Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: PmbPhy on 25/04/2016 18:50:05
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As some of you are aware of, I'm building an educational website. There will be tutorials there for both math and physics. I'd like to ask all of you what you'd like in the way of tutorials for such subjects? The main website is at http://www.newenglandphysics.org/
At http://www.newenglandphysics.org/physics_world/physics_world.htm I'm placing all the material from my old website in case people would like something in the mean time, i.e. until I finish building the new website.
Moderators: Please take note that (1) I'm not selling anything in the website and (2) the physics forum is not open to the public so you need not worry about competition from my website. With these points in mind it should be clear that talking about my website does not violate any forum rule.
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Sorry I haven't had time (or indeed any interesting material) to contribute, Pete, but my two cents worth is to include Dimensional Analysis. It is without doubt the most powerful tool for understanding physics, on the one hand, and debunking cranks/politicians/philosophers/priests on the other.
I used to teach it in an hour to arts undergradates who had done no physics since age 14, then get then to sit an "A" level (university entrance, in the days when that meant something) paper, knowing nothing more than DA and how to multiply and divide. In every case they would have obtained a pass mark after only an hour's tuition instead of 4 years of study.
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Sorry I haven't had time (or indeed any interesting material) to contribute, Pete, but my two cents worth is to include Dimensional Analysis. It is without doubt the most powerful tool for understanding physics, on the one hand, and debunking cranks/politicians/philosophers/priests on the other.
Thanks Alan. I'll put that on the list.
This is the kind of thing that doesn't fit neatly into a section entitled calculus, trig, mechanics, etc. I should create an entire section on the building blocks of physics such as teaching about models, deductive reasoning, the scientific method, aka inductive reasoning, scientific notation, what is space, time, energy, mass, etc.