Formatting:
12–point Times New Roman font
Title page with just the title of your paper in 16–point font bold with your name below in
12–point font italics centered in the middle of your page.
Double–spaced.
Minimum 1,000 words.
Key Elements: All of these elements should be easily found in your analysis.
Choose a famous experiment in physics that was groundbreaking and changed the field.
Classic examples are the Michelson–Morley experiment that discovered there is no ether,
or Planck’s black body radiation experiment that proved that energy was quantized and
gave birth to quantum mechanics.
Explain the historical context. Why were scientists doing this experiment? What were
they hoping to find or prove?
Describe the experiment in detail. How was the experiment designed? What equipment
was used? How did the scientists hope to get their results?
Describe how this experiment changed physics. What new field of inquiry did it open up?
What did the results say about the world? Did it overturn any previous assumptions we
had about the universe? Did it lead to new discoveries?
