TTC Video – Einstein’s Legacy: Modern Physics All around You

The name Albert Einstein conjures up some of the most brain-bending ideas in the history of science, notably his special and general theories of relativity and his key contributions to quantum mechanics. No concepts, it seems, could be farther removed from daily life. Or are they? It turns out that the abstruse theories developed by Einstein and the other pioneers of 20th-century physics show up in everyday activities such as these

Photon Toast. The energy given off by hot objects, including toasters, was not understood theoretically until 1900, when Max Planck proposed the existence of quanta of energy, later termed photons. These ubiquitous particles of light became the basis for quantum theory.
Spacetime Navigation. The satellites in the Global Positioning System (GPS) map locations on Earth with amazing precision thanks to Einstein’s theories of relativity, which account for time dilation and spacetime curvature experienced by the satellites, which would otherwise be hopelessly inaccurate.
Quantum Sentinel. Smoke detectors can spot soot particulates in fast-burning fires thanks to a phenomenon called quantum tunneling, in which subatomic particles magically appear on the other side of a seemingly impenetrable barrier. Smoke disrupts the flow of these particles, initiating the alarm.
Given these and many other applications, our familiar surroundings provide a perfect vehicle for understanding contemporary physics, especially quantum mechanics. In 12 fascinating half-hour lectures designed for non-scientists, Einstein’s Legacy: Modern Physics All around You introduces the fundamental ideas that have changed our understanding of physical reality, while simultaneously improving our lives.

Your expert is Chad Orzel, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Union College. In these lucid and often light-hearted lectures, he plunges you deep into non-mathematical explanations of the way nature works at the subatomic level, relating particles and fields to everyday devices such as clocks, computers, lasers, magnets, and more.

See How the Quantum World Relates to Your World

A smartphone works due to a host of microphysics phenomena, among them the photoelectric effect, which was first explained by Einstein in a Nobel Prize-winning discovery. The photoelectric effect is the emission of electrons when light strikes a substance. The relationship between the type of light and the number of electrons emitted defied explanation, until Einstein showed that light is “quantized,” with light quanta (or photons) of a specific energy required to dislodge individual electrons. The effect has many uses, among them the digital camera in smartphones.

Other principles you explore in Einstein’s Legacy include

Bohr Model of the Atom. Niels Bohr’s quantum explanation of the spectral lines emitted by atoms showed that the lines are caused by electrons jumping between different energy states. The precise oscillations of the moving electrons serve as the basis for super-accurate clocks.
Pauli Exclusion Principle. Wolfgang Pauli’s innovation for keeping track of different quantum states is “one of the most significant ideas in quantum physics,” according to Professor Orzel. It accounts for everything from the solidity of matter to the structure of the periodic table of elements.
Quantum Entanglement. Related to Erwin Schrödinger’s famous cat paradox about a feline that is simultaneously dead and alive, this principle allows quantum particles to affect each other instantly over huge distances, raising the possibility of uncrackable codes communicated through quantum signals.
Find the Extraordinary Hidden in the Ordinary

Magnets are yet another interesting case. They have been exploited for practical purposes since at least the 12th century, when the Chinese invented the navigational compass using naturally magnetized iron stones. Today, magnets show up in countless products, from whimsical ornaments used for sticking photos and shopping lists onto appliances to high-density magnetic storage media for computer data. Yet explaining how magnets work requires surprisingly subtle physics and is rarely presented in popular accounts. Professor Orzel comes to the rescue, taking you down to the quantum level to discover why most material is non-magnetic, why iron is a notable exception, and why his new stainless-steel fridge frustratingly rejected his carefully curated collection of refrigerator magnets.

He goes on to show that without an understanding of the quantum nature of electrons, we wouldn’t be able to make many of our high-technology products, including the computer chips that are central to so many modern devices. And without an understanding of the quantum nature of light—a topic that Einstein helped pioneer—we wouldn’t be able to build the lasers that carry the internet over a global network of fiber-optic cables.

Even our sense of smell, a vital and complicated sense, can be—and is—explained through the chemical receptors in the nose that interact with a staggering number of molecules, distinguishing minute variations in their shape, which the brain interprets as markedly different odors.

Popular treatments of modern physics tend to emphasize the difficult and arcane aspects of the subject, which is a shame since this leaves many non-physicists with the impression that the breakthrough ideas of Einstein, Planck, Bohr, Pauli, Schrödinger, and others are far removed from our everyday reality and feel inaccessible, or even intimidating. The phenomena they describe seem abstract and esoteric, things that only matter if you’ve got a billion-dollar particle accelerator or are orbiting near a supermassive black hole.

“But that can’t be true,” insists Professor Orzel. “Physicists inhabit the same everyday world as everybody else, and we don’t just make theories up for no good reason. The modern theory of quantum mechanics exists because physicists were led to it by observations made right here, in the everyday reality we all deal with.” The same goes for relativity and other advances in physics.

Einstein’s Legacy is your entertaining and enlightening guide to the marvels that are hidden in the everyday things around you. Armed with the knowledge in this course, you will see how the seemingly ordinary is actually extraordinary.

What Will You Learn?
See how exotic physics applies to everyday objects

Explore the origins of relativity and quantum theory

Discover why natural magnets are so rare

Investigate how Schrödinger’s cat paradox applies to computer circuits

Learn why objects are solid even though atoms are mostly empty space

Examine how quantum cryptography is uncrackable