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Re: [Phys-l] "Modern" Physics course title



John Denker wrote:
On 08/29/2007 01:44 PM, Michael Edmiston wrote:
20th-Century Physics ?

That is a good name, much preferable to "modern physics" or "nonclassical
physics".

There was a treeemendous revolution in physics starting at about 1900.
Maybe several revolutions, depending on how you count.

=====================

Possible refinement:
20th- and 21st-Century Physics

Most of the course will still be 20th-century stuff, but mentioning
the 21st century gives the name a little bit more pizazz.
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Honestly I don't see what the problem is. We call
it "Modern Physics" because of the period in which
it arose, when other "Modern" things were arising.
I don't think anyone gets confused by "Modern" as seems
to be suggested - and frankly, it's a name that will probably
be hard to unstick if anyone suggests something different.
"Modern Art" isn't really very "modern", either, but it
stems from a period in which it was given that name - and
that's where it stands even now.

We call our second year "Modern Physics" (and the first
year is "Classical Physics". Our foundational sequence
used to be 3 semesters, and we called it "Foundations of Physics
I, II and III" so you could go that route.

When I was an undergrad at Whitman College, our
second year course (used Tipler's Modern Physics, of
all things) was called "General Physics II" to compliment
the first year course, "General Physics I". We could do that,
though, because an algebra-based physics course wasn't
offered (which usually gets dibs on the "General" title
when an institution has both algebra and calc based courses).

Todd

--
________________________________________________________________________________
Todd K. Pedlar
Assistant Professor of Physics
Luther College
pedlto01@luther.edu
_________________________________________________________________________________