University of Maryland - Spring 2005
HIST 402
Study Questions for Topic 2

See instructions for Topic 1 Study Questions.

1. What is God's role in the world according to Newton?
2. Identify: Sadi Carnot.
3. What role did the Royal Society play in the discovery of the laws of impact?
4. What was the event that confirmed Newton's fear that the clockwork universe theory would lead to atheism? Explain.
5. Discuss the history of atomic theories from 1770 to 1870, including the relations of those theories to ideas about gases, heat, energy, and chemical reactions, and to experimental discoveries in physics and chemistry.
6. How does the Torricelli barometer work? (Use a diagram) How does it show the existence of air pressure?
7. What is a "teleological explanation" in science? Give two examples.
8. How did Pascal confirm the view that the mercury in a Torricelli barometer is supported by the force of atmospheric pressure?
9. How did Linus explain the operation of the Torricelli barometer? How did Boyle refute that explanation?
10. Review the debate between Newton (with Samuel Clarke) and Leibniz over the place of God in the universe. In addition to summarizing the arguments each put forth, your essay should explain what was at stake for each man, and why Newton later became known as the person who established the "clockwork universe" theory.
11. Identify: William Prout.
12. Identify: Christiaan Huygens.
13. How did the Second Law of Thermodynamics undermine the Clockwork Universe philosophy?
14. Identify Lavoisier and explain how he established the Law of Conservation of Mass.
15. Explain irreversibility, and discuss the history and various meanings of Entropy, and their significance in the history of science.
16. What was the phlogiston theory? How did Lavoisier refute it?
17. What was the result of the most accurate chemical attempt to test the Law of Conservation of Mass at the beginning of the 20th century? Why was that result later rejected?
18. Identify: Julius Robert Mayer.
19. Identify: Emmy Noether.
20. Discuss the establishment of the Law of Conservation of Energy, including the contributions of Rumford, Mayer, and Joule.
21. How did Buffon estimate the age of the Earth? What was his published result? Why was that result considered shocking?
22. What was the geological philosophy of Hutton, Playfair, and Lyell? How did it conflict with the theories of Laplace, Fourier, Hopkins and Lord Kelvin?
23. How did Sadi Carnot's analysis of steam engines lead to the discovery of the Second Law of Thermodynamics?
24. What is the Heat Death of the Universe? How was it related to cultural movements in the late 19th century and to Henry Adams's ideas about history?
25. Discuss and compare Dalton's and Avogadro's ideas about gases and atoms, and their roles in the history of science.
26. Identify: Daniel Bernoulli.
27. What was Dalton's formula for the water molecule? What was Avogadro's formula? Explain why they were different.
28. Why was it considered unlikely, by chemists at the beginning of the 19th century, that two atoms of the same element could form a molecule?
29. How did Dalton estimate the atomic weight of oxygen relative to hydrogen? Why was his result wrong by a factor of more than 2 or more?
30. (No question)
31. Why was the concept of valence useful in the development of organic chemistry? How did benzene present a challenge to the validity of this concept? What theory later resolved the benzene problem?
32. What is the Periodic Law in chemistry? How does its history support Popper's Principle?
33. Identify: gallium. Why is it important in the history of science?
34. One often hears that in science, theories are tested by experiment. Give 3 examples of experiments that were found to be wrong because they disagreed with a theory. What was the theory?
35. (No question)
36. How did Newton retard the adoption of the kinetic theory of gases?
37. How is the method of "grading on the curve" related to the kinetic theory of gases?
38. Who was the first scientist to publish a good estimate of the diameter of a molecule? What theory did he use to make this estimate? How did it illustrate a famous statement of Lord Kelvin?
39. How did the specific heats of diatomic molecules pose a difficulty for the kinetic theory of gases before 1900?
40. (No question)
41. What is the "reversibility paradox"? How did Boltzmann resolve it?
42. Identify: Maxwell's Demon. What is his task?
43. What is the "recurrence paradox"? How did Boltzmann resolve it?

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