From Chaos Theory to Quantum Mechanics: What's New in What Scientists Can and Can't (!) Predict?
Schedule: Wednesdays, October 7-21, 2009; 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Location: UW Campus, Seattle (see maps)
Reg. # 104964

Course Description

Physical Scientists are always trying to both understand "nature" and to use this understanding to "predict the future." The latter is not always as easy as it seems, so we begin (Session 1) with a discussion of Chaos Theory, including the problems of why all snow flakes and fingerprints are "different" and why it's so hard to predict the weather. Next (Session 2), using models of extreme simplicity (black and white tiles!) we show how behavior of arbitrary complexity, as well as complex but regular pattern formation follows from very simple "rules. Finally (Session 3) enter "quantum mechanics" leading to new levels of puzzlement and uncertainty. Pre-requisites: No math! No physics! A course for non-scientists (only!) but those with a lively curiosity about the natural phenomena all around us, and how nature might or might not "work."

Instructor

Bill Reinhardt
Before starting his now 19th year of teaching and research at UW, Reinhardt has taught at Harvard, the University of Colorado (Boulder), and at the University of Pennsylvania. He has won the UW Chemistry Department Award for Excellence in Teaching, and has been a Phi Beta Kappa National Lecturer, and has given Sigma Xi and Couper Public Lectures. He enjoys teaching pre-freshman "Discovery Seminars", and giving Public Lectures in the Sciences and Mathematics, as well as working with graduate students at the forefront of research. His ongoing research includes work in theoretical chemistry, the theory of quantum fluids, chaos theory, and the mathematics of "special functions."