Dear Colleagues

Today Wednesday, at 17:15, the Kolloquium series of SS05 will continue with the first Einstein-related talk: Norbert Straumann will discuss the contents of Einstein's doctoral thesis (Universitaet Zuerich, 1905, see below). From 16:45, there will be tea and coffee in front of the lecture hall 16 G 05 at the Irchel Campus of the University (the usual place!). Due to the expected larger audience, the Kolloquium has this time been moved to Hoersaal G 20. There will be signs posted.

For directions or further information, go to

http://www.physik.unizh.ch/teaching/kolloquium05/kolloquium.html

You will notice that there is still one slot of the Kolloquium program open: June 29, the last date before SS05 ends. Suggestions for a speaker are welcome.

With best regards,

Juerg Osterwalder

On Einstein's Doctoral Thesis

Norbert Straumann Institute for Theoretical Physics, Uni Zuerich

Einstein's thesis "A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions" was the second of his five celebrated papers in 1905. Although it is - thanks to its widespread practical applications - the most quoted of his papers, it is less known than the other four. The main aim of the talk is to show what exactly Einstein did in his dissertation. As an important application of the theoretical results for the viscosity and diffusion of solutions, he got (after eliminating a calculational error) an excellent value for the Avogadro number from data for sugar dissolved in water. This was in agreement with the value he and Planck had obtained from the black-body radiation. Two weeks after he finished the 'Doktorarbeit', Einstein submitted his paper on Brownian motion, in which the diffusion formula of his thesis plays a crucial role.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Prof. Dr. Jürg Osterwalder Physik-Institut, Universität Zürich Winterthurerstr. 190 CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland phone: +41 44 635 5827 <<< NOTE NEW AREA CODE ! >>> lab: +41 44 635 5745 sekr: +41 44 635 5781 fax: +41 44 635 5704 e-mail: osterwal@physik.unizh.ch web: http://www.physik.unizh.ch/groups/grouposterwalder/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~