Open discussion

Folks may suggest or express interest in a wide range of possible discussion topics. Here are just a few possible discussion topics:

Calcite crystals (Iceland spar)

Macroscopic and microscopic geometry

Optical properties and uses

Crystal growth

Precession of the perihelion of Mercury's orbit around the Sun

Special relativity

Speed of light and the Michelson-Morley experiment

Causality relationships of pairs of events

Laurentz and other causality preserving transformations

Frames of reference

Proper time, time dilation (Muon lifetime), and simultaneity

Rest frame, proper length, and length contraction

Doppler redshifts and blueshifts

Rest energy, E = mc^2, and energy dilation

Scattering angle and the Compton effect

Molecular velocity and energy distributions

Maxwell-Boltzmann probability density distributions

Average pressure and the ideal gas law

Effusion of air from a small hole in a lunar landing craft

Isotope separation, hydrogen and uranium hexafloride

Molecular beam velocity distribution

Doppler broadening of spectral lines

Laser cooling of a gas

Blackbody radiation

Cosmic microwave background radiation

Planck's formula for energy density as a function of temperature and frequency (or wavelength)

Frequency (or wavelength) at which energy density is maximum for given T

Stefan's formula and the Stefan-Boltzmann constant,

sigma = 2 pi^5 k^4/(15 h^3 c^2) = 5.670three67(13) x 10-8 kg s^-3 K^-4

Evaluation of the integral int_0^oo du u^3/(e^u - 1) = pi^4/15

Derivation of Planck's formula, the origin of quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics versus hidden variables

Tests of Bell's inequalities

Indeterminism versus determinism

Fine-structure constant

Arnold Sommerfeld's introduction for atomic hydrogen

Quantum Hall effect and Klaus von Klitzing's constant

Armand Wyler's formula

Walter Smilga's justification of Wyler's formula

Chronometric cosmology

Redshift-magnitude data fits to compare cosmologies

A redshift-proper motion data fit to estimate the radius of the Universe

Derivation of the redshift-angle (redshift-distance) formula

Thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and entropy

Elementary particle properties and mathematics