A Way of Knowing

Physics 215 - Winter Quarter 2003

A liberal-arts physics course specifically for non-science majors

Lecturer:

Prof. Paul Boynton boynton@u.washington.edu

Required Texts:

Science and the Human Prospect, Ronald Pine (available on web) click here

Cosmology: A Cosmic Perspective , Paul Boynton (available on web) click here

Other Links of Interest:

Changing size of moon (animation files are located at the bottom of the page) click here

Overview

Since the latter part of the 19th century, advances in physical science and associated technologies have reshaped the way we conduct our daily lives. Our great-great-grandparents would hardly recognize the world we live in today. In addition to the electrification of the Industrial Revolution, this science has provided the means for global communication and transportation, and introduced nuclear power. Subsequently, discoveries in the physics of matter spawned the transistor, Silicon Valley, and the so-called information superhighway that now rises up to meet us . . . ready or not.

Although these seem profound enough changes, the full impact of the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries is not measured by these relatively recent technological innovations. Rather, these are only manifestations of the contribution made by science to the fundamental change in how we have come to think about the world and ourselves in modern times.

The character of physical science was determined largely some 400 years ago with major contributions from Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton. This was also the time of Descartes, the beginnings of philosophical “quest for certainty,” and the laying of groundwork for the emergence of scientific thinking. Physical science is both a progenitor and the most fruitful undertaking of this revolutionary period, and is consequently both a foundation and a product of modernity.

In A Way of Knowing, we gain insight to modern science and the modern condition by studying the character and culture of inquiry to the nature of the physical world in four historical periods: Classical Antiquity, Hellenism, the late Renaissance, and the early Twentieth Century. In doing so, we discover not only the success and power of our modern way of knowing the physical world, but also how this approach contrasts with earlier modes of inquiry, as well as with the pseudo science of any era. The central theme we pursue through these four periods is the phenomenon of gravitation and how the Western approach to interpreting this fundamental aspect of our experience of the world has changed over the past two millennia.

This is a physical science course whose only prerequisite is familiarity with high school algebra and geometry. Learning about science requires doing some science, which in turn requires some basic skills in quantitative reasoning and critical thinking. In modern times, there is no other way to grasp the compelling, underlying connection between a falling apple, the mechanics of space travel, and the nature of a black hole. This is our way of knowing.