Self-study
P1
Advances in scientific understanding often do not build directly or smoothly in response to the data that are amassed, and in retrospect, after a major revision of theory, it may seem strange that a crucial hypothesis was long overlooked. ███
Intro to Topic ·
Scientific progress is not linear; crucial idea are sometimes overlooked
Example ·
Splitting the nucleus of an atom
Between 1934 to 1939, scientists split the atom without recognizing that they had done so.
P2
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Theory ·
Atoms can be split
It was known that in theory atoms could be split.
Experiment ·
Neutron-bombardment was not intended to split the atom
Scientists did not expect that to happen.
P3
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Experimental Results ·
Meitner and Fermi's experiment produced "puzzling" substances
They didn't know what the substances were (mainly) because they weren't expecting to have split uranium.
Experimental Results ·
Hahn identified substances as barium and technetium
Barium and technetium's protons and neutrons add up to the protons and neutrons of uranium.
P4
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Hypothesis ·
Nuclear fission occurred
Meitner finally realized that they had achieved nuclear fission.
Passage Style
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
Single position
27.
According to the passage, which ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████ ██████ ███ ██████
Question Type
Stated
It’s difficult to predict the answer to this question just based on the question stem, because much of the passage relates to physicists in the 1930s. Let’s rely on process of elimination.
a
It neglected earlier ███████████ █████████████
Not supported, because the author doesn’t suggest that physicists failed to realize atoms could be split due to any neglect (meaning, disregard) of earlier theoretical developments. Meitner may have made a crucial theoretical connection that allowed physicists to realize the significance of the neutron bombardment experiments, but this doesn’t imply that physicists besides Meitner neglected anything. There’s a difference between, on the one hand, failure to realize the significance of earlier developments and their relationship to one’s own experiments, and on the other hand, the neglect of earlier developments. In addition, we can intepret Meitner as part of the physics community of the 1930s, which would suggest that the community actually did not neglect earlier developments; Meitner’s realization of the theoretical connection between the neutron bombardment experiments and the splitting of atoms would be part the achievements of the 1930s physics community.
b
It reevaluated calculations ██████████ ████ █████ █████ ██ ██████
Not supported, because we have no evidence that the physicists “reevaluated” calculations. We know that some theoretical physicsts had produced calculations that showed “in principle it should be possible to break atoms apart.” But we’re never told any other physicists changed their evaluation of these calculations. Perhaps other physicists didn’t realize the significance of these calculations, but that doesn’t imply anyone reevaluated these calculations.
c
It never identified ███ ███████████ ██ ███████ ███████████ ██ ████████
d
It showed that ███████ █████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████
Not supported, because the author never compares the ease with which uranium atoms can be split to the ease of splitting other kinds of atoms.
e
It recognized the ███████ ██ ███████ ████ ███████████ ███████████