tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26325744.post4153653266357855177..comments2023-11-05T03:23:39.028-08:00Comments on Angry Physics: Wo is meAngryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15464835370517136806noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26325744.post-51357663033142511292010-12-21T13:21:20.044-08:002010-12-21T13:21:20.044-08:00I think there are many reasons to be depressed. Fo...I think there are many reasons to be depressed. For instance when we don't get what we desire or when we lose interest. The most important thing is recognize we're depressed so that we can look for professional help.viagra onlinehttp://www.iservepharmacy.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26325744.post-88617998646262276442008-04-15T23:19:00.000-07:002008-04-15T23:19:00.000-07:00Maybe your disinterested physics students need a m...Maybe your disinterested physics students need a more entertaining presentation. Some examples: <BR/>actually firing a projectile into a block of wood to accompany lectures on momentum, (or maybe safer, use a pool table and balls for that subject.) Use surgical tubing tied to objects of various mass to demonstrate elastic potential energy. When I was an undergraduate we used oranges and grapefruits - outside of class - tied to surgical tubing and if you stretch it about 30 feet, the fruit just obliterates! Maybe get a radar gun to measure velocity of whatever you tie to the surgical tube to verify the math formulas. <BR/>Or, use lasers, mirrors and oscilloscopes to measure the speed of light, etc....<BR/>I never liked sitting in a classroom watching my General Physics professor derive formulas on the board. Blow stuff up and you'll get their attention! <BR/>Just don't use the Los Alamos 'tickle the dragon's tail' experiment!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26325744.post-51881157542483283632008-04-12T14:51:00.000-07:002008-04-12T14:51:00.000-07:00Angry, you are not depressed, who do you think you...Angry, you are not depressed, who do you think you're fooling ? Your second list is much better than the first...<BR/><BR/>Cheers,<BR/>T.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26325744.post-43296816899668244032008-03-24T21:09:00.000-07:002008-03-24T21:09:00.000-07:00"Or maybe I've got some kind of Lisp virus infecti..."Or maybe I've got some kind of Lisp virus infecting me?"<BR/><BR/>I don't detect a Lithp. *LOL*Frankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03301077496668834657noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26325744.post-17758787797760528522008-03-19T20:01:00.000-07:002008-03-19T20:01:00.000-07:00I was discouraged from studying physics when I was...I was discouraged from studying physics when I was an undergraduate, mostly by the difficulty of the classes. In particular, I took the junior quantum mechanics class my first year and had to work like the dickens in it, but though I survived it, I didn't think I'd learned anything because I thought that still didn't know a damned thing about quantum mechanics.<BR/><BR/>Then I started taking grad classes in physics while I was a math grad student and found that the subjects were actually quite simple, and they were all very unified and related and connected and beautiful.<BR/><BR/>I felt that the difference was 2-fold. First, as a grad student, I had a lot more math under my belt and so I wasn't spending my time trying to figure out "what do all the little d's mean." And second, the graduate introductory classes (for quantum mechanics and E&M) were year-long classes instead of a semester or (for the 1st year introductory class) a couple of weeks of very fast flying concepts.<BR/><BR/>If I were to be given the ability to reorganize the classes, I would teach the concepts at the freshman level without as much calculation. Or better, I would restrict the freshmen to "toy models" where the calculations are completely trivial.<BR/><BR/>That would unlink the mathematical difficulties from the physical concepts and (hopefully) reduce the vast volume of material that students were required to memorize.<BR/><BR/>To put this into perspective, I passed the PhD qualifying exams at U. Cal., Irvine without knowing the basic laws of thermodynamics. However, at the oral exam the professors had discovered this fact and asked me thermodynamics questions. Of course I still didn't know the basic facts of the subject but I could very quickly derive the results using statistical mechanics and probability theory (which was my math major). They supposedly had a fight but decided to pass me anyway. I had skipped over most of the undergraduate education in physics and went straight to grad school without it, so I always had big holes in certain areas.<BR/><BR/>I think the question comes down to "just how many terms do you want your students to have to memorize before you will give them a degree?"<BR/><BR/>For me, the answer to the undergraduate question for the freshman introductory class was "too many". And it's not just physics that had this problem for me. Certain parts of mathematics define way too many terms, particularly abstract algebra. Ironically, despite algebra being a complete disaster for me in grad math, my specialty now is a branch of Clifford algebra.CarlBrannenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17180079098492232258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26325744.post-75963098199373580822008-03-19T17:44:00.000-07:002008-03-19T17:44:00.000-07:00Anonymous: Physics for poets is definitely more fu...Anonymous: Physics for poets is definitely more fun. Harder? I don't know about that. As for not preaching to the choir, the students I've seen are, at the least, generally pretty accepting...I have to encourage them to be skeptical (but healthy skepticism).<BR/><BR/>Kea: Certainly, one can be enough. There's one who's arguably interested but he had to fly off on business (older student) for a week and it was tough without him there.<BR/><BR/>As for "Gee, I wish I had your problems," believe it or not, I understand. I know I've got it good but that doesn't make it easier being happy nor ignoring the small things. They say a crazy person doesn't know s/he is crazy, but I'm not so sure!Angryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464835370517136806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26325744.post-61677258180372427342008-03-19T16:22:00.000-07:002008-03-19T16:22:00.000-07:00I find it hard to imagine there is NOBODY in the c...I find it hard to imagine there is NOBODY in the class interested in physics. And one sometimes has to be enough. Gee, I wish I had your problems.Keahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05652514294703722285noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26325744.post-82713538877622123252008-03-19T10:32:00.000-07:002008-03-19T10:32:00.000-07:00I've found that the class for non-majors ("physics...I've found that the class for non-majors ("physics for poets") tends to be filled w/ students who are interested and want to learn more. AND you get tougher questions; rather than "Is this the right integral?" the questions are more along the line of "My tax dollars are paying for this. Exactly WHY is this worth doing?" It's a harder class to teach as well, which to my mind makes it more FUN to teach...it requires a deep understanding of the material and good pedagogical technique; you're not preaching to the choir.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26325744.post-65185471582907304722008-03-18T10:06:00.000-07:002008-03-18T10:06:00.000-07:00Well, it *could* be my fault if I were a terrible ...Well, it *could* be my fault if I were a terrible teacher :). But I'm not sure splitting the material or going slower or really anything would change things. I've experimented a bit each time I teach it, and it seems that it's just inevitable that you get an entirely uninterested bunch every once in a while.Angryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464835370517136806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26325744.post-20778515021406907632008-03-17T22:40:00.000-07:002008-03-17T22:40:00.000-07:00On the first count, that the 1st year students sho...On the first count, that the 1st year students show no interest, that's not your fault. It's the curriculum. They should split that herculean class into 9 quarters of much easier stuff.CarlBrannenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17180079098492232258noreply@blogger.com