https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzn2ecB4Hzs
I thought it was just me that didn’t quite enjoy my high school physics classes much. Classical physics, it doesn’t really stimulate me as much as Modern physics does. This video emphasizes on Relativity and Quantum theory and how its absent in education nowadays. Now, I take IB, and we do have a small bit of this, an option in relativity is offered, as well as astrophysics, a chapter on nuclear physics and one in quantum physics and particle physics. But beyond say the standard model, photoelectric effect, and Feynman’s diagrams we don’t go much in depth. Plus my physics portions don’t even have calculus in them. For that matter I’m only learning calculus now in the 12th grade.
I want to pursue a future in physics, and sometimes I get exasperated by the physics present in my syllabus. Wonder why it matters to us whether I can calculate the energy produced by a windmill. And then I go to the internet and it reminds me of the beauty of physics. I can listen to people speaking of physics in a manner as passionate as I feel about the subject as well, speaking passionately about the parts of physics I don’t quite like as much and it makes me wonder. Why can’t my physics portion reflect this beauty?
Why doesn’t physics education convey the beauty behind the subject? Why must we be confined to only knowing the subject instead of appreciating it and loving it. Of course I do understand that the Personal Engagement criteria for my investigation is meant to instill some sort of appreciation, but it doesn’t really work now does it? Tons of people will still graduate with an IB Diploma having taken physics HL not realizing how beautiful it is.
Sorry this post was more rambling than it was about physics, but I did need to get this out.
The Cat in the Box 