The Second Scientific Revolution

The seventh lecture for a course on science.

Transcript

1. The Second Scientific Revolution
   Matter and energy in the 19th century
   George Matthews
   CC 2018
   

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2. “Nature and Nature’s Laws lay hid in Night: God said, ‘Let Newton be!’ and all
   was light.”
   Alexander Pope, 1727
   

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3. The Royal Society meets the Sun King
   

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5. Pittsburgh, 1900
   

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7. some unknowns in 1800
   

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8. some unknowns in 1800
   ! What are material objects made of?
   

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9. some unknowns in 1800
   ! What are material objects made of?
   ! How do chemical reactions occur?
   

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10. some unknowns in 1800
    ! What are material objects made of?
    ! How do chemical reactions occur?
    ! What is fire and why does it release heat?
    

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11. some unknowns in 1800
    ! What are material objects made of?
    ! How do chemical reactions occur?
    ! What is fire and why does it release heat?
    ! What are electricity and magnetism?
    

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12. some unknowns in 1800
    ! What are material objects made of?
    ! How do chemical reactions occur?
    ! What is fire and why does it release heat?
    ! What are electricity and magnetism?
    ! Why are some things living and some things
    not?
    

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13. some unknowns in 1800
    ! What are material objects made of?
    ! How do chemical reactions occur?
    ! What is fire and why does it release heat?
    ! What are electricity and magnetism?
    ! Why are some things living and some things
    not?
    ! Why does time go in only one direction?
    

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14. 1750’s: Jean-Antoine Nollet builds electrostatic generators,
    shocks 800 monks in demonstration.
    

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15. 1750’s: Benjamin Franklin shows that lightning is the same as
    static electricity by charging Leyden jar with kite in electrical storm.
    

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16. 1780’s: Luigi Galvani accidentally discovers that nerves are
    activated by electrical impulses.
    

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17. 1780’s: Galvani believes he has discovered “vital essence” of life,
    when frog legs twitch without an apparent source of electric charge.
    

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18. 1800: Alessandro Volta constructs voltaic pile – first battery,
    source of continuous electric current and proves Galvani wrong.
    

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19. 1803: Giovanni Aldini demonstrates “animal electricity” by making
    a newly dead human corpse twitch, and inspires Mary Shelley’s
    novel Frankenstein.
    

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20. 1804: Humphry Davy uses electric currents to isolate sodium,
    potassium, lithium and other elements.
    

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21. 1831: Michael Faraday discovers electrical induction – conductor
    moving in magnetic field generates electric current; electric current
    generates moving magnetic field.
    

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22. 1861: James Clerk Maxwell formulates set of equations
    describing electric and magnetic fields and their relationships.
    

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23. 1869: Dmitri Mendeleev formulates periodic table of the elements
    

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24. 1838: Theodor Schwann and Matthias Schleiden formulate
    cellular theory of life
    

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25. 1859: Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species
    

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26. connections
    

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27. connections
    ! Electricity is moving electrons.
    

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28. connections
    ! Electricity is moving electrons.
    ! Chemical reactions involve the sharing or
    exchange of electrons between atoms.
    

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29. connections
    ! Electricity is moving electrons.
    ! Chemical reactions involve the sharing or
    exchange of electrons between atoms.
    ! Heat is the average kinetic energy of the
    atoms of a substance.
    

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30. connections
    ! Electricity is moving electrons.
    ! Chemical reactions involve the sharing or
    exchange of electrons between atoms.
    ! Heat is the average kinetic energy of the
    atoms of a substance.
    ! Mechanical, thermal, electrical and chemical
    can all be converted into one another,
    though always at a loss.
    

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31. connections
    ! Electricity is moving electrons.
    ! Chemical reactions involve the sharing or
    exchange of electrons between atoms.
    ! Heat is the average kinetic energy of the
    atoms of a substance.
    ! Mechanical, thermal, electrical and chemical
    can all be converted into one another,
    though always at a loss.
    ! Biological cells are biochemical machines.
    

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32. connections
    ! Electricity is moving electrons.
    ! Chemical reactions involve the sharing or
    exchange of electrons between atoms.
    ! Heat is the average kinetic energy of the
    atoms of a substance.
    ! Mechanical, thermal, electrical and chemical
    can all be converted into one another,
    though always at a loss.
    ! Biological cells are biochemical machines.
    ! Animal nervous systems function
    electro-chemically.
    

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