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Re: contribution of mathematics...



Helping student see how the qualitative terms may be extracted from the
formula helps them appreciate the role of mathematics in physics

Massaging a formula to make it "elegant" and its meaningful terms
apparent is something that can only be appreciated by the mathematically
adept student, and there is great beauty to be seen in those formulae.
The formula of which I was so proud (the rotational contribution to the
value of g as a function of latitude) is an example. That formula came
from massaging a law of cosines result by completing a square and
applying a trigonometric identity; it is not entirely evident going in
that there will be a simple solution like that. The physicist thinks
that there *must* be one, however, even if it is not presented as an
end-of-the-chapter problem prefaced by "Show that...". As those of you
who read that thread should recognize, I was quite pleased when I found
that elegant relation.

Such is the elegance of Nature. Helping a student to see Nature's inner
beauty almost demands that he know mathematics, for that is her chosen
mode of expression.

Leigh