|
| I don't say much about symmetry until deep into the second
| semester when covering Gauss's Law and Ampere's Law. I am
| planning on reading Ben Crowell's conceptual physics textbook
| _Discover Physics_ http://www.lightandmatter.com/area1dp.html
| As you can tell from the table of contents for chapter I:
|
| 1 The Rules of the Rules
| 1.1 Symmetry . . . . . . . . . . . 9
| 1.2 A Preview of Noether's Theorem. . 11
| 1.3 What Are The Symmetries?. . . . 12
|
|
Looks like an interesting book, I look forward to perusing it; though I
can't resist saying that on the very first page of section 1.1, indeed
the very first sentence, the author gives incorrect instructions on the
pronunciation of Noether's name.
Symmetry is an interesting thing, I find to be one of those ideas whose
use in instruction is problematic; perhaps this book solves a lot of the
problems of teaching symmetry. I look forward to seeing how the author
introduces symmetry ideas systematically right from the get-go.
For me it was one of those "turn on the light bulb" ideas; prior to
getting "it", my instructors could've been speaking chinese to me as
they quoted symmetry arguments for solving problems. After getting "it"
I feel like I'm talking chinese when I use symmetry arguments to help
students solve problems, who don't "get it".