![\"\"](\"http:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-content\/uploads\/bookshelf.jpg\" "\\"My")
<\/a>Sometimes (like now) when I wake up at night and can’t get back to sleep, I go to arxiv.org<\/a> and browse through recent physics papers.\u00a0 Topics that interest me include dark energy, the physical basis (if any) of free will (if it exists), and alternatives to the the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics (I never grasped how a wave function “collapses”).\u00a0 Don’t worry, keep reading — I’ll keep it simple, and there’s no test at the end of the page.<\/p>\nWhat is odd is that I am not particularly adept in physics, or more specifically, the math used in college physics and beyond.\u00a0 They lost me at Hamiltonians, probably even earlier:<\/p>\n
Physics wasn’t this complicated in high school.\u00a0 In high school, I recall that we were taught Newton’s Laws; how things tend to expand when heated; how to calculate the horsepower we generated running up a flight of stairs; how “particles” of light that are absorbed by the fins of a radiometer<\/a> make it spin; and maybe something about electric and magnetic fields, I don’t know.\u00a0 Mostly I remember how our teacher, Ron Noel, would take thirty-minute smoke breaks in the second period of the class, during which I would help my wife-to-be with her shorthand (yes, shorthand<\/a>!) assignments.<\/p>\n As my wife relates it, Mr. Noel told her that if she were to remember only one thing from physics class, just remember F <\/strong>= ma<\/em>.\u00a0 And she did.\u00a0 And that is basically what I remember about high school physics too: a world of laws and formulas<\/a>, where you plug some numbers into an equation and you get an answer, and that’s that.<\/p>\n But things fell apart in college, when they started teaching us how the world really<\/em> works.\u00a0 I found out electrons don’t really “orbit” the nucleus of an atom, but instead the energy of an electron is more like a cloud around the nucleus.\u00a0 I found out space is not an invisible three-dimensional stage on which the universe’s events take place, but more like a fabric that itself curves and stretches due to the mass and rotation of stars and planets.\u00a0 And I found out there is no “master clock” ticking away the seconds as Newton thought, but instead… well, the phenomenon we call time<\/em> is still a matter of debate in physics!<\/p>\n I submit that much of my stone-headedness comprehending modern physics has to do with having been taught classical (Newtonian) physics in high school — a primitive view of the universe became wired into my brain, and once it took hold, it was hard to displace.<\/p>\n In first grade, we learned 2 x 2 = 4.\u00a0 Luckily, 2 x 2 remains 4 the rest of our lives.\u00a0 We don’t have to rethink 2 x 2 or find a better approximation to 2 x 2 as we learn advanced math.\u00a0 But the subject of physics is treated differently.\u00a0 Our kids are taught only an approximation of reality, things they will need to unlearn<\/em> before they discover the truth about nature (if they ever do have that opportunity).<\/p>\n Why don’t we trust our high school children with the messy truth-in-progress that is modern physics?\u00a0 Why don’t we teach them from the start how space is like a fabric and how the flow of time may be an illusion?\u00a0 Is there no way to teach high school physics without using simplistic concepts like grids and universal clocks?\u00a0 I would like to see the imaginative leaps students could make, if their minds were not imprinted with the world views of four centuries ago.<\/p>\n We would do our children a greater service by teaching them physics without the tests, without the grades.\u00a0 Do lots of classroom experiments.\u00a0 Don’t ask them to plug numbers into formulas. <\/strong> Talk about time and space, forget F<\/strong> = ma<\/em>.<\/p>\n We live in an incredibly fascinating universe, about which we (by we, I mean physicists) have an incredible amount to learn.\u00a0 I can see the challenge, how to introduce high school physics students to the intricate workings of our universe without overwhelming them.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I don’t see much effort to that end.\u00a0 Look at the online Physics Classroom<\/a>.\u00a0 It is so Newton!\u00a0 It is still all about F<\/strong> = ma — <\/em>nothing at all about the shape of the cosmos that Einstein helped reveal 100 years ago.<\/p>\n High-school physics curriculum needs a complete overhaul.\u00a0 If Einstein isn’t mentioned until the last week of class, something beside F<\/strong> = ma <\/em>is fundamentally wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometimes (like now) when I wake up at night and can’t get back to sleep, I go to arxiv.org and browse through recent physics papers.\u00a0 Topics that interest me include dark energy, the physical basis (if any) of free will … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-content\/uploads\/hamiltonian.png\" "\\"Hamiltonian\\"")
<\/a>At left is the Hamiltonian.\u00a0 That triangle is called nabla<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n