(Because nothing brings in readers like a physics pedagogy post…) Out in Minnesota, Arjendu is expressing high-level confusion about the business of lecturing: As I’ve said a few times before in this blog, I prefer to let students read the text to get a preliminary take on physics content on their own, generate questions and… Continue reading Stability and Pedagogy
Category: Physics
John Wheeler, RIP
Going off to a rugby alumni weekend generally requires entering a 48-hour news blackout, at least for me. Of course, the outside world doesn’t stop just because I’m enjoying myself, so I emerge from my fog this morning to find that John Archibald Wheeler passed away. The New York Times obit is here, and Daniel… Continue reading John Wheeler, RIP
Dorky Poll: Calculators
Over at Cosmic Variance, Julianne waxes rhapsodic about her calculator, a HP-15C. This is such an obvious Dorky Poll topic that I can’t believe I didn’t think of it earlier: What sort of calculator do you use? My students, particularly the future engineers, are always shocked by my answer:
What Do You Need to Make a Quantum Computer?
(This is the second of two background posts for a peer-reviewed research blogging post that has now slipped to tomorrow. I started writing it, but realized that it needed some more background information, which became this post. And now I don’t have time to write the originally intended post…) Making a quantum computer is a… Continue reading What Do You Need to Make a Quantum Computer?
Political Indoctrination by Faculty
An ad-lib from yesterday’s lecture about interactions between electric fields and neutral matter, paraphrased: So, we can divide macroscopic objects into two categories, based on what happens when you bring large numbers of atoms together. In materials that are insulators, the electrons aren’t free to move. The atoms hold onto their electrons very tightly. They’re… Continue reading Political Indoctrination by Faculty
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
Having brought in a huge new audience at the end of last week– partly through the “framing”/”screechy monkeys” things, but mostly because my What Everyone Should Know About Science post hit the front page on Reddit– I figured I should take this opportunity to… Well, drive them all right the hell away again with a… Continue reading Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
The Sticky Tape Lab
I had the first lab of the term yesterday in my introductory E&M class. This is the first time I’ve taught out of this book (Matter & Interactions by Chabay and Sherwood), which actually includes the basic elements of this lab as suggested activities in the second chapter of the text. The lab was more… Continue reading The Sticky Tape Lab
Science in the 21st Century
The Perimeter Institute will be hosting a workshop in September on “Science in the 21st Century“: Times are changing. In the earlier days, we used to go to the library, today we search and archive our papers online. We have collaborations per email, hold telephone seminars, organize virtual networks, write blogs, and make our seminars… Continue reading Science in the 21st Century
Dorky Poll: SI or CGS?
I have a doctor’s appointment this morning, and then class, so here’s another Dorky Poll inspired by the fact that I’m teaching intro E&M: What system of units do you prefer for E&M: SI, or CGS? This is even dorkier than usual, so I suppose I should provide some context…
Dorky Poll: E or M?
My post-tenure sabbatical, alas, is officially over today, as I begin teaching the honors section of the introductory E&M class. This will keep me busy for most of the morning, which makes it the perfect opportunity for a Dorky Poll: Electricity or magnetism? Yes, I know they’re unified, and thus merely different manifestations of a… Continue reading Dorky Poll: E or M?