Re: Physics Textbook

[Jack Uretsky <jlu@HEP.ANL.GOV>]

Hi all-
        Ben's posting suggests that I say more about the course I would
like to see preceding even a Hewitt course.  It is based on the HS
physics course I took in 1939 or '40.
        It was not a whirlwind tour, but it took us through some
specific areas.  I learned how a refrigerator works, how to determine
relative humidity for wet bulb - dry bulb readings, how weather patterns
develop.  I learned about trajectories, probably by memorizing
s= (1/2)gt^2 and related formulas, saw electroscope and Crooke's tubes
demos, and did perfect gas law calculations.  That kind of course is
labeled Physical Science these days, but whatever the name, it should
be a prerequisite for the kind of course envisaged by the AP B exam.

                                Regards,
                                        Jack

Adam was by constitution and proclivity a scientist; I was the same, and
we loved to call ourselves by that great name...Our first memorable
scientific discovery was the law that water and like fluids run downhill,
not up.
                          Mark Twain, <Extract from Eve's Autobiography>

On Fri, 10 Dec 1999, Ben Crowell wrote:

> Jack wrote:
> >        Hewitt is popular with many high school teachers, but even his
> > book is IMO too narrow for a first course.
>
> Ken replied:
> > I am
> > concerned about the term "narrow" used here, Jack. One of the results
> and
> > interpretations of the TIMMS report was that American education is " a
> > mile wide and an inch deep". I feel that is what you are promoting.
>
> Believe it or not, I agree with both Jack and Ken! Jack is right that
> there is a real problem with students slipping through K-12 without any
> broad,
> qualitative knowledge of science. Very few of the students in my gen.
> ed.
> community college classes realize that electrons orbit nuclei, or that
> the moon
> may be visible in the daytime.
>
> But the way to fix the problem is not by marching high-school students
> through
> a kitchen-sink plug-and-chug college textbook like Serway and Faughn or
> its
> ilk.