The first void. Thanks Torricelli. With scientific proof that a vacuum exists, the a-tom surely couldn't have been far away. Not only would the vacuum lead to advancements in physics, it also led to the discovery of Boyle's Law.
In this chapter we see the evolution of the elemental theories. The advancement from the original 4 elements (earth, fire, wind, water) to the periodic table of elements that we now have in our high school science classes.
Dalton had the right idea, but he jumped the gun. He claimed his discovery to be atoms. After reading this book, i now know that they were wrongly given the name "atom", however, for a discovery made in 1808, it is extremely spectacular.
It is also amazing how close a person can come to being right. William Prout came extremely close to discovering protons and neutrons. He thought that hydrogen was the base element.
Faraday made major discoveries in electricity and magnetism. It took him much longer, however, to discover the unity of electricity and magnetism. The most important cancept that he introduced was that of the field (the ability of space to be disturbed because of a source somwhere). Much like a magnet pulling iron nails. He introduced the idea that there was "strain" on the space around the magnet.
Key transitions: -Oersted to Ampère to Faraday.
-Faraday to Maxwell to Hertz.
All of this led to the discovery of the electron (after much blood, sweat, and tears).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment