Index#: 07574
Will NOT Count Towards Physics MAJOR
Will Count Towards Physics MINOR
This course is primarily directed at non-physics majors. It will have enough math in it to satisfy a distribution requirement but not so much that it should overwhelm a humanities major with a decent grasp of high school math. Students will first learn a little about probability theory, a mathematical theory invented by gamblers and insurers, whose purpose is to make predictions about things with incomplete information. We’ll learn an important rule: that the probability for something to change between two specified states in a given time interval is the sum of the probabilities for all possible histories that could make that change in the given time. This is called the probability sum rule. We’ll then make the observation that Pythagoras’ theorem from high school geometry gives us a definition of a mathematical probability theory, which does not obey the probability sum rule. This fact is the essence of all the ”mysterious” features of quantum mechanics. The puzzles are resolved when one shows that large things made of many atoms, obey the probability sum rule with such accuracy that detecting deviations from it is essentially impossible. We’ll then outline how the quantum view of the world enables us to explain many features of the objects around us that are completely mysterious from the point of view of previous physical theories. These include the stability of atoms, the solidity of matter, the fact that ovens don’t give off ultra-violet light and gamma rays as well as many other wonderful and necessary properties. Quantum mechanics is also essential to understanding all of chemistry (and thus, ultimately the origin and properties of life) as well as a lot of more exotic things like anti-particles, nuclear explosions and the way that stars work. We’ll also try to explain just a bit about the possibility of quantum computers, which may speed up the solution of certain problems so much that it might make previously insoluble problems soluble.
About Professor Banks
Thomas Banks got his BA from Reed College in Portland, OR, in 1969 and his Ph.D. at MIT in 1973. He has worked at Tel Aviv University, University of California, Santa Cruz, and Rutgers, and held numerous visiting appointments at Stanford and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. His areas of specialization are theoretical particle physics, cosmology, quantum field theory and string theory. In 2010 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.