PHILOSOPHY OF THE COURSE

Until recently, algebra-based College Physics Courses were often taught using the same problems-intensive approach as the calculus-based University Physics courses, only suppressing the calculus notation. Many educators (click on the linked essay and the critical report that I prepared for a textbook publisher) now believe that this model is inappropriate, and does not efficiently serve the needs of students (with diverse backgrounds and talents) whose career goals require a qualitative understanding of modern physical concepts, but who will have little use for memorized formulae beyond the final exam. With this in mind, I plan to teach this course with a different emphasis from that of the calculus-based courses (eg, our Physics 2130). The approach will attempt to provide conceptual and intuitive insights into the fundamental basis of natural phenomena, and a few of the reasons for doing this are listed below (click on another relevant essay).

It has been stated that with the advent of modern Quantum theory we lost all conceptual pictures, and only mathematics remains. I strongly disagree with this statement, and the course will attempt to refute this view. Physics is NOT a way of thinking about Mathematics - Mathematics is ONE way of thinking about Physics (and sometimes not the best initial way).

In the current Physics Curriculum, students learn perhaps too much about strategies for solving contrived problems and certainly too little about the conceptual impact of Physics on their daily lives and on their own fields of specialization. Attempts will be made to structure the course in a manner that balances conceptual models with quantitative formulations, with applications to real physical situations. My goal is for the student to understand the physical world primarily through moving pictures of the mind, with mathematics invoked only for quantitiative checks of their validity. I ask your indulgence in this experiment, and if you give it serious consideration, I shall structure the course in such a way that you will not be disappointed.

It should also be noted that, although materials will be made available at this Website, the primary emphasis of the course will be interpersonal and not electronic. The purpose of providing these electronic materials is to free students from impediments (such as note taking, etc) that could otherwise interfere with direct interactions with the instructor.

Larry Curtis