Space isn’t What it Used to be, Time isn’t Doing so Well Either, and Reality is a Crapshoot – Science from Pythagoras to Planck for Bar Stool Physicists and Starbucks Philosophers
(Six Sessions on Wednesdays, May 14, 2025– June 18, 2025)
Cecil O. Huey, Jr., Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University
The ways we see ourselves and our universe have evolved from Babylonian metaphysics to a “modern” notion of reality that, even with millennia of thought behind us, remains a bit sketchy. This course will explore the convoluted tangle of scientific thinking that stretches from the Pythagoreans to Einstein’s relativity and the quantum revolution with a focus on cosmology and the physical sciences. It will be safe for barstool physicists having only dim memories of junior high math and Starbucks philosophers who don’t “do science” at all.
Sessions will be sufficiently “stand-alone” to accommodate inevitable conflicts and missed dates. In the interest of continuity, latter sessions will include brief “catch-up” reviews of previous topics.
Date: May 14, 2025, 10:00 am – 11:30 am, Hybrid, Seminar Room & Zoom
Session 1—The opening session includes an introduction to the course, including its aims and organization, and an overview of the Ancient’s efforts to apprehend their world and to describe it. The focus will be on the Egyptians, Babylonians, and the Mediterranean world, through Aristotle.
Email emerituscollege@clemson.edu for the Zoom link
Session 2—This session examines the conceptual challenges facing early thinkers as their efforts to refine and sometimes escape Aristotelian dogma and to carefully apply refined observations and analytical methods and, especially, the watershed contributions of Galileo, Kepler, and Copernicus.
Date: May 21, 2025, 10:00 am – 11:30 am, Hybrid, Seminar Room & Zoom
Email emerituscollege@clemson.edu for the Zoom link
Session 3—Here the focus falls on Newton, the Newtonian revolution, Maxwell, and advances in understanding and rigorous analysis that provided a foundation for the coming, transforming achievements of the early twentieth century.
Date: May 28, 2025, 10:00 am – 11:30 am, Hybrid, Seminar Room & Zoom
Email emerituscollege@clemson.edu for the Zoom link
Session 4—Attention is devoted to Einstein and the Theory of Relativity, one of the most consequential scientific developments of the twentieth century. The discussion follows Einstein’s own description of his thoughts aimed at lay audiences.
Date: June 4, 2025, 10:00 am – 11:30 am, Hybrid, Seminar Room & Zoom
Email emerituscollege@clemson.edu for the Zoom link
Session 5—Hard on the heels of Relativity came the Quantum revolution. This discussion traces the emergence of Quantum theory from early conceptual challenges through important, initial observations and examines the famous Einstein-Bohr debate.
Date: June 11, 2025, 10:00 am – 11:30 am, Hybrid, Seminar Room & Zoom
Email emerituscollege@clemson.edu for the Zoom link
Session 6—This final session will further explore Quantum theory and a few of its most puzzling aspects and conclude with a course wrap-up.
Date: June 18, 2025, 10:00 am – 11:30 am, Hybrid, Seminar Room & Zoom
Email emerituscollege@clemson.edu for the Zoom linkImage sources
