An Example of a "Learning Process" Journal (using the 2 colored box format)

"Simply Einstein" by Richard Wolfson (Chap. 1, The Self-creating Universe and Other Absurdities. pp. 3 - 10)

• "You don't need to do math to grasp the essence of Einstein's relativity, and you don't need math to understand this book. ... What's important here are the big ideas - and they're all expressed in words." [p. x]
• "In 1998 Princeton physicist J. Richard Gott and his student Li-Xin Li published a paper "Can the Universe Create Itself? (this is available as a pdf file) (it is very mathematical)
• "The geometry of space and time is not, in fact, the geometry you learned in tenth grade. It's a much richer geometry." [p. 10]
• "... think of geometry as a branch of physics rather than mathematics ..." [p. 10]

The first quote should appear at the beginning of my data analysis course!

The Gott and Li paper is superb (even if I can't really understand it). The diagram they present of a time-loop universe is a classic.

Considering geometry as a branch of physics is definitely a new idea for me.

"Simply Einstein" by Richard Wolfson (Chap. 2, Tennis, Tea, and Time Travel. pp. 11 - 17)

• "In 1543, Copernicus's On the Revolutions of the Heavens ..." [p. 13]
• "The theory of relativity is, in its barest essence, just the simple statement that regardless of one's state of motion the laws of physics are the same." [p. 14]
• "... the consequences of that idea are anything but transparent." [p. 15]
• "... common sense is wrong because it's based on a very limited experience ..." [p. 15]

Copernicus leads me to creating a simple timeline:

• 1450 Gutenburg printing press
• 1493 Columbus discovers America
• 1517 Martin Luther begins the Reformation
• 1543 Copernicus "On the Revolutions of the Heavens"
• 1619 Kepler "Harmony of the World"
• 1642 Galileo dies, Isaac Newton is born

I have never seen the quote in red before. I like it!

"Simply Einstein" by Richard Wolfson (Chap. 3, Moving Heaven and Earth. pp. 18 - 35)

• "... the study of motion is profound ... motion is the source of all change." [p. 19]
• "Whatever else motion means, it involves passing through time and through space." [p. 20]
• "the ancient Greeks ... distinguished two distinct realms of physical reality, the terrestial and the celestial. ... the heavens ... are the abode of the gods and the realm of perfection. Here the stars and planets move naturally in the most perfect of paths, namely, circles centered on Earth" [p. 21]
• "Copernicus ... 1543 ... suggested that the Sun, rather than Earth, is the center of the Universe." [p. 22]
• "Kepler dispensed with the notion that celestial bodies must move in perfect circles." [p. 23]
• "Newton ... Now, for the first time, the same laws describe motion on Earth and in the heavens. ... a single physics governs the entire universe." [p. 28]
• "Newton ... Building on Galileo's work, he made precise the idea that the natural state of motion is uniform motion." [p. 29]
• "Newton's three laws of motion, coupled with his law of universal gravitation, seemed capable of explaining essentially all physical phenomena." [p. 31]
• "... scientists held the hope of explaining all physical phenomena ultimately in terms of the motions of particles obeying Newton's laws." [p. 31]
• "... how absurd it would be to assert that Earth alone among all the cosmos is truly at rest." [p. 33]
• " 'I am moving' and 'I am at rest' are meaningless statements." [p. 34]

The distinction between terrestial and celestial reality is one that I had never really recognized. It certainly helps me make sense of much of early science and even mathematics.

Similarly, the distinction between the laws of motion and the laws of all physics (particularly electromagnetism) is another new idea for me.

"Simply Einstein" by Richard Wolfson (Chap. 4, Let There Be Light. pp. 36 - 54)

• "A wave is a disturbance of some medium." [p. 36]
• "The disturbance moves through the medium, ... But the medium itself doesn't go anywhere. ... water from the distant ocean doesn't actually move toward shore with the waves." [p. 36]
• "Sound most definately is under the Newtonian umbrella, because it's entirely explainable by applying Newton's laws of motion to air molecules." [p.38 - 39]
• "Establishing the relation between electric current and magnetism marks the beginning of one of the great syntheses in human intellectual history - the joining of all electrical and magnetic phenomena, formerly believed distinct, under the single umbrella of electromagnetism." [p. 43]
• "Maxwell ... First, he establishes a fully consistent theory of electromagnetism, expressed succintly in the four Maxwell equations. He finds that his theory predicts an entirely new phenomenon - electromagnetic waves. Next he calculates the speed of those waves and recognizes that it's equal to the known speed of light. He then concludes that light consists of waves of electricity and magnetism." [p. 51]

Let me add a couple of entries to my timeline:

• 1450 Gutenburg printing press
• 1493 Columbus discovers America
• 1517 Martin Luther begins the Reformation
• 1543 Copernicus "On the Revolutions of the Heavens"
• 1619 Kepler "Harmony of the World"
• 1642 Galileo dies, Isaac Newton is born
• 1600 - 1750 development of mechanics
• 1750 - 1900 development of electromagetism

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