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Final Exam Study Guide- Philosophy 2234
Short Answer Questions:
1.
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3.
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3.
How are Cepheid variables used to determine distances in astronomy?
What is a ‘standard candle’? Give two examples.
Describe the big bang and steady state accounts of the universe’s history.
What are the two principle pieces of evidence favouring the big bang theory?
How did Hoyle et al. (in “B2FH”) propose that the heavier elements of the universe were
formed?
4. How, according to big-bang models, did most of the helium in the universe form?
5. How does the distribution of quasars count in favour of big-bang cosmology (as opposed to
steady-state)?
6. What evidence suggests that the universe is expanding?
7. What is the ‘Hubble time’?
8. Why does Rees think that intelligent life may be rare in the universe?
9. What do we mean when we ask whether the universe is open, closed, or flat?
10. What is a neutron star?
11. What did Penzias and Wilson discover?
12. What feature of the cosmic microwave background radiation does Rees say constitutes a very
strong test of the big bang model?
13. What is the Schwarzchild radius?
14. What is Chandrasekhar’s limit?
15. Why is the homogeniety of the microwave background radiation hard to explain on the
standard big bang model?
16. What is the “horizon” problem?
17. What is the “flatness” problem?
18. What role does “cold dark matter” play in accounting for the observed inhomogenities of the
universe?
19. Why does Rees claim cold dark matter is now better supported by the evidence than hot dark
matter, as a model of the origins of various levels of structure in our universe (galaxies,
clusters, superclusters)?
20. How does an inflationary model help to resolve the horizon problem?
21. How does an inflationary model help to resolve the flatness problem?
22. How does the binary neutron star system observed by Taylor confirm the existence of
gravitational radiation as predicted by GTR?
23. What is weak anthropic reasoning? How did Dicke use it in responding to Dirac?
24. Explain how the multiverse plus observer selection fit together to account for fine tuning.
25. Describe how “observer created reality” in quantum mechanics has been invoked in support of
a strong form of anthropic reasoning (Carter’s “strong anthropic principle”).
Possible Essay Questions:
1.
How can we (how do we) use evidence we collect today to arrive at conclusions about
the past? Discuss the reliability of these methods (and how we test/establish it).
2.
Compare the role of initial conditions and fundamental laws in cosmology. What
constraints (if any) should we impose on the initial conditions we will accept as
reasonable? What about the role of physical constants like Planck’s constant or the
relative strengths of the different forces?
3.
What is the “Strong Anthropic principle”? What consequences does it have? Could
this provide evidence for some sort of theological conclusion, as J. Leslie argues? Is
fine-tuning really evidence for a designer? When do improbable outcomes need to be
explained?
4.
When is the fact that a theory predicts an improbable fact not really evidence for the
theory? Consider & explain the circumstances that are involved in deciding whether
such predictions really constitute evidence for the theory.
Set Essay Topic:
Discuss, with reference to some of the material we’ve covered including exposition of various aspects
of the present world-view of the physical sciences, the place of physical science in our understanding
of the world. Is physical science really telling us the truth about the physical world? If so, what are
its implications for other sorts of knowledge (ethical, religious, etc.)? If not, is there some other way
to the truth? Or should we just be content with theories that “fit the facts”? (Could we tell if a
theory is getting “close” to the truth? Consider how…)
Possible Questions for optional sections on Earlier Topics:
A. Relativity:
1.
Explain the role of the relativity of simultaneity in resolving the “twins paradox”: How is it that,
though both twins see the other’s watch running slow relative to their own, the twin who leaves and
later returns finds his watch behind the watch of the “stay-at-home” twin? What happens to
simultaneity relations in the course of our explanation of the twins paradox?
2.
How did Michelson and Morley go about trying to measure the earth’s motion relative to the
“ether”?
3.
Explain how relativity of simultaneity allows observers in two different inertial frames each to
correctly claim that the other’s clock is running slow.
4.
How is the effect of a round-trip captured, in our discussion of the twin’s paradox, without having
to invoke accelerated frames and the general theory of relativity?
5.
Explain why the existence of a limiting velocity for signals affects attempts to establish
observational criteria or the simultaneity of distant events.
6.
What is Einstein’s initial, rough, formulation of the principle of general relativity?
7.
How did Poincarré argue that we could apply any geometry we like to the physical world?
8.
What is a universal force, for Poincarre? What do such forces do in his discussion of physical
geometry?
9.
What is a “reference mollusc,” and what does it have to do with Einstein’s appeal to Gaussian
coordinates in GTR?
10. The Gaussian coordinate approach assumes something fundamental about the space-time we are
dealing with. What is it? What worries about this issue are raised by quantum mechanics and the
project of “grand unification”?
B. Quantum:
11. How do non-Boolean lattices change our understanding of quantum mechanical attributes? (QR
#5)
12. Describe how Einstein’s appeal to particles of light with energy h times frequency explains the
main features of the photoelectric effect.
13. How does Heisenberg’s two-level picture of the world account for some of the oddness of quantum
mechanics? (QR #8).
14. Describe how waves “add”, and explain the consequences for energy distribution when (nonempty) waves are overlapping/interfereing.
15. Explain how QR #2 proposes observer creation of reality? Explain how this connects to the
quantum meter option.
16. What Herbert calls “the orthodox ontology” is the view that QM is, in a certain sense, complete.
What does this sort of completeness come to?
17. What is the main problem with the “many worlds” interpretation? (Q.R. #4)
18. What is the parallel polarization state for a pair of photons? How does it link measurements made
on one photon to measurements made on the other? What does it imply about the results of
measurements made at ‘one end’ of the apparatus?
19. How does Herbert describe non-local interactions? Explain his ‘non-local rainbow world’ simile.
20. Explain the shift that takes place when we move from representing a quon before measurement and
the same quon after the measurement has been made. Discuss what it is that’s puzzling about this
shift.