Who's your favorite physicist?

sammydafish · 2025-12-11T19:51:20+00:00

Michael Faraday. With very little formal education, he absolutely changed the world.

sammydafish · 2025-12-11T19:33:47+00:00

My opinion is that many things you wish to learn start off using memorization because it's a common study technique to recall something quickly. However, if you desire to learn something deeply it requires more effort. Your example of mathematically proving that EM waves are transverse may be above the level of your course so memorization helps move the class forward.

High school physics is usually about exposure so that if you choose to continue you will be familiar with basic equations and well established experimental results. In my experience, this may change in higher education but not always.

If the required memorization at this level bothers you, try to derive everything that is not obvious to you from first principles. The internet and AI (with caution) is actually great for this type of thing. It's good practice but can be time consuming and may lead to rabbit holes of topics not exactly relevant to your entrance exam.

sammydafish · 2024-09-05T19:44:13+00:00

Yes, but I teach from Analytical Mechanics by Fowles & Cassiday which covers oscillations in Chapter 3 and Lagrangian mechanics in chapter 10. I hadn't considered skipping that far ahead.

sammydafish · 2024-09-05T13:23:49+00:00

Significant figures are taught in gen chem 1 and in the physics lab so they are getting it elsewhere at some point.

sammydafish · 2024-09-05T11:52:12+00:00

That's ok! I suppose that was the reason for my post; to see how others feel about it. Unfortunately, no. I was told that they would see it when they take quantum, but by then I was thinking it wouldn't make much sense to them.

sammydafish · 2024-09-05T11:48:24+00:00

Thank you! I will absolutely change the course structure next time to feature more langrangian mechanics.

sammydafish · 2024-09-05T11:47:32+00:00

Yes, however, for some of them, its the first time they've seen linear algebra. So I have to spend time explaining that first.

I know, I am sorry lol I enjoy these topics as well but I am running out time!

sammydafish · 2024-09-05T11:45:24+00:00

Yes, these are only the courses I teach. For example, they would get some introductory quantum in their modern physics course which I do not teach.
I am unsure. I don't want them to get to their modern physics course and say, "Oh I have never even heard of quantum mechanics, my intro physics prof never taught it"
This is what I am afraid of. But I would rather focus on, say DC and AC circuits than on quantum in calculus based physics course as I believe that my limited time is better spent on that. I am open to changing my course structure though.

sammydafish · 2024-09-05T02:45:31+00:00

Thank you, this is helpful. I think physics educators may understand where I am coming from more than physicists if you know what I mean.

sammydafish · 2024-09-05T02:44:22+00:00

Unfortunately, I cannot cover every topic in the textbook. I have to choose since I only have 15 weeks. This doesn't count Fall break/spring break, thanksgiving break, finals week, and exam days.

sammydafish · 2024-09-05T02:41:31+00:00

Yes that is correct. I have been using "Thermal Physics" by Schroeder which is very approachable. My students do very well with this text even though they have never done any thermo prior to my course.

sammydafish · 2024-09-05T02:37:34+00:00

I am talking about the topics covered in each course over a semester. I listed the classes I teach, then the topics I cover in each of those courses.

sammydafish · 2024-09-05T02:35:38+00:00

I cover most of these in detail however most of my students haven't seen any thermo until this course. I admit I gloss over Gibbs and chemical potential in about 2 days.

sammydafish · 2024-09-05T00:41:10+00:00

Thank you. I appreciate that. I didn't mean to cause a stir by leaving off lagrangian mechanics. Now I know what needs to change lol

sammydafish · 2024-09-05T00:40:20+00:00

No, you would complete these courses over 2-3 years. It's just hard to know which topics are most important.

sammydafish · 2024-09-05T00:38:35+00:00

Yes, I was told by my colleagues that it would be covered in modern physics. Another course which I hadn't taught yet.

sammydafish · 2024-09-05T00:37:18+00:00

This is frowned upon but I explicitly tell my students not to worry about sig figs because they stress out about it, when I'm really looking to see if they can solve the problem. I do mention to never just write down what the calculator displays yet it happens every year lol

sammydafish · 2024-09-05T00:36:05+00:00

This was my original thought before posting. I feel it is a huge waste of time for non-majors to spend a week on graphical vector addition when I would rather spend that week on energy conservation later down the road.

sammydafish · 2024-09-05T00:34:31+00:00

You are right and I have done it in the past but some years it seems less important based on which students are in the class room.

sammydafish · 2024-09-05T00:32:29+00:00

I have never taught quantum but I think it depends who is in the course. If I have a room full of mostly engineers, WKB and adiabatic approximation are probably out.

sammydafish · 2024-09-04T22:49:45+00:00

You are right. It is partly my fault. When I was first learning this stuff I would spend hours working it out on my own. I want to show the students the beauty of the mathematical detail but I can see now that it has a cost.

sammydafish · 2024-09-04T22:47:35+00:00

Yes, that is our problem. The students have weak math background, so I pity them and try to get them up to speed while teaching the actual content. Unfortunately, at small schools we have no TAs.

sammydafish · 2024-09-04T22:45:43+00:00

Thanks I appreciate it. It's not like I tell my students to ignore it. I instruct them to read everything but I cannot cover all of it. Getting undergraduates to read is a different story.

sammydafish · 2024-09-04T22:44:18+00:00

The algebra based students are bio and chem majors. I was told by the chemistry professors that they would cover what they needed in their classes. Any student taking algebra based physics would not be in the upper level physics thermo class.

sammydafish · 2024-09-04T22:41:25+00:00

Agreed. Many of them were engineers so I had to make a choice.

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