Essay #1: Space travel.

Due Mon 3. Oct.

• The Brick Moon (Hale)
• From the Earth to the Moon (Verne)
• First Men in the Moon (Wells)
• Mission of Gravity (Clement)
• Neutron Star (Niven)
• 2001, A Space Odyssey (Clarke)

or
Expand on the physical limitations on space travel and discuss the various ideas that are being/might be applied to future missions: e.g.

• Space elevator
• Plasma/ion drives
• Solar sails

Essay # 2: Physics & the Visual Arts

Due Monday 31 Oct

• Daniel J. Boorstin, The Discoverers - A History of Man's Search to Know his World and Himself (Random House, New York, 1983). ISBN 0-394-72625-1.
• Hilary T. Hamann, Categories - On the Beauty of Physics. Essential Physics Concepts and their Companions in Art and Literature (Vernacular Press, New York, 2005). ISBN 0-9740266-3-8.
• Paul Johnson, Art: A New History (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 2003). ISBN 0-297-82928-9.
• Martin Kemp, The Science of Art: Optical themes in western art from Brunelleschi to Seurat (Yale University Press, New Haven CT, 1990). ISBN 0-300-4337-6 (cloth) or 0-300-05241-3 (paperback).
• Arthur I. Miller, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, New Scientist, 2007 Sept 29, pp. 50-51.
• Thomas D. Rossing and Christopher J. Chiaverina, Light Science. Physics and the Visual Arts (Springer, New York, 1999). ISBN 0-387-98827-0.
• Leonard M. Shlain, Art & Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light (Perennial / Harper Collins, New York, 1991). ISBN 0-688-12305-8.

Research an ancient writing and numeral system. Consider its lineage: where it came from, and its descendants - are there traces of it in use today ? Consider the utility of doing mathematical operations such as 4 + 13 = 17, 13 - 4 = 9, 4 x 13 = 52, 4 / 13 = 0.30769. Do you consider the writing system and numeral system to be a form of art ? Why or why not ? Did the system you examined assist its society to categorize and explain nature, or was it a hindrance ?
or

Examine the use of instruments such as the astrolabe, mesh, and especially the camera obscura by painters of the 1400's to 1800's. Do you think that they diminished their artistry in using these tools to make their images ? Why or why not? Do visual artists today use similar tools ?
or

In early times, European philosophers concentrated on "how people see" as opposed to what light is. They had inherited a debate from those before them: Plato and the Pythagoreans had thought there were emanations from the eye which interacted with the object under study. Democritus, on the other hand, had thought emissions from the object entered the eye to make images. Eventually it was understood that we see an object by the light reflected from it into our eyes. Examine the retarding effect the early ideas had on the development of linear perspective. Do you think that the visual artist's process of developing linear perspective helped natural philosophers to better understand light?
or

Choose two of the physics concepts (e.g. colour, mass, reflection, relativity, uncertainty) in Categories and critique the correspondence made by Hilary Hamann between the physics idea and the arts for these concepts.
or

Critique the opposing treatments of Picasso and cubism by Paul Johnson and Leonard Shlain. You might wish to consider and critique other viewpoints as well.

Essay #3: Time.

Due Wednesday 9th Nov

• Dangerous Corner J. B Priestley
• I have Been Here Before J. B Priestley
• Slaughterhouse Five (Vonnegut)
• Times Arrow (Amis)
• Time Machine (Wells)
• Einstein's Dreams (Lightman)
• The Time Traveller's Wife
• Sliding Doors (Movie)

or
Expand on the physical limitations on time-travel. refs

• Gödel/Tipler (use Wikipedia for sources)
• Ford,Roman Scientific American; January 2000, Vol. 282 Issue 1, p46
• Physics of Star trek (Krauss)
• Time Travel in Einstein's Universe (J. Richard Gott)
• Time Machines (Paul J. Nahin, K. S. Thorne)

Essay #4: Sound and Music

Due Monday 21 Nov

• The oboe, flute or clarinet
• The piano
• Percussion instruments: drums , xylophone
• Violin, viola, cello, double bass
• Voice

Essay #5: Quantum Mechanics

Due Monday Dec 6th.

• Copenhagen (play by Michael Frayn)
• Hapgood (play by Tom Stoppard)
• Night Thoughts of a Classical Physicist (McCormach)
• Garden of Forking Paths /Library of Babel (short stories Jorge Luis Borges). You need to think of these in the context of the Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and the discussion of entropy.

or discuss some of the philosophical issues behind quantum mechanics, such as the issues of measurement and collapse of the wave function, or the nature of entangled states. Don't be too ambitious: this is a difficult topic! Some books in the library

• Quantum philosophy : understanding and interpreting contemporary science (Roland Omnés, Princeton University Press, c1999)
• Speakable and unspeakable in quantum mechanics : collected papers on quantum philosophy (John Bell, Cambridge University Press, 1987. )
• Nature loves to hide : quantum physics and reality, a western perspective (Shimon Malin, Oxford University Press, 2001)
• Quantum reflections (John Ellis Cambridge University Press, 2000)