Today I handed back the graded mid-term tests in my first-year electricity and magnetism course, and the results were OK. The 2-hour test consisted of five problems and then a final 7-part question that probed for conceptual understanding. In the past I have asked students to write a paragraph about this or that, but this … Read more
I’m teaching first-year electricity and magnetism this semester, and we are using the textbook College Physics by Knight, Jones, and Field. Students find it very clear, and it’s worked out well (we used the same textbook last year). The workbooks are very effective, as they walk students through concept development very nicely. As teacher resources, … Read more
After posting on the meaning of weather forecasting, I can’t resist pointing your attention to a unique video on double rainbows and the question of what they mean. The heartfelt expression of awe captured in this video gained widespread attention on the web, and the author of the work was extensively interviewed soon after it … Read more
One of the obstacles to learning in mathematics and physics is the fact that there are many closely related concepts, although logically distinct. Additionally, the same structures (logical or mathematical) occur over and over again in our mathematical models of the world. For both reasons, the same word is sometimes used to mean several different … Read more
Perhaps my favourite joke of all time is actually an anecdote that I read in the wonderful book Thirty Years that Shook Physics, by George Gamow. The book is available in an inexpensive Dover edition, and would make a fine complement to a course textbook in modern physics, which amounts to introductory quantum mechanics. Gamow … Read more
Let’s continue the story in the previous post about Newtonian mechanics. In Newton’s theory of gravity, two objects that have mass attract each other with a gravitational force simply by virtue of their mass. The strength of the force is proportional to the product of the two masses, and inversely proportional to the square of … Read more
Science has revolutionized the way we live thanks to its influence on technology, but it’s perhaps less well-known how science has utterly transformed the way we think about the world. For example, in ancient times it was thought that the earthly realm was separate from the heavenly realm. God, or the gods (depending on belief) … Read more
Scott Aaronson has a delightful blog, where he discusses quantum computation and computational complexity in a very light-hearted style. He’s a great writer and very instructive. A good example of his satire is his classic creation, doofusino theory. (This post first appeared at my other (now deleted) blog, and was transferred to this blog on … Read more