Universität Wien

260072 VO History of Physics (2022W)

Supplemented with the development of Physics at the University Vienna

3.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 26 - Physik

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

Language: English

Examination dates

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

Update 10.10.2022: The first unit of the History of Physics lecture on Wednesday 12.10.2022 from 9:00 to 10:30 will be held online via Zoom meeting. Participation will be enabled via Moodle, where the Zoom meeting is installed. The other lectures will take place on site in the Kurt-Gödel lecture hall and will also be recorded via Zoom as a service for the students.

Wednesday 12.10. 09:00 - 10:30 Kurt-Gödel-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, EG, 1090 Wien
Wednesday 19.10. 09:00 - 10:30 Kurt-Gödel-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, EG, 1090 Wien
Wednesday 09.11. 09:00 - 10:30 Kurt-Gödel-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, EG, 1090 Wien
Wednesday 16.11. 09:00 - 10:30 Kurt-Gödel-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, EG, 1090 Wien
Wednesday 23.11. 09:00 - 10:30 Kurt-Gödel-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, EG, 1090 Wien
Wednesday 30.11. 09:00 - 10:30 Kurt-Gödel-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, EG, 1090 Wien
Wednesday 07.12. 09:00 - 10:30 Kurt-Gödel-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, EG, 1090 Wien
Wednesday 14.12. 09:00 - 10:30 Kurt-Gödel-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, EG, 1090 Wien
Wednesday 11.01. 09:00 - 10:30 Kurt-Gödel-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, EG, 1090 Wien
Wednesday 18.01. 09:00 - 10:30 Kurt-Gödel-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, EG, 1090 Wien

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Objective of the lecture is the global and local knowledge of the historical background of today's physics.
The flow and content of the essential physical ideas and concepts is presented from the ancient world to date. Especially the development of physics at the University Vienna is considered and objects of the historical collection of the faculty of physics are shown.
Lecture series using a lot of graphics and pictures, presentation of objects and instruments from the historical collection.

Assessment and permitted materials

Oral examination, ca. 20 to 30 minutes. The contents of the lecture are examined. The check is carried out on site. Should the pandemic situation require it, the examination will be conducted via Jitsi video chat.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Minimum requirement for a positive examination is basic knowledge about four scopes of questions, all of them have to be evaluated positively:
First scope of questions: Aristotelian physics and physics in the antiquity.
Second scope of questions: Copernican system, Tycho Brahe, the works of Galilei, Kepler, Newton and Maxwell.
Third scope of questions: The highlights of the Viennese physicists in the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century.
Fourth scope of questions: One question about the remaining matter has to be answered at least basically.
Evaluation of the single questions:
"Sehr gut": for complete answer, autonomous description of relationships, only small faults may appear.
"Gut": for almost complete answer, description of relationships, incomplete answers may only appear at some points.
"Befriedigend": for good answer in general, however details are lacking.
"Genügend": Only very basic knowledge is replied, details are lacking.
The final mark will result from the arithmetic mean of the four scopes of questions, if all four scopes are answered positively.

Examination topics

The contents of the lecture are examined.

Reading list

David C. Lindberg: The Beginnings of Western Science, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1992.
Emilio Segrè: From Falling Bodies to Radio Waves. Classical Physicists and Their Discoveries. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York 1984.
Franz Sachslehner: The Historical Physics Collection, in: Academic Showcases. The Collections at the University of Vienna, Ed. Claudia Feigl, Böhlau, Köln, 2016, S. 147 -150.

Association in the course directory

M-ERG, UF MA PHYS 01a, UF MA PHYS 01b

Last modified: Mo 23.10.2023 11:48