Contents


0. What is science.
Hellenistic science.

1. Thermodynamics (in historical perspective).
Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.
Equipartition of energy.

2. Entropy.
Boltzmann entropy's formula.
Gibbs' Paradox. Entropy/Information.

3. Atoms.
Mean free path. Diffusion.
Fluctuations. Brownian motion.

4. Determinations of Avogadro constant.
Brightness and color of the sky.
Rayleigh scattering.

5. The electric charge.
Electrolysis.
Direct determination of elementary charge.

6. The electron.
Crookes tube. Cathode rays.
J.J. Thomson's discovery of the electron.

7. Radioactivity, isotopy.
Natural radioactivity. Isotopes.
Isotopes in nonradioactive elements: J.J. Thomson's method.
Mass spectrometry.

8. The nucleus.
Alfa particles. Geiger counter.
Geiger-Marsden experiment.
Rutherford's nuclear theory of the atom.
The concept of cross section of something for a given process.
Thomson scattering by electrons and
Chadwick's determination of the electric charge of the nucleus.

9. The proton, the neutron.
Rutherford's discovery of artificial disintegration.
Chadwick's discovery of the neutron.
Nuclear binding energies.
The discovery of nuclear fission.

10. Particles.
Nuclear beta- decay. The birth of the neutrino concept.
Fermi's theory of beta decay. Neutron decay.
Cosmic rays (their discovery, discovery of the positron, the muon, and the pion).
The power of scattering processes for
the investigation of matter constituents.
Particle accelerators. Fixed target collisions. Colliders.
B. Touschek and the first e+e- collider.


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