Материал: Гвоздева Пхысицс фор адванцед студентс 2011
VI. Give words close in meaning. |
|
1. that is |
5. to display |
2. so |
6. a bit |
3. up to the present moment |
7. This indicates |
4. to place something into something |
|
VII. Study grammar point I and do the exercise.
Use may, might, can, could, must + Vor be Ving or have V3 or have been Ving.
1.This is just an illusion.
2.We will know the answer one day.
3.If the theory of inflation is correct, the universe contains enough dark matter to bring the density up to the critical density.
4.The equipment hasn’t withstood the high temperature.
5.No-one in the early twentieth century suggested that the universe is evolving with time.
6.The neutrino has a small mass.
7.We know the laws that govern the universe.
8.The solutions to the equations of physics exhibit a property called chaos.
9.The equations of physics are unstable.
10.The universe has been going only for a finite time.
CLASS EXERCISES
Exercise 1 (in groups)
Checking up understanding
1.What does Hawking mean by ‘sometimes’ when he says that science is a frame into which the world can be fit?
2.How are laws discovered?
3.Why are we are unable to use the laws that govern the universe to predict far into the future?
4.What property may the solutions to the equations of physics exhi-
bit?
5.What does chaos mean?
6.What may the instability of equations result in?
7.What does the second law of thermodynamics state?
8.What is the total amount of disorder in the universe measured by?
9.What does the argument about human progress suggest?
−56 −
10.Why hasn’t the universe degenerated into a state of complete disorder so far?
11.At what temperature would everything be in a state of complete disorder in the universe?
Exercise 2 (do it yourself)
Analyze the sentences in terms of voice (active or passive) and translate them.
1.Почему мы не можем предсказывать далёкое будущее на основании тех законов, которые управляют вселенной?
2.Кто сформулировал второй закон термодинамики?
3.Что утверждает этот закон?
4.Какой величиной измеряется общее количество хаоса во вселенной?
5.Какой вывод можно из этого сделать?
6.Чем характеризуется состояние полного хаоса во вселенной?
UNIT 3
THEORY AND EXPERIMENT
“Everything that a man takes for granted in this universe can be questioned.”
Einstein
“The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking”
Sir William Bragg (1862–1942)
PRE-READING TASK
Study some grammar points.
I. Ving – a verbal noun
We use by + Ving to say how something happens.
Study the sentences.
1.For a time I could communicate only by raising my eyebrows when someone pointed to letters on a card.
2.I wrote scientific papers by dictating to a secretary.
−57 −
3. In the 17th century Bishop Ussher calculated a date of 40004 BC for the creation of the universe, a figure he arrived at by adding up the ages of people in the Old Testament.
II. The Passive Voice
On the basis of a passive infinitive to be V3 we form passive sentences and prefer passive when it is not important who or what does the action.
In passive sentences we use be (is, are, was, were, has been, will be etc) + V3.
Study the sentences.
1.In the 1930s quantum mechanics was applied with great success to systems such as atoms or molecules, which have only a finite number of degrees of freedom.
2.The problem has been overcome.
3.The interactions are divided into four categories and are represented by integer-spin fields.
Note: In passive sentences modal verbs are followed by be + V3
Study the sentences.
1.I want to discuss the possibility that the goal of theoretical physics might be achieved in the not-too-distant future.
2.The values of these quantities cannot be predicted by our theories. Instead, they have to be chosen to agree with observations.
III. We use to + V to talk about the purpose of doing something = why someone does something.
Study the sentence.
We cannot apply physical laws to deduce human behavior.
IV. One is a personal pronoun and can be used as the subject of a sentence = You. It is a formal subject. One is not translated.
Study the sentence.
One has to be very careful about making these predictions.
V. If we want to emphasize a word or a part of the sentence we use this structure
It is ……. that ……. Study the sentences.
1.It was the paper on photoelectric effect that won Einstein the Nobel Prize.
2.It is quantum mechanics that is the necessary ingredient.
−58 −
VI. N + to V or N + to be V3
The infinitive after a noun characterizes it and expresses an action that can be done or must be done.
Study the sentences.
1.The phenomenon to be described does not fit into the framework of present day science.
2.Murray Gell-Mann has the kind of mind to deal with high energy physics.
3.It is quantum mechanics that is the necessary ingredient to determine how the universe should begin.
Give Russian correspondence:
the only (single), a way (a method, a technique), as (since, because), from (on the basis), then (after that)
THE JUDGE OF SCIENTIFIC TRUTH
Before you start reading the passage, study the quotations.
1. “The principle of science, the definition almost, is the following: the test of all knowledge is experiment. Experiment is the judge of scientific truth. It does not make any difference how beautiful your guess is; it does not make any difference how smart you are; who made the guess or what his name is – if it disagrees with experiment, it is wrong. But experiment is not the only judge of scientific truth. Observation, reasoning and experiment are the essential parts of a scientific research.”
Feynman
2. “A good scientific theory can be falsified by observation.”
Karl Popper
3. “The great tragedy of science is the killing of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.”
Thomas Henry Huxley
4. “I never came upon my discoveries through the process of rational thinking. In some cases imagination is more important than knowledge.” Einstein
− 59 −
5. There is routine science, normal science and there are paradigm shifts. Routine science is done in industrial labs and it is almost technology. But science at its deepest level is an intensely creative activity, just like arts. People don’t realize how emotional an insight is when you almost suddenly find a new way of looking at things. People think that in science you just discover things, but you don’t invent. People think that the scientist discovers how the world works. But you have to imagine a beautiful new theory before you can verify it. The first step is an act of imagination. There is no systematic way to ask nature to reveal something which is a quantum leap forward.
Chitin, American mathematician
Note
a quantum jump – a quantum leap – a paradigm shift – a breakthrough
THE THEORY ALWAYS COMES FIRST
Study the passage. Mind the underlined grammar points.
We cannot understand what is real about the universe without a theory. I take the view that a theory of physics is just a mathematical model that we use to describe the results of observations. A theory is a good theory if it is an elegant model, if it describes a wide class of observations and if it predicts the results of new observations.
In theoretical physics, the search for logical consistency has always been more important than experimental results. I am sure Einstein, Heisenberg and Dirac were simply concerned that the existing theories didn’t fit together.
Elegant and beautiful theories have been rejected throughout the history of science because they don’t agree with observation, but I don’t know a major theory that has been advanced on the basis of experiment. The theory always comes first, as it is put forward from the desire to have an elegant and consistent mathematical model. The theory then makes predictions, which can be tested by observation. If the observations agree with the predictions, that does not prove the theory; but the theory survives to make further predictions, which are again tested against observations. If the observations do not agree with the predictions, one abandons the theory.
Stephen Hawking
− 60 −