Can that really be so? A light-hearted look at the concept of force in classical, quantum, and statistical mechanics – Philip Taylor

Date: Thu. December 8th, 2011, 4:15 pm-5:15 pm
Location: Rockefeller 301

Some folk think that there are four types of force. Napoleon thought there were two. I am going to talk about three types. Of these, the most interesting by far is the entropic force, which is the one that drives us to explore the unknown. Along the way, we will reach some remarkable conclusions. But will they stand up to scrutiny? As a clue we mention that the word scrutiny itself comes from the Latin for “those who search through piles of trash in the hope of finding something of value.” Do come and scrute with us at the last colloquium of the semester.