Transcript of a lecture given by tutor Howard Fisher on February 23, 2024 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: "Faraday made use of numerous electrical measuring instruments; but what, exactly, did they measure? What properties of electricity are "measurable" at all? Faraday's efforts to identify these properties raised a question which Meno would have recognized: how can we know the properties of electricity unless we first know what electricity actually is?"
Transcript of a lecture given by tutor Howard Fisher on April 26, 2023 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: "The technology of alternating current was developed almost entirely in response to the emerging demands of large-scale power generation and transmission. Perhaps for that reason, educational institutions tend to treat it as a subject of practical rather than theoretical interest: alternating current is studied extensively in engineering schools, more perfunctorily in physics departments. But alternating current reveals a number of perplexing electrical phenomena that carry deep theoretical significance. Maxwell understood these phenomena through several remarkable analogies, couched in a highly metaphorical terminology that later generations viewed with suspicion and disdain. Maxwell, though, understood that analogy and metaphor are the most intellectually responsible forms of expression when we are reaching towards theories that lie, as yet, beyond our grasp."
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Faraday’s galvanometer shares essential mechanical characteristics with our old friend the pendulum. I will discuss the design of Faraday’s instrument and demonstrate its distinctive action with the aid of a simple homemade model."]]>2023-11-27T20:05:56+00:00
Title
Faraday's Galvanometer
Description
Transcript of a lecture given on February 22, 2023 by Howard Fisher as part of the Dean's Lecture and Concert Series. The Dean's Office provided this description of the event: "Today we think of the galvanometer as a device that measures electric current. But Faraday’s galvanometer principally measured charge rather than current. That distinctive capability (which modern instruments do not possess) played a vital role in shaping Faraday’s understanding of magnetic lines of force—and especially their physical character.
Faraday’s galvanometer shares essential mechanical characteristics with our old friend the pendulum. I will discuss the design of Faraday’s instrument and demonstrate its distinctive action with the aid of a simple homemade model."
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will begin by exploring some of Kepler’s views on past failures, and then will apply Kepler’s criticism to Einstein’s views, especially his rejection of the ether. The inquiry will then consider the alternative account proposed by H. A. Lorentz, showing how the
contraction of bodies at high velocities was deduced from Maxwell’s electrodynamics without abandoning the ether. The lecture then concludes by considering remarks of more recent physicists, most notably John Bell, on the possibility of reviving the ether to solve the local reality problem in quantum physics."]]>2023-11-27T20:05:54+00:00
Title
What would Kepler say to Einstein?
Description
Transcript of a lecture given on November 5, 2021 by William Donahue as part of the Dean's Lecture and Concert Series. The Dean's Office provided this description of the event: "Einstein once wrote that there is little value, other than the satisfaction of intellectual curiosity, in studying scientific works of the past. Kepler would not agree, and were he alive today he would criticize Einstein for repeating errors of early science. This lecture
will begin by exploring some of Kepler’s views on past failures, and then will apply Kepler’s criticism to Einstein’s views, especially his rejection of the ether. The inquiry will then consider the alternative account proposed by H. A. Lorentz, showing how the
contraction of bodies at high velocities was deduced from Maxwell’s electrodynamics without abandoning the ether. The lecture then concludes by considering remarks of more recent physicists, most notably John Bell, on the possibility of reviving the ether to solve the local reality problem in quantum physics."
Transcript of a lecture given on October 21, 2020 by Cary Stickney as part of the Dean's Lecture and Concert Series. The Dean's Office provided this description of the event: "Can beautiful speeches give rise to beautiful deeds? Please join the SJC Campus Community for our virtual Dean’s Lecture & Concert Series featuring St. John’s College Santa Fe Tutor, Cary Stickney. Cary will be giving a lecture titled 'Incommensurability: Meno and the Diagonal.'"
Transcript of a lecture given on June 16, 2021 by Ken Wolfe as part of the Graduate Institute Summer Lecture Series. Mr. Wolfe provided this description of the event: "In this introduction to the Qur'an, I will explore the context of its composition within the life of Muhammad and 6th century Arabia, its form and content, its relation to other texts and traditions (the Bible, Judaism, Christianity), and its influence upon certain aspects of the Islamic tradition."
Learning to love Lincoln : Frederick Douglass's journey from grievance to gratitude
Description
Transcript of a lecture given on December 4, 2020 by Diana Schaub as part of the Dean's Lecture and Concert Series. The Dean's Office provided this description of the event: "Having originally been a severe critic of Abraham Lincoln, the radical abolitionist Frederick Douglass grew to appreciate Lincoln’s prudential statesmanship. In his 1876 'Oration in Memory of Lincoln' he recapitulated that intellectual and emotional journey for the benefit of all Americans.
Transcript of a lecture given on November 18, 2020 by Howard Fisher as part of the Dean's Lecture and Concert Series. The Dean's Office provided this description of the event: "With Galileo, we learn to understand the two natural motions by reducing change to constancy (constant speed, constant acceleration). But trying to understand the motion of a pendulum by Galileo’s way generates an infinite task. Instead, we look to the Form of pendular motion: the Paradigm Circle. To what extent does the Paradigm Circle tell us which properties of the pendulum are essential to its distinctive motion, and which are merely extrinsic or fortuitous? We will look at several pendulum clock mechanisms, as well as a mechanical device that demonstrates the relation between the pendulum and its Paradigm."