Drawing Physics

181 Pages·2017·2.93 MB·English

by  Don S. Lemons

Drawing Physics
2,600 Years of Discovery from Thales to Higgs
Don S. Lemons
with drawings by Jesse Graber

The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2017 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Illustrations © Jesse Graber and Don Lemons, reprinted with permission (unless otherwise noted).
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical
means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in
writing from the publisher.
This book was set in Stone Serif by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited. Printed and bound in the United
States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lemons, Don S. (Don Stephen), 1949-author.
Title: Drawing physics : 2600 years of discovery from Thales to Higgs / Don S. Lemons.
Description: Cambridge, MA ; London, England : The MIT Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016028491| ISBN 9780262035903 (hardcover ; alk. paper) | ISBN 0262035901
(hardcover ; alk. paper)
eISBN 9780262338738
Subjects: LCSH: Physics--History. | Physics--History--Pictorial works.
Classification: LCC QC7 .L44 2017 | DDC 530.09--dc23 LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2016028491
ePub Version 1.0
Table of Contents
Title page
Copyright page
Preface
Dedications and Acknowledgments
Antiquity
Middle Ages
Early Modern Period
Nineteenth Century
Twentieth Century and Beyond
Afterword
Bibliography
Index
List of Illustrations
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
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Figure 11
Figure 12
Figure 13
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Figure 28
Figure 29a
Figure 29b
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Preface
Galileo’s claim that mathematics is the language of science applies to no science
more than to physics. But mathematical description requires great effort. How is
that effort begun? The answer, more often than not, is with a drawing of an as
yet wordless, pre-mathematical picture of reality. To draw is to see the world in
a particular way and to inform the self with an understanding of the world.
Drawing the important elements of physical reality diminishes the psychological
difficulty of articulating that reality in language of any kind. Subsequent
progress allows one to refine an initially crude drawing.
Carefully constructed drawings play a large role in teaching and in learning
physics. Routinely I require my own students, when beginning to analyze a
physical situation, to produce a drawing that represents important physical
elements placed in right relation. Many of my students are visual learners and
require little inducement, but the task benefits all. The drawing or diagram
produced, sometimes called “the cartoon approximation,” guides the whole
process of investigation.
Drawings are a humble but effective tool of the physicist’s craft and part of the
tradition of physics that is passed on from colleague to colleague and from
teacher to student. Certain drawings achieve relative fame and permanence on
the pages of research journals, monographs, and textbooks. Many more exist
only briefly on chalkboards or scraps of paper.
Drawings that jump-start a physical inquiry and encapsulate its results require
neither rich detail nor realistic perspective—only simplicity and clarity. A good
physics drawing is in many ways like a good epigram: spare and, once
composed, its elements cannot be subtracted from, added to, or rearranged
without diminishing the composition. Also, like a good epigram, a good drawing
is worth committing to memory.
This volume contains fifty-one exemplary drawings from twenty-six centuries
of physics discovery arranged in chronological order. Each drawing presents a
single idea. Most of the drawings appear frequently in other physics books, and
all have survived the test of my own teaching and learning. Each drawing
anchors an episode of the story I tell. An essay reviews the physics and places it
in historical context.
in historical context.
When I started this project I was not sure that physics could be presented in
any depth or breadth in this way, but I wanted to try. I am, after all, a
theoretician who uses mathematics in research and a teacher whose duty it has
been to find the mathematics most appropriate for his students. But to abstract
the essential physics from a complicated situation and to represent that physics
in a drawing is also close to the work of a theoretical physicist and teacher. I was
delighted to learn that the word theory is related, through its Greek roots, to the
word seeing. And, of course, the phrase I see often means I understand. Thus, to
draw is to draw out, to draw out is to see, and to see is to understand.
Here is the result—admittedly an episodic and incomplete account. I am
satisfied, but an unbiased evaluation necessarily falls to others. This book is for
readers interested in the world in which they live but who, for various reasons,
know little mathematics or physics. My hope is that Drawing Physics will, by
appealing to their visual sense, help these readers say, “Now I see, and now I
understand.”
Dedications and Acknowledgments
My father, the late Reverend Wishard F. Lemons, would have been pleased that,
finally, I had written a book he could read. Another dear one who has passed on,
Anthony Gythiel, friend, literary scholar, and medievalist, encouraged me to
include essays on medieval physics. Memory Eternal, Wishard and Tony! To
you and to my young grandsons, Abel and Emil, I dedicate this book.
I also want to acknowledge friends and family members, Galen Gisler,
Christina Gore, Clark Lemons, Rick Shanahan, and David Watkins, whose
reading and critique of the text helped improve it. Dan Umansky’s class on
Renaissance history inspired the essay on Leonardo. Jeremy Bernstein answered
my questions on Einstein. Terrence Figy, Holger Meyer, and Nick Solomey
advised me on the Higgs boson.
The seminars in which I participated at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New
Mexico, encouraged me to study the original sources upon which many of these
essays are based. The Society of Physics Students at Wichita State University
and the Natural Science Seminar at Bethel College of North Newton, Kansas,
responded helpfully to presentations of the text.
I am long overdue in acknowledging Trevor Lipscombe for editing my earlier
books and for giving me good advice on this one. John Thornton, my agent,
placed Drawing Physics with the MIT Press. Thanks to Trevor and John and the
helpful staff at MIT. And I don’t believe I could have found a better illustrator
for Drawing Physics than Jesse Graber.
My teachers and mentors over the decades, Robert Armstrong, Harold Daw,
Peter Gary, Michael E. Jones, Robert Romer, and Dan Winske, helped prepare
me, in various ways, for the task of writing this book. With pleasure, I offer this
text to Bill Peter, physicist and longtime friend. I hope he will have an
opportunity to read it.
Finally, with much feeling I acknowledge Allison, my beloved wife of many
years, for her support of my writing habit, for her critical reading, and for her
many suggestions that have strengthened Drawing Physics.