It is my habit to attempt some cogent response to questions where my experience may be thin because the power of the internet search is so puissant.Accordingly, I searched for third semester physics texts. I looked at MIT, I looked at Caribbean college texts on the topic. This approach was unproductive.I lacked a personal voice. Several days later, I encountered a QUORA note from a physics teacher which seemed to answer the need.(As often happens, I could not recover it to quote directly. Pity!)Anyway - the scenario was a physics class where the students all seemed to receive high grades. Yet there was a certain lightness of spirit from thesekids. It was easy to dismiss the data as grade-inflation, until further insight showed that teacher was using unusual methods. There were experiments, trials, debates, discussions, arguments. Advice could be obtained at any hour of the day or night: in a word - intense engagement.The writer went on to say that when several of those students progressed to his class, the effect seemed to persist. Those students worked hard on the material and asked copious questions etc.By the time the elite teacher's worth was recognized so he could be offered tenure, he had been snatched away to work in the Exploratorium.
This is a depressing contribution, I know. We are not all given to be a shining dynamo of physics insight. But it speaks to the possibility that success in the mission depends less on excellent texts, than on interaction, demanding contributions, expecting ill-understood areas to be open for questions and illumination.
Strangely enough, I have a feeling that physics teachers will understand the merit of this approach, and wish that the gift could be shared more widely. On Wednesday, June 15, 2022, 05:14:56 PM CDT, Larry Smith <larry.smith@snow.edu> wrote:
We are looking for a new textbook for our third semester of introductory Physics for Scientists and Engineers. We’ve been using Thornton and Rex but we’re looking for something more geared toward engineering majors since we have so few physics majors. We heard of one university that plans to use Randall Knight’s PSE: A Strategic Approach for all three semesters. We use Knight for the first two semesters, but he doesn’t do much with condensed matter, semiconductors, or cosmology. I guess we could finish off the last few chapters in Knight and then supplement with other material.
Any suggestions? What is your favorite textbook for introductory modern physics for engineering majors?