Required Reading Trivia Quiz

Answer: Both the position and the momentum of a particle cannot be known, only one or the other.

Werner Karl Heisenberg (5 December 1901 - 1 February 1976) won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1932 and the Max Planck Medal in 1933.

"Uncertainty: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science" by David Lindley was published in 2008.

Answer: This equation describes the behavior of fermions and predicts the existence of antimatter.

In 1933, Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (8 August 1902 - 20 October 1984) shared the Nobel Prize in physics with Erwin Schrödinger, "for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory".

In the 1920s, Dirac computed the coefficient of spontaneous emission of an atom, and is thus credited with the first formulation of a quantum theory describing radiation and matter interaction. This work laid the foundations for quantum electrodynamics, a relativistic quantum field theory, describing the interaction of light and matter. This useful though troubled theory was followed in the 1960s and '70s by quantum chromodynamics, a theory of strong interactions, describing the interactions between quarks and gluons which make up hadrons such as the proton and neutron. Dirac's work did not directly foreshadow the development of this theory.

The Dirac equation is a relativistic wave equation, a version of the Schrödinger equation. it describes all spin-1/2 particles, such as electrons and quarks, and is consistent with both quantum mechanics and special relativity. The equation implied the existence of antimatter, which had then (1928) not been experimentally proven. The existence of the antiproton was experimentally confirmed in 1955 and the antineutron in 1956.

"The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius" by Graham Farmelo was published in 2009.

Answer: You can't travel back before the completion of the time machine.

Prof. Mallett is hopeful that this limitation can eventually be overcome, though he offers no suggestions for doing so in his book.

"Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality" by Ronald L. Mallett and Bruce Henderson was published in 2006.

1978 has no particular significance. Your quiz maker was fourteen in that year, so it is bathed in the golden glow of nostalgia. Also, in 1996 Barry Manilow released an album titled "Summer of 78" on which he recorded some of the year's hits.

Of particular interest in the context of this quiz, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, together with Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1978.

Answer: The hollow earth hypothesis

The hollow earth hypothesis has a long, rich history in folk lore, fiction and scientific and pseudo-scientific literature down to the present day. Overwhelming physical evidence from fields as diverse as Geology, seismology, hydrostatics and the study of Gravity proves conclusively that hollow planets are untenable in the universe as we know it. Still, Hollow Earth remains a staple of adventure and science fiction literature, film and role playing games.

For his Pellucidar tales, Burroughs used a variant on the convex hollow earth, where the inhabitants live on the inner surface of the sphere, which has its own interior sun and even a tiny interior moon. "At the Earth's Core" was first published as a serial in "All-Story Weekly " in 1914 and in book form in 1922.

Answer: It is the long sought-after theory of everything, harmonizing special relativity with quantum mechanics.

While initial versions of string theory did indeed propose that everything is made up of one-dimensional, string-like structures, subsequent work has shown that the world of string theory includes multi-dimensional entities known as membranes or simply branes. In this expanded conception, the original strings (which come in both loops and snippets) can be thought of as 1branes. These are the entities whose vibrations produce the known matter and force particles familiar to us from the standard model.

"parallel Worlds: A Journey through Creation, Higher Dimensions and the Future of the Cosmos" was published in 2006.

Answer: The electro-weak theory

W and Z Bosons (weak Gage bosons when they're in their Sunday clothes) are roughly one hundred times more massive than the proton. But, their masses are not identical. Sheldon Glashow, Stephen Weinberg and Abdul Salaam showed that, unlike the photon, they interact with the Higgs field and that this field imparts mass to them, thirteen percent more to the Z than to the W.

"A User's Guide to the Universe: Surviving the Perils of Black Holes, Time Paradoxes, and Quantum Uncertainty" was published in 2010.

Answer: They are all translations or transformations of one fundamental theory.

This so called duality is a curious thing. For instance, as the coupling constant in one theory rises, that in another, seemingly totally separate theory falls. I don't quite understand the phenomenon, but the practical upshot is that if manipulated just so, one theory transforms magically into the next, into the next. This is useful, because, since all five theories are interchangeable, calculations that are fiendishly difficult in one may be relatively simple in another, thus allowing problems such as those concerning extra dimensions and the Calabi-Yau manifolds they may inhabit to be solved.

"The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory" was published in 2003.

Answer: It prohibits faster than light travel.

FTL drives are a staple of my beloved Science Fiction, even though physicists repeat like a mantra that nothing can exceed the speed of light (in a vacuum). Yeah, yeah, I used to think. Like, the Space Patrol is gonna come along with their RADAR gun and pull you over for going just a touch above six hundred and seventy million MPH. Yawn. If some enterprising scientist doesn't find a way around that pesky limit, some enterprising SF writer will. And someday Earthlings will be zipping happily along to Alpha Centauri in our trusty FTL coupe.

Well, nice fantasy but that won't be happening, not only anytime soon, but ever. Here's why. Our Mean Green Star Machine doesn't just travel in one dimension, space (between home and Alpha Centauri), it travels in two dimensions, space and time...always, no exceptions. Remember, distance equals rate (i.e. speed) times time, which means rate equals distance divided by time. No matter how you cut it, rate and time have to add up to C, not a nanosecond less, not a nanosecond more.

Even when we're in a holding pattern over Newark, we're still traveling. The time we spend in the airspace over New Jersey corresponds exactly to mileage we are not covering to our destination. We're moving in time but not in space. Later, when we finally take to the space ways and put the pedal to the metal, we're still moving in those same two dimensions, space and time. No matter how much distance we cross, distance still equals rate (speed) times time, which still means speed equals distance divided by time...which still means our motion through space and our motion through time have to add up exactly to C. So, in this universe anyway, no FTL.

"The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality" was published in 2004.

Answer: Spin1 particles arise from snippets, whose endpoints are anchored to a brane. Spin2 particles arise from loops, which can leave a brane.

Graviton loops are not trapped within their home brane, but may leave it. This fact may help explain the weakness of Gravity in relation to the other forces. It also makes Gravity a possible probe in the search for other branes as well as in the exploration of spatial dimensions beyond the familiar three.

"The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos" was published in 2011.

Answer: After having helped to develop the first nuclear weapons, he became an ardent advocate for their control and ultimate abolition.

With the return of the Republicans to power in 1953, Oppenheimer found his work towards nuclear nonproliferation and the ultimate abolition of nuclear weapons at odds with the new U.S. worldview. Hardliners in the Eisenhower administration saw Oppenheimer as the strongest, most credible opponent to their plans to make the nuclear threat the basis of U.S. foreign policy. As a result, they smeared and hounded Oppenheimer, effectively marginalizing him and thus neutralizing his threat to their policies.

"American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer" by: Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin was published in 2005.