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Hand waving in physics teaching?



Hello,

I just had an interesting conversation with a physics professor. He said how he tries to explain physical phenomena to students without mathematical models, say
in electromagnetism at a undergrad level. Then he continued that this "hand waving" is not enough, and of course students need also to master the topics; by this
he meant the mathematical mastery.

I think that he identifyed conceptual understanding with
hand waving. I guess that this may be a common idea amongst professional physicists who are mainly concerned with research. On the other hand I would state that mathmatical mastery is only a part of physical understanding. In my opinion the real understanding involves well developed conceptual understanding linked with mathematical apparatus in physics.

Perhaps there is a place for "hand waving" in physics teaching. Sometimes there may not be any good way of explaining a piece of physics for high school students (e.g. invoking quantum mechanics or Maxwell's equations is pretty meaningless for them); then I might wave my hands
:-) and say that these ideas will become available at the university physics. But building a solid conceptual understanding with little mathamatics is a valuable goal - not just hand waving - in an introductory level. Of course,
a more mathematical treatment has its place in high school physics as well.

Do you have any experiences with "hand waving" in physics?

Best regards,

Antti

Antti Savinainen
Kuopion Lyseo High School
Puijonkatu 18
70110 Kuopio
FINLAND
E-mail: antti.savinainen@kuopio.fi
Web site: <http://kotisivu.mtv3.fi/physics/>