Problems of Nuclear Disarmament-Physics 239

Illinois Wesleyan University
Professor: Raymond G. Wilson May Term 

First Week

Goals:

• Understand what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• Learn how we have arrived at our present situation.
• Understand the physical effects of nuclear weapons.
• Try to comprehend what nuclear war would mean.
• Begin our study of physics: The four forces of nature, concepts of energy, conservation laws, atomic and nuclear physics.

So read:

• SR: (assigned in class)
• Shohno: Chs: 1-4 Warf: Chs: 1-3
• Barefoot Gen: Vol. 1, on library reserve

AV materials:

• Hiroshima Survivors Recollect 
• Hiroshima Decision
• The Price of Peace and Freedom 
• Powers of Ten
• Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes 
• Pika Don, and Guide to Armageddon

Second Week

Goals:

• Learn the effects of nuclear technology and nuclear weapons on people and on the
• Environment. Basics of nuclear bomb design, fission and fusion.
• Understand how nuclear weapons can be delivered.
• Learn how a nuclear reactor works and understand what happened at Chernobyl.

So read:

• Shohno: Chs: 5, 6, 7
• Warf: Chs: 4, 5
• SR: finish; finish Physics Notes
• Barefoot Gen: Vol. 2, 3

AV materials:

• Prophecy 
• Black Rain
• A Mother's Prayer 
• Half Life, and Radio Bikini
• Conservation Laws in Zero-g 
• The Day After Trinity
• Mission of Mercy 
• Barefoot Gen

Third Week

Goals:

• Understand peaceful applications of nuclear physics.
• Work on possible solutions to the war problem.
• Learn about the costs of World Militarism.
• Find solution to the war problem. How will war end?
• Consider your topic summaries.
• Successfully complete the final exam.

So read:

• Warf: Chs: 10c, 11, 12
• Shohno: Chs: 8, 9
• Barefoot Gen: Vol. 4

AV materials:

• The Bomb's Lethal Legacy 
• Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang
• Controlling Interests 
• Life in the Third World?
• Fury in the Pacific
• Goodbye War 
• A Visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Additional appropriate "Japanese" film, video, and reading is also part of this course.
(All in three weeks.)