Despite his distances having a large systematic error by a factor of seven, his
velocities coming mostly from those measured by Slipher, and using a small sample
of merely 24 nearby galaxies, his main result of the velocity vs. distance relation
changed the course of science.

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 ● The Hubble Law, the Hubble Constant, and the exploration of the universe in
general are just a few examples of the all-encompassing applications of Hubble's
discovery.

The First Elementary Particles

J.J. Thomson's discovery of the electron was a triumph of theoretical preconceptions
over experimental virtuosity.
● Thomson's reputation was largely based on his mathematical work rather than his
experimental skills.
● Thomson's measurement of the mass-to-charge ratio of the cathode-ray particle was
not as accurate as those done at the same time by other physicists.
● Thomson's discovery of the electron was based on his belief in the atomistic
intellectual tradition of Newton, Prout, and Dalton.

Thomson's best achievement as an experimentalist was his demonstration that particles

emitted from metal surfaces in photoelectric and thermoelectric effects have the same
ratio of mass to charge as the particle of the cathode rays.
● This supported his claim that all these particles are the same.
● This led physicists to begin calling this particle the electron.

Thomson also carried out a crude measurement of the electric charge of the electron,
which allowed for the inference of the charges of ions and the masses of atoms.
● This discovery helped establish the existence of atoms but also showed that they
are not the indivisible constituents of matter.
● Electrons could be ripped out of atoms, indicating that atoms were not elementary
particles.

The discovery of atomic nuclei in Ernest Rutherford's laboratory in 1911 led to the
assumption that they were not elementary.
● This was partly due to the fact that some radioactive nuclei emit electrons and other
particles.
● The charges and masses of nuclei could be explained by assuming that they are
composed of two types of elementary particles: electrons and protons.

In the 1920s, the idea that all matter consists of just two types of elementary particle became
pervasive and resilient.
● When the neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932, it was generally
assumed to be a composite of one proton and one electron.
● It was the discovery of the charge independence of nuclear forces in 1936 that
showed clearly that neutrons and protons have to be treated in the same way; if
protons are elementary, then neutrons must be elementary too.

4
The roster of so-called elementary particles increased greatly after the discovery of the
neutron.
● The first new particle to be discovered was the positron, the antiparticle of the
electron.
● The muon, a sort of heavy electron, was added to the list in 1937.
● Strongly interacting particles called pions, kaons and hyperons were discovered in
the late 1940s.
● The weakly interacting particle called the neutrino had been proposed in 1930 but
was not detected until 1955.
● In the late 1950s, particle accelerators and bubble chambers revealed a great
variety of new strongly interacting particles.

Theorists speculated that most of these particles are composites of a few types of
elementary particles.
● The old answer - that particles are elementary if you can't knock anything out of them
- was inadequate.
● The principle of 'nuclear democracy' held that any particle may be considered to be
a bound state of any other particles, as long as conservation laws are respected.

The difference between elementary and composite particles has disappeared.

● In a 1975 talk to the German Physical Society, Werner Heisenberg stated that the
difference between elementary and composite particles has basically disappeared.

According to quantum field theory, the basic ingredients of nature are fields, not particles.
● Elementary particles are defined as those whose fields appear in the fundamental
field equations.
● Physicists in the 1950s and 1960s attempted to find an objective way to determine
whether a particle is elementary or composite when the underlying theory is not
known.
● The lack of any purely empirical way of distinguishing composite and elementary
particles does not mean that this distinction is not useful.

The distinction between elementary and composite particles became much clearer with the
development of the Standard Model.
● The Standard Model describes the fields of quarks, leptons, the photon and its
siblings, and other particles.
● Quarks, leptons, and the photon and its siblings are considered elementary
particles, while particles like the proton and neutron are composites of quarks and
gluons.

The Standard Model lacks a clear mechanism for giving elementary particles their masses.
● The masses of elementary particles depend on constants that are free parameters of
the theory.
5
 ● All the elementary particles should have roughly equal masses, but this is not the
case in reality.
● The electron is the lightest of all the massive elementary particles, and its mass is
180,000 times smaller than the Z^0 mass.

The electron is one of three electrically charged leptons, but its importance in ordinary life
reflects its stability as the lightest of the three.
● Muons and tauons are not present in the matter around us because their extra
energy can be released when they decay into electrons and neutrinos.
● In principle, electrons can be turned into muons or tauons by hitting them with a high-
energy neutrino.
● Electrons do not play a more fundamental role in the laws of physics than other
leptons or quarks.

Dirac's theory about the electron's spin was a significant step forward in our understanding,
but his argument about the spin was incorrect.
● Dirac's analysis only assumed that the electron was an elementary particle and must
be described by a relativistic generalization of non-relativistic wave mechanics.
● Relativistic quantum mechanics does not need to be formulated as a relativistic
generalization of wave mechanics, and quantum field theory allows for elementary
particles of any spin.
● Other particles, such as the W+, W-, and Z^0 particles, seem to be as elementary
as the electron but have spin one rather than spin one-half.

Understanding of quantum field theory has taken a turn since the late 1970s, which led to
the discovery that particles may be described at low energies by fields appearing in effective
quantum field theories.
● Nucleon and pion fields do not appear in the Standard Model but are described by
an effective quantum field theory of pion and nucleon fields.
● Effective quantum field theory is used by invoking general principles of relativistic
quantum theories and relevant symmetries without assuming anything about the
fundamental structures of physics.

Quarks, gluons, photons, W+, W", Z^0, electrons and other leptons are considered
more elementary than nucleons and pions because their fields appear in the Standard Model,
which applies over a wider range of energies.
● No final conclusion can be reached about the elementarity of quarks, gluons or even
electrons themselves as the Standard Model is probably an effective quantum field
theory that serves as an approximation to some more fundamental theory whose
details would be revealed at higher energies.

It is possible that particles in the Standard Model are composites of more elementary
particles, and the sizes of particles could provide evidence for this.
6
 ● Having a non-zero size is not in itself a sign that a particle is not elementary, and the
important thing is whether the measured effects of the finite size of the particle are
equal to those calculated in quantum electrodynamics.
● Experiments show that the strength of the magnetic field of the electron is
1.001159652188(4) in natural atomic units, while quantum electrodynamics gives a
value 1.00115965214(3), indicating that if electrons are composite particles, then the
energies involved in their binding must be much larger than those probed in today's
high-energy physics experiments.

A final answer to the question of which particles are elementary may not be possible until a
final theory of force and matter is developed.
● Many theorists think that the fundamental theory is something like a superstring
theory, in which particles such as the electron and quarks are just different low-
frequency modes of vibration of strings.
● Fields like the electromagnetic field and the electron field are not fundamental from
the point of view of superstring theory but appear only in an approximate description
of phenomena valid at low energies.
● Identifying one set of strings as truly elementary is impossible because different string
theories with different types of string are equivalent.

The task of physics is not to answer fixed questions about nature, such as deciding which
particles are elementary, but to discover the right questions to ask, which often only become
clear close to an answer.