CSU, Chico News

Louis Buchholtz, professor of physics, California State University, Chico, will present a talk as part of the Humanities Center Symposia theme “Science and the Aesthetic Imagination” on Friday, April 16, from 3 to 5 p.m., in Trinity 126.

In his talk “Perfect Form: The Ideal Synthesis of Aesthetic and Science,”
Buchholtz will show how the ancient Greek quest for perfect form has been revived in modern physics. He will give examples of some laws of physics that can be seen as springing from this search for the ideal.

He will outline the essential connections among particle mechanics, optics, electrodynamics and general relativity.

Buchholtz is a theoretical physicist. He has long been interested in connections between the sciences and the humanities, and with providing a means for students to understand those connections. He is creating, with the help of one of his students, a cultural timeline that will provide beginning physics students with an understanding of the cultural context of particular scientific developments.

He uses the changes in choral music over centuries to demonstrate this, as music is of primary interest to him-he’s a tenor in the St. John’s Episcopal Church choir-and he uses the development in choral music over centuries to demonstrate how those changes corresponded with scientific discoveries and how both existed in a cultural context.

The Humanities Center, supported by the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, sponsors formal discussions and presentations in the areas of art, literature, history, philosophy, religious studies and music.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 4th, 2004 at 8:30 am and is filed under 2004 Spring.

Louis Buchholtz, professor of physics, California State University, Chico, will present a talk as part of the Humanities Center Symposia theme “Science and the Aesthetic Imagination” on Friday, April 16, from 3 to 5 p.m., in Trinity 126.

In his talk “Perfect Form: The Ideal Synthesis of Aesthetic and Science,”
Buchholtz will show how the ancient Greek quest for perfect form has been revived in modern physics. He will give examples of some laws of physics that can be seen as springing from this search for the ideal.

He will outline the essential connections among particle mechanics, optics, electrodynamics and general relativity.

Buchholtz is a theoretical physicist. He has long been interested in connections between the sciences and the humanities, and with providing a means for students to understand those connections. He is creating, with the help of one of his students, a cultural timeline that will provide beginning physics students with an understanding of the cultural context of particular scientific developments.

He uses the changes in choral music over centuries to demonstrate this, as music is of primary interest to him-he’s a tenor in the St. John’s Episcopal Church choir-and he uses the development in choral music over centuries to demonstrate how those changes corresponded with scientific discoveries and how both existed in a cultural context.

The Humanities Center, supported by the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, sponsors formal discussions and presentations in the areas of art, literature, history, philosophy, religious studies and music.

###

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 4th, 2004 at 8:30 am and is filed under 2004 Spring.