Re: [Phys-l] Thesis Topic

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 06/20/2009 10:58 AM, Rory Ian BUalan wrote:
> I'm in my 2nd year in MST-Physics. We're told to think of
> possible thesis topics for our proposal sumbission. I want a topic
> that is interesting and is very relevant right now... Any
> suggestions???

You might take as a model the paper by Gary Oas
  "On the Abuse and Use of Relativistic Mass"
  http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0504110

I like this work for a number of reasons.  For one thing, it
includes an extensive survey of textbooks, resulting in some
nice clear charts showing the secular trends.

It also helps that I strongly agree with his conclusion:
   "it is urged, once again, that the use of the 
    [velocity-dependent mass] concept at all levels 
    be abandoned."


Also, as a thesis project, such an investigation has good side
effects:  Surveying scads of textbooks will advance your education.
Don't leave it to the last minute.  Skimming 50 books, one every
couple of days for 100 days is a lot better than trying to cram
it all in at the end.

You may be asking, if Oas has already written this paper, what
remains to be done?  Well, for one thing, one could ask the same
sorts of questions about other relativity ideas, notably modern
(post-1908) notions of invariant length and invariant time, i.e.
relativity *without* Fitzgerald-Lorentz contraction and *without*
time dilatation.  For details, see
  http://www.av8n.com/physics/odometer.pdf

In any case you should contact Oas.  He had trouble getting this
work published, which I find shocking since it is IMHO a nifty
piece of work.  You should definitely find out what the reviewers 
were concerned about, so that you can try to find a way to address 
and/or circumvent it.

You might also ask Oas how he got access to all those books;  most
libraries do not have good collections of textbooks.  Given a
quite modest budget you could *build* a collection I suppose, by 
cruising the used-book market.

Such book-survey projects are not limited to relativity.  There are 
lots of other topics where misbegotten, archaic, and/or just plain 
wrong notions seem to be "frozen" into the textbooks.  A few dozen
particularly pernicious misconceptions are listed at
  http://www.av8n.com/physics/misconceptions.htm


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

Another large category of survey/comparison projects concerns state
education standards and exams.  You could collect standards from all
50 states and compare them.  What topics are the same everywhere?
Which ones are different?  In how many cases do the standards insist
on archaic and/or just plain wrong notions?

Actually it would be much better to compare the *exams* as opposed 
to the standards.  The exams are where the rubber really meets the
road.  I've seen too many cases where the state standards were rather 
reasonable, but the exams were disastrous.  For an example of what
I mean by this, see
  http://www.av8n.com/physics/ca-test-questions.htm
It might be hard to get access to representative exam questions from
all 50 states, but it might be worth a try.


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

You might take a look at this article:
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/31/AR2009053102339.html
  "46 States, D.C. Plan to Draft Common Education Standards"

Note that this is being done by the states themselves, on their own
initiative, rather than being imposed by the Federales.

      aiming to define a framework of content and skills that meet 
      an overarching goal. When students get their high school diplomas, 
      the coalition says, they should be ready to tackle college or a job. 
      The benchmarks would be "internationally competitive."

I reckon they've got plenty of work to do.  I detest busywork, and prefer
thesis project that are actually useful.  So maybe you could get a gig 
working on that project.  You begin by finding somebody associated with 
the project who would be willing to serve as your thesis advisor.