Re: photelectricity, history, and PAC Learning

["Dewey Dykstra, Jr." <dykstrad@EMAIL.BOISESTATE.EDU>]

John Denker writes:

> There has been some discussion of whether it makes sense to analyze the
> photoelectric effect from a "19th-century physics" point of view.  This has
> led to discussion of point such as
>         -- when was the cathode-ray e/m ratio first measured
>         -- when were work functions first measured
>         -- et cetera
> This will at best lead far afield, and at worst will lead to quite a messy
> morass, as discusses further below.

Cathode-ray e/m ratio is reported in a paper published in 1897.  I do not
know about dates on work functions.

> Points to ponder:
>
> 1) Teaching the history of science is remarkably different from teaching
> science.



I can't reply at length due to the call of class, but I would say that the
reason why so little science is actually learned is largely because of the
difference between the way we think we should teach science ("When teaching
science, we typically follow the shortest path from the root to the current
growing tip.") and what can be gotten into when we teach history of
science.  By the latter I refer to science teaching influenced by knowledge
of the history and philosophical issues in the style somewhat like Rogers
("Physics for the Inquiring Mind") and Arons ("development of concepts of
physics").

Finally I concur with the pointer to Kuhn's Structure of Scientific
Revolutions, but hastily point out that this was his early writing.  Kuhn
wrote much more after this.  A book which reviews all of his work and which
comes with highest recommendations from Kuhn, himself, is Reconstructing
Scientific Revolutions by Hoyningen-Huene.  Of course a careful look at
such materials may lead one to question the PAC concept of knowledge in
physics (not the P or the A but the C).

Dewey


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Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr.                 Phone: (208)426-3105
Professor of Physics                  Dept:  (208)426-3775
Department of Physics/MCF421/418      Fax: (208)426-4330
Boise State University            dykstrad@email.boisestate.edu
1910 University Drive                 Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570                  novice piper: GHB, Uilleann

"As a result of modern research in physics, the ambition and hope,
still cherished by most authorities of the last century, that physical
science could offer a photographic picture and true image of reality
had to be abandoned."  --M. Jammer in Concepts of Force, 1957.

"If what we regard as real depends on our theory, how can we make
reality the basis of our philosophy? ...But we cannot distinguish
what is real about the universe without a theory...it makes no sense
to ask if it corresponds to reality, because we do not know what
reality is independent of a theory."--S. Hawking in Black Holes
and Baby Universes, 1993.
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