Einstein (1 Viewer)

[Tommy_Lamp]

this was in last yrs HSC paper:

Q26)
"Describe Einstein's contributions to Special Relativity and to Quantum Theory and how these contributions changed the direction of scientific thinking in the Twentieth Century" - 6 Marks

I dont have any idea on how to answer this question, any suggestions?

ta


p.s. does anyone know if the 2003 HSC paper sample answers have been released, and if yes, where can i get em?

 

[Uncouth]

I disliked that question alot last year.

This website might help:
http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/index_n2/einstein_theory.html

 

[Premus]

yeah...i think its basically abt Einstein and how he developed the special theory of relativity, where the speed of light was constant and behaved as a wave. this led to other implications such as - time dialition, length contraction....etc

and the quantum theory was used to explain the photoelectric effect. here light behaved as particles..packets of energy(photons).

 

[Tommy_Lamp]

ah k, ta

uncouth i share your displeasure

 

[Roobs]

Im stuck on this question too-- anyway, the marking criteria said that many people gave a good description of his contributions, but failed to link to how it "changed the direction of scientific thinking"-- anyone got anything??

 

[helper]

What it means is you need to say what he did. Eg brought in the idea of the speed of light being constant and length and time being relative to the observer.

Then you had to clearly state how this was different.

Eg. While length and mass were considered to be fix quantites before Einstein, they are now relative and change based on the observer.