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GP: Fachverband Geschichte der Physik

GP 5: Physics and the Museum

GP 5.4: Talk

Tuesday, March 22, 2022, 11:50–12:10, GP-H7

Label: Fallacy. Communicating Nature of Science in a Museum Exhibit — •Julia Bloemer — Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany

Physics often seems to be incomprehensible and divorced from reality. High-specialized instruments rarely help to bridge the gap in science communication. The interferometer built by Georg Joos in 1930 is one example. It is a person-high steal construct with four arms and a complex mirror construction inside. Meant to measure the hypothetic aether and to answer the question about a medium for light propagation, it is the end of a long line of different interferometer experiments since the 1880s with larger and larger instruments. Finally, special relativity theory replaced any need for a luminiferous aether and the hypothesis was abandoned. Why should anybody care about an old and gigantic historical instrument connected with an outdated theory? In the past, the Joos-interferometer served as a museum object to transport several different messages: to explain the theory of relativity and its history or to emphasize the high-standard of the German optical industry in the 1930s. This talk presents a different perspective. Especially instruments can tell stories about nature of science aspects, about the way physicists ask and answer questions. In this case, which role does fallacy play? How can repetition stabilize knowledge? In times of science skepticism, this is as important as never before.