introduction to physics - 上海交通大学物理与天文 .pptVIP

Lecture 3: Experimental measurements(chpt 5, Feynman) Importance of measurements Physics is an experimental science! Most physicists are experimenters Measurability is a key part of the sciences First person who perform quantitative measurement (scientist) is Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Most of the Nobel prizes have awarded to invention of instruments First US Nobel prize winner: Michelson, invention of interferometer! Michelson invented Michelson Interferometer (Nobel prize 1907) Michelson-Morley Experiment, measured the velocity of earth relative to either. What do you want to measure? Distance, Time, Speed Temperature (thermometer), pressure Weight, mass Energy, power, noise Brightness, telescope, Concentration, blood analysis, Electromagnetic fields, electric current, resistors, capacitors, etc. Radioactivity …. Galileo’s inclined-plane exp. Discovery of laws of physics!! Time measurement Something that happens again and again Counting pulse! Day, hour glass, noon to noon measurement is nearly the same! Fraction of a day: other periodic motion! Galileo: pendulum: grand-father clock Make a pendulum swing 3600 times x24 in a day, each swing is a second! How do you make the time measurement more accurate? Calibrate the longer period with shorter period Faster periodic motion: electric current oscillation (electric oscillator) Accuracy of 10-12 achieved (quartz) Atomic clock and light clock Atom moves periodically inside the atom. Atomic clock has been used as a standard for time measurement since 1960’s and is the most accurate devise now available. Usually radio-wave and has reached accuracy of 10-16 More accurate measurement needs better frequency measurement, light comb, (light clock) Jun Ye (JILA), the best guy in the world, 10-18 Low-temp + relativity Jun Ye, member of US NAS Undergraduate Student from SJTU (1984-1989) Shortest time Lifetime of the elementary particles Strong interaction particle 10-24 sec, time it takes from light trave