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Kakumichio Kakumichio, a Japanese-American physicist, is a professor of theoretical physics at City College of City University of new york. He graduated from Harvard University and received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Beyond Einstein (co-authored with treanor), Quantum Field Theory and Introduction to Superstrings. In the past 10 years, he was also the host of a weekly one-hour science program on radio.
I want to know how God created the world, but I'm not interested in one particular phenomenon or another. I want to know the internal laws of the world, and the rest are details.
-Einstein
Two interesting stories from my childhood greatly enriched my understanding of the world and made me a theoretical physicist.
I remember my parents took me to visit Japanese tea gardens in San Francisco from time to time. I squatted by a small pool there, intoxicated by the colorful carp swimming slowly among the water lilies. This is one of the happiest memories of my childhood.
At that quiet moment, I was full of infinite reverie. I often ask myself silly questions that only children can ask, such as how carp in the pond observe the world around them. I think their world must be wonderful!
Carp have lived in this shallow pool all their lives. They think their "universe" is made up of dark pool water and water lilies. They spend most of their time wandering at the bottom of the pool, so they only vaguely realize that there is another outside world above the water. The essence of my world is beyond their understanding. I like to sit only a few tens of centimeters away, but we are as far apart as an abyss. Carp and I live in two completely different universes and never enter each other's world. We are separated by a thin fence on the water.
I once thought that there might be some carp "scientists" among the fish at the bottom of the water. I think this carp "scientist" will be cynical about those fish that suggest that there is another parallel world besides water lilies. They believe that real things can be seen and touched by fish. The pool is everything. The invisible world outside the pool has no scientific significance.
Once, I was caught in a rainstorm. I noticed thousands of laughter bombarding the pool surface. The water in the pool became chaotic, and the water lilies swayed under the turbulent water waves. While avoiding the wind and rain, I want to find out what form everything around me will appear in the eyes of carp. In their eyes, the water lily seems to be moving by itself and nothing can be washed away. Because just as we can't see the air and space around us, carp can't see the water on which they live, and they are puzzled that water lilies can exercise themselves.
I think carp "scientists" will skillfully invent something fictional-it is called "force" to cover up their ignorance. Because they can't understand the invisible water waves, they will come to the conclusion that the water lily can move without being touched because there is an invisible mysterious force acting on it. They may give this illusion an inscrutable name (such as the action from a distance or the ability to move without touching water lilies).
I once thought, what would happen if a carp "scientist" was caught in the pool? Before putting it back in the pool, it may struggle frantically to be examined by me. So what will other carp think of this? For them, this is really a terrible thing. They realized for the first time that a carp "scientist" had disappeared from their universe. Nine is as simple as that, leaving no trace. No matter how they searched in their universe, there was no trace of the lost carp. However, just a few seconds later, when I put it back in the pool, the carp "scientist" suddenly appeared. For other carp, this is really a miracle.
After the calm, carp "scientists" will tell a legendary story that really surprises them. It said: "Suddenly, somehow, I was pulled out of our universe (pool water) and thrown into an invisible world where there were dazzling lights and strange objects I had never seen before. The strangest thing is that the creature that caught me is nothing like a fish. What shocked me even more was that it couldn't see its fins anyway, but it could still move without fins. The familiar laws of nature are no longer suitable for this invisible world. Then, I found myself suddenly thrown back into our world. " (Of course, this story of traveling outside the universe is bizarre to carp, and most fish think it is completely nonsense. )
I often think that we are like carp swimming proudly in the pool. We spend all our lives in our own "pool", thinking that our universe only contains those things that can be seen and touched. Like carp, we think that the universe only contains familiar and visible things. We smugly refuse to admit that there are other parallel universes or spaces right in front of our universe, which is beyond our understanding. If our scientists invent the concept of force, it is only because they can't see the invisible vibration that fills the space around us. Some scientists despise the idea of a higher dimensional world because they can't verify it conveniently in the laboratory.
Our universe may be one of countless parallel universes. Each universe is connected with other universes through countless holes-tunnels connecting two airspace. It is possible to travel between these cavities, but the possibility is very small. )
Since then, I have become extremely interested in the possibility of a high-dimensional world. Like many children, I greedily read such an adventure story, which tells the story of time travelers entering other spaces and exploring parallel universes that we can't see, where it is easy to make the usual laws of physics no longer work. When I grow up, I wonder if the ship that mysteriously disappeared in the Bermuda Delta only entered a space loophole. Asimov's "Base" series amazed me. The discovery of hyperspace travel in the book led to the rise of a galactic empire.
The second thing in my childhood also left a deep impression on me. I heard a story when I was eight years old, and it has remained in my mind ever since. I remember my middle school teacher told the class a story about a great late scientist. They talked about him with great reverence and called him the greatest scientist in the whole human history. They said that few people could understand his ideas, but his discovery changed the whole world and everything around us. I don't understand many things they want to tell us, but what interests me most is that he died before he finished his great discovery. They said that he had been working on this theory for many years, but after his death, his finished paper was still on his own desk.
I was fascinated by this story. For a child, this is very mysterious. What is his unfinished work? What is the content of the paper on his desk? What problem may be so difficult to solve, so important that it is worth such a great scientist to spend his life on this kind of research? Out of curiosity, I decided to learn as much as possible about Einstein and his unfinished theory. I remember spending a lot of time quietly reading every book I could find about this great man and his theory. This memory is still warm as spring. After reading the books in the local library, I began to search all the libraries and bookstores in the city, eagerly looking for relevant clues. I soon learned that this story is more exciting than any mysterious murder story and more important than anything I imagined. I decided to get to the bottom of this secret, even if I had to become a theoretical physicist for it.
Soon, I knew that Einstein's unfinished paper was the so-called unified field theory he tried to construct. This theory can explain all natural laws from small codes to vast galaxies. However, as a child, I can't understand that there may be some connection between the carp swimming in the tea garden pool and the unfinished paper on Einstein's desk. I don't understand that using higher dimensions may be the key to solving the unified field theory.
Later, in high school, I read a lot of books in the local library and often went to the physics library of Stanford University. There, I found that Einstein's work made it possible for a new substance called antimatter. This substance acts in the same way as ordinary matter, but when it comes into contact with ordinary matter, it will annihilate and suddenly release energy. I also know that scientists have built some large-scale instruments, or "atomic colliders", which can produce a small amount of this strange substance in the laboratory, that is, antimatter.
One advantage of young people is that they will not be intimidated by secular constraints, which is usually difficult for most adults to surpass. Without considering the difficulties, I started to build my own atomic collider. I've been studying the scientific literature, and finally I'm sure I can build a so-called electron induction accelerator, which can accelerate electrons to one million electron volts (654.38+0 million electron volts refers to the energy obtained after electrons are accelerated in an electric field of 654.38+0 million volts).
First, I bought a small amount of sodium 22, which is a radioactive substance and can naturally emit positrons (antimatter of electrons). Then I built a cloud room, in which I could see the traces left by subatomic particles. So I can take hundreds of beautiful photos left by antimatter in the cloud room. Then, I searched a large number of electronic warehouses around, assembled the necessary hardware equipment, including hundreds of pounds (1 pound =454 grams) of scrap steel, and built a 2.3 million electron volt electron induction accelerator in my workshop, which is fully capable of generating a beam of anti-electrons. In order to generate the huge magnetic field necessary for the electron induction accelerator, I persuaded my parents to help me wind 22 miles (1 mile = 1.6 1 meter) of copper wire on the football field of my high school. We spent a whole Christmas holiday on this 50-yard (1 yard =0.9 1 meter) line, winding and installing bulky coils, which will bend the motion path of high-energy electrons.
When it was finally built, this 300-pound, 6-kilowatt electron induction accelerator consumed every bit of energy generated by my family. I usually blow every fuse when I answer it, and the room becomes dark. Mother often shakes her head periodically when the house is in the dark. I think my mother is puzzled. He can't have a son who plays in a baseball field or basketball court, but he has a son who makes huge electronic instruments in the garage. To my relief, an instrument has successfully generated a magnetic field more than 20,000 times stronger than the geomagnetic field, which is necessary to accelerate a beam of electrons.
teaching program
I. Introduction to the author
Kakumichio, a Japanese-American physicist, graduated from Harvard University in the United States with a doctorate in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley, and later served as a professor of theoretical physics at the City College of the City University of new york. His major works include Beyond Einstein (co-authored with Trina), Quantum Field Theory and Introduction to Superstrings.
Second, related knowledge
In order to better understand the text, we need to know some related theoretical physics knowledge:
(1) unified field theory
According to the knowledge of modern physics, there are four forces that unite our universe: gravity, electromagnetic force, strong nuclear force and weak nuclear force. Physicists use quantum mechanics to unify the latter three forces (Chinese-American physicist Yang Zhenning and his student Mills put forward Yang Yi Mills' field theory, which solved this problem and was called the "standard model". But this theory is a headache, because the calculation is complicated, but gravity is still free. Einstein tried hard to seek the unity of the four forces and establish a unified theory all his life, but it never came true.
(2) High dimensional space
Modern theoretical physics believes that the prospect of unifying the four forces lies in the establishment of the theory of high-dimensional space (such as ten or higher dimensions). For example, for the ancients, they knew nothing about how the storm came into being, where it would strike, when it would strike and when it would end, because they lived on a flat land and could only observe it with the naked eye from a similar two-dimensional plane. Even with simple predictions, they rely on experience to speculate. Now with meteorological satellites, we can observe the earth from a three-dimensional perspective like space. On the ground, you can clearly see the mysterious storm and accurately predict the trend of the storm. Similarly, theoretical physicists believe that the traditional four-dimensional (three-dimensional space plus time) theory is too small to explain the four forces in the universe. When they transcend four dimensions and seek to unify these four forces in higher dimensions (such as ten or higher dimensions), they can get a simple and beautiful solution model (scientists believe that the universe should be simple and harmonious).
According to the theory of high-dimensional space, after BIGBANG 10-43 seconds, the ten-dimensional universe was decomposed into four-dimensional and six-dimensional universes, and the four-dimensional universe exploded, and after nearly15 billion years, it evolved into the universe we live in today. 10- 35 seconds after the big bang, unification was separated by a force. However, the theory of high-dimensional space is difficult to be confirmed in the laboratory, because it takes too much energy to simulate the environment at that time, so the theory of high-dimensional space can only be "theory" now.
Demonstration lesson plan
Physicists' education curriculum
Teaching objectives
First, the goal of knowledge education
Guide students to start from life, understand science and know science.
Second, the ability training objectives
Guide students to focus on the "educational process" and explore the ideological connotation expressed in it.
Third, the goal of moral education infiltration.
Guide students to understand the scientific spirit.
Key points, difficulties and solutions
High-dimensional space is unimaginable to ordinary people. Therefore, the focus of teaching is the content of the article, not the relevant scientific knowledge. Teachers who know something about it can help teach the text, but they don't have to teach the students.
Class arrangement 1 class hour
Teaching step
First, the introduction of new courses.
Becoming a scientist is the dream of countless aspiring young people, and the exploration of physics is the direction that many young students strive for. Let's take a look at the growth path of Kakumichio, and maybe we can get some inspiration from it.
(Blackboard) Physicists' Education Curriculum
Second, clear objectives.
1. Guide students to start from life, understand science and know science.
2. Guide students to focus on the "educational process" and explore the ideological connotation expressed in it.
Third, overall perception.
1. About the author
Kakumichio, a Japanese-American physicist, graduated from Harvard University in the United States with a doctorate in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley, and later served as a professor of theoretical physics at the City College of the City University of new york. His major works include Beyond Einstein (co-authored with Trina), Quantum Field Theory and Introduction to Superstrings.
2. The basic structure of this paper.
The title of the article is "A Physicist's Education Course", so the narrative order is mainly diachronic. But at the beginning, the author said, "Two interesting things in my childhood greatly enriched my understanding of the world and guided me to become a theoretical physicist." As the main content of the article, Two Interesting Stories about Childhood is a narrative of * * *. This structural arrangement makes the article clear and focused. The structure is as shown in the figure:
Childhood youth (adult)
Fantasy of Carp World (Imagination)
Experiment (theoretical physicist)
Einstein's story (theory)
3. The basic content of this paper.
Everyone is curious about nature and seeks the "answer" of nature in their favorite form, but most people generally explore nature itself directly, while the author reflects on human cognition of the universe from the perspective of human observation. It seems that the author's thinking as a teenager is beyond his peers. In fact, it's just that he developed his imagination and kept such a peculiar imagination, which laid the foundation for him to explore the theory of high-dimensional space. ② The author was exposed to Einstein's "unfinished business" when he was a teenager, which aroused his interest in inquiry. He feels "exciting" because he reads and discusses Einstein's theory as a "detective novel", which is very in line with the psychology of teenagers. In addition, "I decided to get to the bottom of this secret" also showed his perseverance, which is the basic quality of becoming a scientist. ③ In high school, I should have "played on the baseball field or basketball court" and enjoyed my youth to the fullest, but the author "collected a large number of electronic warehouses in the surrounding areas and assembled the necessary hardware equipment", "wound 22 miles of copper wire on the school football field" and set up a laboratory to verify Einstein's theory and explore antimatter. The author's hard and boring work shows his love for science, his down-to-earth personality and the potential of a scientific worker. From ① ② to ③, we can clearly see the author's "educational course" and "educational content".
Four, the key and difficult learning and goal completion process
1. What are the characteristics of material handling in this article?
Make it clear that the layout of this article is focused and the details are handled properly. On the whole, the author didn't narrate from childhood to primary school to junior high school and then to senior high school in chronological order, but highlighted his "educational process" of becoming a "physicist" through two interesting stories of childhood and an example of establishing a laboratory in senior high school, which had nothing to do with other growth experiences; In some high schools, for example, I have read many books about unified field theory and often go to the physics library of Stanford University. There must be many wonderful stories about how the relevant theoretical books inspired and guided his research, but the author only touched on one point, focusing on making his own atomic collider. The detailed description of specific data makes people realize the author's rigorous and down-to-earth personality and the basic needs of becoming a physicist internally.
2. What kind of scientific spirit does this article embody?
Defining the three main parts of this paper is not a simple growth story, but has profound scientific spirit connotation, from which we can see what kind of "education" is the most important to become an excellent scientist.
(1) Imagination: Science needs imagination, and imagination can bring creativity. It is from the imagination of the carp world that the author realizes the limitations of human observation space and indirectly realizes the possibility of high-dimensional space. From perceptual imagination to rational creation, it embodies innovative consciousness and exploration spirit.
(2) Interesting: Science should not be boring, but full of fun. Exploring the mysteries of nature is a "game" similar to hide-and-seek with nature, and it is the "realm" of real scientists' lives. "Game" makes them enjoy it, full of passion and free from external interference; And the "realm" makes them disregard utility, fear power, and only seek truth.
(3) Experimental spirit: Ding Zhaozhong said: "The foundation of modern scholarship is field exploration, which is what we call experiment now." "The history of scientific development tells us that new knowledge can only be obtained through field experiments, not through introspection or philosophical empty talk." Imagination and fun are just the most basic factors to become a scientist. If you don't do the experiment in a down-to-earth manner, you can't get the basic data, and the hypothesis can't be established. It is impossible to reach the other side of truth by daydreaming and not doing basic work. Although the author's theory of high-dimensional space is still on paper, scientists have been doing a lot of basic experiments to try to prove it. Even if Hawking, a scientist, created the black hole theory with a wise mind, he must have an experimental basis in mathematics and astrophysics, which is not a fantasy.
3. Ask "carp scientists" what is their understanding of "the world"?
The main points are as follows: (1) "The invisible world outside the pool has no scientific significance." (2) "They are puzzled that water lilies can move by themselves"-they cover up their ignorance with mysterious "power". (3) The "disappearance" and "reappearance" of "carp scientists"-they think this is a "miracle" and a "terrible thing" and refuse to explore the reasons. (4) The "legendary story" of "carp science" does prove the existence of another world, but they think it is "nonsense", which is ridiculous and violates their "natural laws".
4. What does the author want to explain through the understanding of the world by "carp scientists"?
Clearly explain that "self-righteous" human beings are similar to "carp scientists". (1) Humans "spend their lives in our own pool", and as long as there is a natural existence "beyond our understanding", they "refuse to admit it". (2) The concept of "scientists' inventiveness ……" because they are only willing to admit "those things that can be seen and touched" and refuse to change their way of thinking. (3) They "despise" those theories that can't be easily verified in the laboratory, showing ideological conservatism and stubbornness.
5. What is the role of reading two short space exploration stories and unified field theory books in describing the "educational process"?
Obviously, the focus of this article is the fun of childhood and the establishment of the laboratory. These three examples have completely outlined the "educational process". And the two small examples mixed in it mainly play a complementary and cohesive role. Adventure stories deepen the author's imagination of high-dimensional space and stimulate interest; Reading unified field theory books not only reflects the author's enthusiasm for knowledge in high school, but also connects the inquiry process from theory to experiment.
6. The questioner said, "I have decided to get to the bottom of this problem, even if I have to become a theoretical physicist." What kind of person should the "theoretical physicist" in the author's mind be?
Obviously, the work of theoretical physicists is abstract and boring, and due to the limitations of experimental conditions, their theories are difficult to prove by experiments, and even they may not achieve anything until their death. Such people must be able to stand loneliness and have dedication. "Diligence" is the hardship of "theoretical physicist".
7. What's the significance of asking the author to set up a laboratory for our real life?
It is clear that science is based on basic experiments, and scientific theories can only be demonstrated after being tested by experiments. Experiment is not a simple operation, it needs theoretical guidance, experimental design, planning and organizing ability, endurance and perseverance. Experiments test the comprehensive ability of experimenters. However, our current problem is to attach importance to theory and despise basic experiments, which is manifested in poor hands-on ability and practical ability, impetuous thinking and quick success. As far as education is concerned, it is a common phenomenon to attach importance to knowledge and ignore ability. These are the inspirations that a theoretical physicist attaches importance to experiments and gives us in real life.
Overall grasp
1. Features of the article: (1) Structure:
The title of the article is "A Physicist's Education Course", so the narrative order is mainly diachronic. However, the author said at the beginning that "two interesting things in my childhood greatly enriched my understanding of the world and guided me to become a theoretical physicist". As the main content of the article, Two Interesting Stories about Childhood is a narrative of * * *. This structural arrangement makes the article clear and focused. The structure is as shown in the figure:
(2) Contents:
Everyone is curious about nature and seeks the "answer" of nature in their favorite form, but most people generally explore nature itself directly, while the author reflects on human cognition of the universe from the perspective of human observation. It seems that the author's thinking as a teenager is beyond his peers. In fact, it's just that he developed his imagination and kept such a peculiar imagination, which laid the foundation for him to explore the theory of high-dimensional space. ② The author was exposed to Einstein's "unfinished business" when he was a teenager, which aroused his interest in inquiry. He feels "exciting" because he reads and discusses Einstein's theory as a "detective novel", which is very in line with the psychology of teenagers. In addition, "I decided to get to the bottom of this secret" also showed his perseverance, which is the basic quality of becoming a scientist. ③ In high school, I should have "played on the baseball field or basketball court" and enjoyed my youth to the fullest, but the author "collected a large number of electronic warehouses in the surrounding areas and assembled the necessary hardware equipment", "wound 22 miles of copper wire on the school football field" and set up a laboratory to verify Einstein's theory and explore antimatter. The author's hard and boring work shows his love for science, his down-to-earth personality and the potential of a scientific worker. From ① ② to ③, we can clearly see the author's "educational course" and "educational content".
(3) Details:
The layout of this article is focused and the details are appropriate. On the whole, the author didn't narrate from childhood to primary school to junior high school and then to senior high school in chronological order, but highlighted his "educational process" of becoming a "physicist" through two interesting stories of childhood and an example of establishing a laboratory in senior high school, which had nothing to do with other growth experiences; In some high schools, for example, I have read many books about unified field theory and often go to the physics library of Stanford University. There must be many wonderful stories about how the relevant theoretical books inspired and guided his research, but the author only touched on one point, focusing on making his own atomic collider. The detailed description of specific data makes people realize the author's rigorous and down-to-earth personality and the basic needs of becoming a physicist internally.
2. Scientific spirit:
The three main parts of the paper are not simply stories about growth, but have profound scientific spirit connotation, from which we can see what "education" is the most important to become an excellent scientist.
⑴ Imagination: Science needs imagination, and imagination can bring creativity. It is from the imagination of the carp world that the author realizes the limitations of human observation space and indirectly realizes the possibility of high-dimensional space. From perceptual imagination to rational creation, it embodies innovative consciousness and exploration spirit.
(2) Interesting: Science should not be boring, but full of fun. Exploring the mysteries of nature is a "game" similar to hide-and-seek with nature, and it is the "realm" of real scientists' lives. "Game" makes them enjoy it, full of passion and free from external interference; And the "realm" makes them disregard utility, fear power, and only seek truth.
⑶ Experimental spirit: Ding Zhaozhong said: "The foundation of modern scholarship is field exploration, which is what we now call experiment." "The history of scientific development tells us that new knowledge can only be obtained through field experiments, not through introspection or philosophical empty talk." Imagination and fun are just the most basic factors to become a scientist. If you don't do the experiment in a down-to-earth manner, you can't get the basic data, and the hypothesis can't be established. It is impossible to reach the other side of truth by daydreaming and not doing basic work. Although the author's theory of high-dimensional space is still on paper, scientists have been doing a lot of basic experiments to try to prove it. Even if Hawking, a scientist, created the black hole theory with a wise mind, he must have an experimental basis in mathematics and astrophysics, which is not a fantasy.