Einstein’s Equation
Instructor: Larry Lagerstrom, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, College of Engineering
Description: Everyone has heard of it. Few people understand it. Albert Einstein’s E = mc2 is without doubt the most famous scientific equation in the world. This seminar will give students the opportunity to explore the science and history of this equation and the broader theory of special relativity. Topics will include the origins and meaning of the equation, its place in Einstein’s “annus mirabilis” of 1905 when he was a 26-year-old patent clerk, and its later roles in nuclear physics and astronomy. Attention will be paid to the human as well as the technical aspects of this history. In addition, basic concepts and implications of special relativity, such as length contraction, time dilation, and the twin paradox, will be covered at a level suitable for non-science majors. Students who take the seminar can look forward to gaining a sound understanding of Einstein’s famous equation and an appreciation for its scientific and human contexts.
Format: The seminar is designed to meet for one hour each week for ten weeks. The primary text for the course will be David Bodanis, E=mc2: A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation, supplemented by a reader. In addition, a time and a place will be scheduled to watch a two-hour NOVA documentary on Einstein as a group. (If necessary, two showing times will be offered.) Grading: Half of the grade will be based on class participation and the other half on a short paper (approximately 5 pages in length), in which students will choose a related topic for more in-depth study. Grading will be P/NP.
About the Instructor: Larry Lagerstrom is a historian of science and technology (Ph.D., U.C. Berkeley) who taught at the Meakin Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at U.C. Berkeley for seven years before moving to his present position in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at U.C. Davis. Over his teaching career he has earned three distinguished teaching awards. He has taught courses on “Technology and Society” and “Technology and the American Experience” at U.C. Berkeley, “Science, Technology, and Ethics” at New College Berkeley, and “The Technology and Culture of the Internet” at U.C. Davis. During the Spring 2002 quarter he taught a well-received Freshman Seminar at UCD on “Moral Outrage in a Postmodern World,” which used the events of September 11 to explore fundamental questions and conflicts of moral philosophy and postmodernism. He also taught a Freshman Seminar during the Winter 2004 quarter on “Can the Internet be Tamed?”