136-460 Physical Science in the 18th Century

Formerly available as 136-508, 136-634, 136-346 and 136-046. Students who have completed 136-508, 136-634, 136-346 or 136-046 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Usually admission to the postgraduate diploma or fourth-year honours, or a postgraduate coursework program.

This subject involves a close historical study of topics such as the changing content and place of physics in the university curriculum during the course of the 18th century; the emergence of experimental natural philosophy; science and the Enlightenment; the growth and mathematisation of various fields of experimental inquiry (especially electricity, magnetism, heat and optics); and specialisation and the development of new institutional forms. Students should complete the subject familiar with the development of the discipline of physics between 1700 and the early 19th century.