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My Knotebooks (35)
Professor Lewin talks about some of the highlights from his early days at MIT. It began with balloon flights at very high altitude to make observations of the stars in X-rays. This led to discoveries of X-ray flaring events and a periodic X-ray source. In the seventies and eighties he made important contributions to our understanding of X-ray bursts (thermo-nuclear fusion in neutron stars).
x-ray astronomy, binary stars
Classical Mechanics, in spite of all of its impressive predictive power, fails to explain many microscopic behaviors. This led to the development of Quantum Mechanics, where electrons orbit nuclei in discrete energy levels, light can behave as a particle, and particles behave as waves. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is discussed and demonstrated.
quantum energy levels, heisenberg's uncertainty principle, heisenberg's uncertainty principle and diffraction
The ideal-gas law is introduced, and the rate of momentum transfer from the gas molecules to the vessel walls is related to pressure. The concepts of phase diagrams and phase transitions are also introduced, and they are explored with fire extinguishers, boiling water, and cooled balloons filled with air. The ideal-gas law holds (approximately) when you have only gas; not if is any liquid present.
ideal gas law, ideal gas law and overpressure, phase diagrams and phase transitions, phase transitions, atmospheric pressure and boiling water
Heat raises the temperature, and usually the volume of the material that absorbs the heat. The linear and cubical thermal expansion coefficients of metals (including mercury) are described and demonstrated. Ice is discussed as a special case.
temperature scales, linear thermal expansion, cubical thermal expansion
Systems consisting of pendulums and springs can freely oscillate at their natural frequencies. When we expose a system to a wide spectrum of frequencies, the response will be very large at the normal mode frequencies. Examples include musical instruments (standing waves on violin strings and pressure waves in wind instruments), and torsional standing waves on a bridge driven by strong winds.
transient and steady state response, resonances and normal modes, air pressure waves, resonance, resonant cavity