(The Crucible) Reading Journal 2 - Act 1 Appearance of Reverend Hale to the End of Act 2

Reverend Hale finally arrives in Salem. Immediately the population has questions about witchcraft, from their wives reading strange books to their children dancing in the woods. In further investigation of the children, Hale questions Abigail Williams who releases the information that Tituba forced her to drink chicken’s blood. Tituba admits to having encountered the Devil, but says that she fought his control. After the incident where Abigail tells everyone that Tituba trifled with the Devil, the girls who were dancing in the forest begin to accuse many others. They claim to have seen the Devil and his helpers. If the accused do not admit to witchcraft they are hung. The townspeople are all buzzing about the events in the court. Marry Warren, a servant of the Proctor household, went against John Proctor’s permission. When she returns from court, she informs John and Elizabeth Proctor of the horrible news. Later they find out from her arrester that Elizabeth Proctor was also accused of witchcraft. The process they use to determine whether a person is hanged or not is illogical. If the person is innocent then they did not commit an act of witchcraft. However in order to keep one’s life that person must plead guilty to their acts of witchcraft. If the population of Salem was Puritans, which they were, then they believe that no one should lie however by setting someone free they are encouraging lying. The Constitution claims that someone is innocent until proven guilty however this is not the case in Salem. It seems that in Salem, the accused is already guilty and has to prove their innocence by saying that the Devil controlled them. Despite the craziness of the events that take place in this book, it is strangely appealing. The interest is in the confusion of Miller’s writing. He writes like this on purpose to help show how confusing the actual events are and why people would actually do these things.

(The Crucible) Reading Journal 1 - Act 1 to the Appearance of Reverend Hale

Aurthur Miller, The Crucible, Published 1952,1953,1954

Reverend Parris found a group of girls dancing around a fire with his servant, Tituba, uttering foreign words. Among these girls are his daughter Betty and his niece Abigail. Betty is in a state they believe to be caused by sickness. Parris is paranoid that his enemies will remove him from the ministry with this evidence of witchcraft. It is also mentioned that Abigail was removed from service of the Proctor family because she was having an affair with the man of the house, John Proctor. Reverend Parris has called on a witch expert, Reverend Hale, to examine the town for witchcraft. The town also has many on-going territory disputes that cause people to go to extremes. Citizens have even gone to the point of naming each other witches to own the disputed land. Miller approaches the story with an interesting standpoint. He attempts to enter the confusing fight between the two factions without bias, which is difficult and only furthers the confusion of the reader. It makes it difficult to tell who is doing what and when. This fits the story of the Salem Witch Trials because the entire event is confusing as to why humans would treat each other this way and their inability to follow the religion they pretend to follow. The real question is rather if this event encourages religion or denies it. The story can either be interpreted to encourage belief in religion or to discourage belief in religion. If you see these accusations by the town’s people as a correct interpretation of the word of God then God must exist because he protected the town from the devilish beings, while if you see these accusations as false then their belief in God caused many innocent people to die and therefore religion is responsible. This is what makes the book so interesting. When you read the book you further your belief in religion whether it is negative or a positive outlook on religion. Did Miller write The Crucible for this purpose?

Reading Journal 6 - Behavior

In this section of Six Easy Pieces, Feynman proves the uncertainty principle and the reason sub-atomic particles act as both waves and particles. Feynman first uses a theoretical experiment of bullets (particles) being shot randomly at a wall with two wholes in it. Behind the wall there is a detector that recognizes when bullets make it through. In the experiment there is a chance that the bullet will go through the top hole, P1, and a probability that the bullet will go through the bottom hole, P2. These two probabilities are graphed. Now when a bullet is allowed to go through either hole 1 or hole 2, there is a P12, which is graphed. It is determined that P12 = P1 + P2 due to interference both through probability and the graph. The experiment is then done exactly the same except for with waves. For waves P12 ≠ P1 + P2 because when waves interfere they cancel each other out. Now when this same apparatus is used with an electron gun, it is found that the electrons with the ability to move through both holes independently have an average probability that acts like the particle experiment, but the rate of electrons found is inconsistent. However, when an apparatus is designed that allows us to know which hole an electron goes through there is interference and P12 ≠ P1 + P2, like waves. There is no apparatus that allows us to know which hole and electron goes through without interference because of this electrons, a sub-atomic particle, are considered to act as both waves and particles. When the experiment is done with other sub-atomic particles, results are similar. Because electrons and all sub-atomic particles are unpredictable in both speed and location, we are always uncertain of where these sub-atomic particles will be.

Reading Journal 5 - The Theory of Gravitation

In this section of Six Easy Pieces, Feynman discusses the theory of gravitation. Despite gravities simplicity and the obvious presence of this seemingly strong force, it is a rather weak force when compared to nuclear forces (force binding the nucleus of atoms together), and electrical forces (positive and negative repulsion and attraction). By far the strongest of the three being nuclear forces and electrical forces are far still stronger than gravity. Gravity is only “inversely proportional to the mass of each and varies inversely as the square of the distance between them” (Feynman 89), (F=G(mm^1/r^2). In other words the bigger the two objects and the smaller the distance between them, the stronger the force will be. Feynman also discusses that the reason the Earth and other planets are circular is that gravity is pulling them as close together as they can be. The planets are not circles, however, they are ellipsis. They are ellipsis because the planet’s rotations causes a centrifugal effects which tend to oppose gravity around the equator spreading the middle of the planets farther out than the rest of it. Other than the brief background on gravitation and the explanation of the planets’ ellipsis shape, Feynman discusses the effects of gravity on moving objects. He states that because something is moving while be pulled it results in a curved motion. As if the object is strafing around the pull. This motion describes the revolutions of the planets around the sun, and the moons around the planets. Gravity most helps us predict the motion and position of stars. This is the reason gravity is used so often in astronomy. It is likely that the reason gravity was discovered so early was human natures fractionation with space and the stars. Without gravity we would know very little because without gravity we would not notice very much scientific.

Reading Journal 4 - Conservation of Energy

In this section of Six Easy Pieces, Feynman discusses the law of conservation of energy and its applications. The law of conservation of energy says that no matter is lost or gained by processes. Without the law of conservation of energy we wouldn’t know very much. If the law of conservation of energy didn’t exist then we could not know the energy of a photon, the specific heat of any element, the amount of energy required to do anything. This is because without knowing where all of this energy went, you cannot know what the energy was used on. So if we didn’t know the law of conservation of energy, then every energy value would consist of kinetic energy, potential energy, heat energy, and all the different kinds of energy, however, the law of conservation of energy allows us to know that if we add up all of these energies before and after a use of energy, we will find the same value for energy. This allows us to figure out each component of the total energy and specifically identify one of the values. The law of conservation of energy does not have to be applied on a small scale we can apply the law to the amount of energy in existence now and in the past. If all of our energy is in chemical bonds, nuclear energy between protons and electrons, and gravity, and all the sources of these are constant (gravity’s being mass) then the amount of energy that exists today must be the same as the amount of energy when whatever happened to create everything happened. Feynman also strays from the topic of conservation and more about energy and the amounts of energy we have access to today. Feynman claims that “(w)ith 150 gallons of running water a minute, you have enough fuel to supply all the energy which is used in the United States today!” (86). This just shows how much energy there is still left in the world. All we need to do is find a way to harness this energy and then this energy crisis that the world is in now will not exist.

Reading Journal 3 - The Relation of Physics to Other Sciences

This chapter of Six Easy Pieces shows how physics affects all the other sciences. Despite Feynman’s earlier tone towards chemistry and its inferiority to physics, he does realize the importance in all the other sciences. He discusses how each one gives knowledge of the world and furthers understanding of physics. For chemistry, he talks of how theoretical chemists are actually physicists and that the deepest levels of chemistry end up in quantum mechanics. For biology, he discusses how biologists helped discover conservation of energy. For astrology, he discusses how physics came to be from people noticing the simplicity of the movement of stars and planets. For meteorology, he gives a cynical view in which he says that the reason the measurements are for meteorology are possible is physics and how they have everything wrong. Water and air is unstable, making it impossible to know the condition of the air. For geology, his tone lightens as he discusses the unknowns of geology and how there is much more to be known. For psychology, he discusses two parts. One for psychoanalysis, which is not a science, and the other for the way our brains interpret sensation. He also explains how when we learn, cells have to change, therefore meaning atoms have to change, which brings us back to physics in the interest of the atom. Finally, the explanation of how physics relates to all the other sciences. In his explanation, Feynman analyzes that every other science wants to know what created what they study, and that each science is constantly changing. However, physicists do not interpret what physics is now as anything different of what it was at the beginning of time. Once and for all, he ends his conversation of other sciences to tell the importance of bringing it all together so they can truly understand the world.

Reading Journal 2 - Basic Physics

This chapter of Six Easy Pieces discusses basic or simple physics, generally through the eyes of the 1920’s. Not only does Feynman discuss breakthroughs in physics, he also discusses the effects of our understanding of the world these breakthroughs have. In the subject of physics, he talks about forces and their origins. These forces include the repulsion/attraction of protons and electrons. Apparently this force is what makes the electromagnetic field which at different frequencies gives us light, radio waves, etc... Later into the chapter, Feynman discusses quantum physics and how it shows that sub-atomic particles act as both waves and particles, making them particle-waves. Not only does quantum physics say that there are particle-waves, but it also states that you cannot tell the momentum and position of anything at the same time. Because of this, you can never fully know what the outcome of an experiment will be. For instance, if your experiment is to test if you can walk through walls, you cannot know that you are going to bump back from the wall until is has already happened because the positions of these particles is unknown making each experiment completely different. Because each experiment is different it is presumed that the outcome could also be different. Feynman also explains what his brilliant work in quantum electrodynamics has done for our understanding to the world. It is apparent that “out of quantum electrodynamics come all known electrical, mechanical, and chemical laws.” This makes the study of quantum physics important to the world because of the knowledge it can give us is all sciences. Although it is presumed that sub-atomic particles refer to only electrons, protons, neutrons, and photons, there are actually a lot more than just those four. Each particle has an anti-particle. For example, electron’s anti-particle is a positron. There are three classifications of these particles, baryons, mesons, and leptons. These categories fit similarly to the way a periodic table is organized. There are many similarities based on which column, row, and ground they are in (referring to Table 2-2 on page 41).