The 19th century was a formative time for physics. In this talk we shall briefly survey the progress that was made over the course of the 1800s in four key areas — mechanics, thermodynamics, electromagnetism, and statistical mechanics. We shall discuss the individuals responsible for these advancements in both theory and practical application — from Cavendish (b. 1731) to Marconi (b. 1874). Finally, we shall examine how the consolidation of physical laws and understanding that had been achieved by 1900 set the scene for a recognition of a need for “something new”.
Dr Alexy Karenowska is a physicist at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Magdalen College. She is an experimentalist whose research spans a range of topics — fundamental and applied — in the area of magnetic and electromagnetic dynamics. She has a strong interest in history of physics, particularly at the meeting point of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The origins of the Bohr model are discussed, including its use of the Correspondence Principle, followed by an account of the initial response – positive and negative, its many successes, but also its many failures, and finally the ideas that would make it obsolete.
Andrew Whitaker studied at Oxford and then performed research with Sir Peter Mansfield, later winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine in connection with the invention of MRI. More recently he has worked at Queen’s University Belfast mainly on the foundations of quantum theory, especially the quantum Zeno effect, and has published several books in this area: Einstein, Bohr and the Quantum Dilemma; The New Quantum Age; (with Dipankar Home) Einstein’s Struggles with Quantum Theory; and the first biography of John Bell: John Stewart Bell and Twentieth Century Physics. He has also become interested in the history of Irish physics and Victorian physics, and with Mark McCartney and Raymond Flood has edited: Physicists of Ireland; Kelvin: Life, Labours and Legacy; James Clark Maxwell: Perspectives on his Life and Work; George Gabriel Stokes: Life, Science and Faith; and Kelvin and Ireland.
Planck’s hypothesis of the quantum, and his introduction of the constants h and k, stems from nineteenth century thermodynamics and, in particular, the work of Boltzmann. I will discuss how the formulation of thermodynamics, and the anomalies that theory generated, laid the foundation for the work of the early quantum physicists, in particular Einstein. I will also describe the work of Bohr and van Leeuwen, that originated in a key thermodynamic idea, and which should have been, but wasn’t, pivotal in highlighting the need for quantum mechanics.
Stephen Blundell is Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford. His research focusses on magnetism and superconductivity and he is the author of several books published by Oxford University Press, including “Concepts in Thermal Physics” (with K.M. Blundell) and “Quantum Field Theory for the Gifted Amateur” (with T. Lancaster).
Louis-Victor de Broglie (1892-1987) secured his place in the history of quantum physics by proposing the existence of matter waves. Following the concept accepted early in the twentieth century that light waves could display properties characteristic of particles (photons), de Broglie suggested the complementary principle that particles could display properties characteristic of waves. De Broglie’s theoretical proposals were expounded in his PhD thesis submitted to the University of Paris in 1923 and in a subsequent paper in the Philosophical Magazine in 1924. These led, in particular, to the wavelength-momentum relation for matter that was experimentally verified within the following few years. Furthermore, his far-reaching ideas inspired both Heisenberg and Schrödinger to develop the mathematical foundations of quantum and wave mechanics.
After graduating in physics from the University of Birmingham and undertaking PhD research at the University of Reading, Professor Davis has held positions at the University of Illinois, the Xerox Corporation (USA), the University of Cambridge and the University of Leicester. He is currently a Distinguished Research Fellow in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge. Before retirement, his research interests were in solid-state physics, particularly semiconductors, amorphous materials and glasses. He is currently studying the work of the Victorian scientist and Nobel Laureate Lord Rayleigh, in addition to helping with the preservation of Rayleigh’s original laboratories around which he conducts regular tours. Professor Davis is Chairman of an International Advisory Committee responsible for organising a biennial series of conferences on the history of physics and is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Philosophical Magazine.
He has authored or co-authored over 200 papers
and 7 books, the latter including ‘Electronic Processes in Non-Crystalline
Materials’, N.F. Mott and E.A. Davis (Oxford University Press 1979); ‘Science
in the Making: scientific development as chronicled by historic papers in the
Philosophical Magazine’ in four volumes, E.A. Davis (Taylor & Francis
1995-1999); ‘J J Thomson and the Discovery of the Electron’, E.A. Davis
and I.J. Falconer (Taylor & Francis 1997).”
Professor Staley is a faculty member both in Cambridge and at the University of Copenhagen. He complements research on the relations between physics and anthropology, the cultural history of mechanics, and climate change with work in the history of science education and at the Niels Bohr Archive.
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