| I. Introduction and Background |
| Week 1: Course Organization and Introduction |
| 1 |
Introductory Lecture |
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| Week 2: The Nineteenth-Century Legacy |
| 2 |
Maxwell, Electrodynamics, and Cambridge Wranglers |
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| 3 |
Mechanical and Electrodynamical World Pictures, and the Rise of Theoretical Physics |
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| II. Einstein: Relativity, Quanta, and the Philosopher-Scientist |
| Week 3: The Origins of Special Relativity: Physical, Philosophical, Experimental |
| 4 |
Special Relativity and the Ether |
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| 5 |
Einstein and Experiment |
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| Week 4: From the Special to the General Theory |
| 6 |
The Reception of Special Relativity |
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| 7 |
The Origins of General Relativity |
First Paper Due |
| Week 5: From Quantum Theory to Quantum Mechanics |
| 8 |
Radiation, Quanta, and Atoms, 1900-1913 |
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| 9 |
Matrices and Waves |
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| Week 6: Interpreting Quantum Mechanics |
| 10 |
The Einstein-Bohr Debate |
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| 11 |
The Contexts of Quanta: Weimar Germany, Interwar US |
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| Week 7: Midterm Extravaganza |
| 12 |
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In-class Midterm Examination |
| III. Oppenheimer: Physics, Physicists, and the State |
| Week 8: Shifting Topics and Centers |
| 13 |
Nuclear Physics in the 1930s; From Europe to America |
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| 14 |
Physics under Hitler: deutsche Physik and the bomb |
Second Paper Due |
| Week 9: The Physicists' War |
| 15 |
Physics in the US: Radar and the Atomic Bomb |
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| 16 |
Film: The Day After Trinity |
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| Week 10: The H-Bomb and Beyond |
| 17 |
McCarthyism and the Oppenheimer Hearing |
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| 18 |
Film: The Decision to Build the H-Bomb |
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| IV. Feynman and Postwar American Theory |
| Week 11: Particles and Fields |
| 19 |
The Rise of Big Science |
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| 20 |
The Conservative Revolution: QED and Renormalization |
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| Week 12: Conundrums and Conflict in Particle Theory |
| 21 |
The Challenge to Field Theory |
Second Paper Re-write Due |
| 22 |
Quarks, Gauge Fields, and the Rise of the Standard Model |
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| Week 13: Solid-State Physics in the Lab and in the Factory |
| 23 |
Building a Solid-State Community |
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| Week 14: Cosmology and Unification |
| 24 |
Big Bang v. Steady-State Cosmology |
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| 25 |
Inflation and Superstrings |
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| Week 15: Summary |
| 26 |
Course Summary |
Final Paper Due |