Catalog

Einstein, Oppenheimer, Feynman: Physics in the 20th Century

Science, Technology, and Society MIT CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 25 lectures

This class explores the changing roles of physics and physicists during the 20th century. Topics range from relativity theory and quantum mechanics to high-energy physics and cosmology. We examine the development of modern physics and the role of physicists within shifting institutional, cultural, and political contexts, such as Imperial Britain, Nazi Germany, and the US during World War II, and the Cold War.

Syllabus

  1. 1 Lecture 1: Introduction to Einstein, Oppenheimer, Feynman: Physics in the 20th Century
  2. 2 Lecture 2: Faraday, Thomson, and Maxwell: Lines of Force in the Ether
  3. 3 Lecture 3: Worldviews, Wranglers, and the Making of Theoretical Physicists
  4. 4 Lecture 4: Waves in the Ether
  5. 5 Lecture 5: Einstein and Experiment
  6. 6 Lecture 6: Reception of Special Relativity
  7. 7 Lecture 7: A Political History of Gravity
  8. 8 Lecture 8: Rethinking Light
  9. 9 Lecture 9: Rethinking Matter
  10. 10 Lecture 10: Matrices and Uncertainty
  11. 11 Lecture 11: Waves and Probabilities
  12. 12 Lecture 12: Quantum Weirdness: Schrödinger’s Cat, EPR, and Bell’s Theorem
  13. 13 Lecture 13: Physics under Hitler
  14. 14 Lecture 14: Radar and the Manhattan Project
  15. 15 Optional Discussion: The Day After Trinity
  16. 16 Lecture 16: Secrecy and Security in the Nuclear Age
  17. 17 Optional Discussion: Containment
  18. 18 Lecture 18: Coldwar Classroom: Teaching Quantum Theory in Postwar American Physics
  19. 19 Lecture 19: Counterculture and Physics
  20. 20 Lecture 20: A Conservative Revolution: QED and Renormalization
  21. 21 Lecture 21: Teaching Feynman's Tools: The Dispersion of Feynman Diagrams in Postwar Physics
  22. 22 Lecture 22: Quarks, QCD, and the Rise of the Standard Model
  23. 23 Lecture 23: The Birth of Particle Cosmology
  24. 24 Lecture 24: The Big Bang, Cosmic Inflation, and the Latest Observations
  25. 25 Lecture 25: String Theory and the Multiverse

Course materials