Conceptual physics is an approach to teaching physics that focuses on the ideas of physics rather than the mathematics. It is believed that with a strong conceptual foundation in physics, students are better equipped to understand the equations and formulas of physics, and to make connections between the concepts of physics and their everyday life. Early versions used almost no equations or math-based problems. [1]
Paul G. Hewitt popularized this approach with his textbook Conceptual Physics: A New Introduction to your Environment in 1971. [2] In his review at the time, Kenneth W. Ford noted the emphasis on logical reasoning and said "Hewitt's excellent book can be called physics without equations, or physics without computation, but not physics without mathematics." [3] Hewitt's wasn't the first book to take this approach. Conceptual Physics: Matter in Motion by Jae R. Ballif and William E. Dibble was published in 1969. [4] But Hewitt's book became very successful. As of 2022, it is in its 13th edition. [5] In 1987 Hewitt wrote a version for high school students. [6]
The spread of the conceptual approach to teaching physics broadened the range of students taking physics in high school. [7] Enrollment in conceptual physics courses in high school grew from 25,000 students in 1987 to over 400,000 in 2009. In 2009, 37% of students took high school physics, and 31% of them were in Physics First, conceptual physics courses, or regular physics courses using a conceptual textbook. [8]
This approach to teaching physics has also inspired books for science literacy courses, such as From Atoms to Galaxies: A Conceptual Physics Approach to Scientific Awareness by Sadri Hassani. [9]
In condensed matter physics, a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter that is typically formed when a gas of bosons at very low densities is cooled to temperatures very close to absolute zero. Under such conditions, a large fraction of bosons occupy the lowest quantum state, at which microscopic quantum mechanical phenomena, particularly wavefunction interference, become apparent macroscopically.
Matter waves are a central part of the theory of quantum mechanics, being half of wave–particle duality. All matter exhibits wave-like behavior. For example, a beam of electrons can be diffracted just like a beam of light or a water wave.
In theoretical physics, the term renormalization group (RG) refers to a formal apparatus that allows systematic investigation of the changes of a physical system as viewed at different scales. In particle physics, it reflects the changes in the underlying force laws as the energy scale at which physical processes occur varies, energy/momentum and resolution distance scales being effectively conjugate under the uncertainty principle.
In theoretical physics, the Einstein–Cartan theory, also known as the Einstein–Cartan–Sciama–Kibble theory, is a classical theory of gravitation similar to general relativity. The theory was first proposed by Élie Cartan in 1922. Einstein–Cartan theory is the simplest Poincaré gauge theory.
In quantum mechanics, the measurement problem is the problem of how, or whether, wave function collapse occurs. The inability to observe such a collapse directly has given rise to different interpretations of quantum mechanics and poses a key set of questions that each interpretation must answer.
In computational chemistry, post–Hartree–Fock (post-HF) methods are the set of methods developed to improve on the Hartree–Fock (HF), or self-consistent field (SCF) method. They add electron correlation which is a more accurate way of including the repulsions between electrons than in the Hartree–Fock method where repulsions are only averaged.
Paul G. Hewitt is an American physicist, former boxer, uranium prospector, author, and cartoonist. Born in Saugus, Massachusetts, Hewitt lives in St. Petersburg, Florida with his wife.
The Mechanical Universe...And Beyond is a 52-part telecourse, filmed at the California Institute of Technology, that introduces university level physics, covering topics from Copernicus to quantum mechanics. The 1985-86 series was produced by Caltech and INTELECOM, a nonprofit consortium of California community colleges now known as Intelecom Learning, with financial support from Annenberg/CPB. The series, which aired on PBS affiliate stations before being distributed on LaserDisc and eventually YouTube, is known for its use of computer animation.
Fundamentals of Physics is a calculus-based physics textbook by David Halliday, Robert Resnick, and Jearl Walker. The textbook is currently in its 12th edition.
Robert Harry Kraichnan, a resident of Santa Fe, New Mexico, was an American theoretical physicist best known for his work on the theory of fluid turbulence.
Jae R. Ballif was a provost of Brigham Young University (BYU).
The Physical Science Study Committee, usually abbreviated as PSSC, was inaugurated at a 1956 conference at MIT to review introductory physics education and to design, implement, and monitor improvements. It produced major new physics textbooks, instructional movies, and classroom laboratory materials, which were used by high schools around the world during the 1960s and 1970s and beyond.
Adolfas Pranaitis Jucys was a Lithuanian theoretical physicist and mathematician, and inducted member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in 1953. He graduated from Kaunas University in 1931 and later worked with both creators of the self-consistent field method – Douglas Hartree in Manchester and Vladimir Fock in Leningrad (1949–1951). Adolfas Jucys created the scientific school of theoretical physics in Vilnius, was the head of the Department of Theoretical Physics at Vilnius University (1944–1971). He organized the first Institute of Physics and Mathematics in Lithuania and was its first director (1956–1963), and later (1971–1974) the head of the Institute's Department of Quantum Mechanical Calculations.
Plasma is one of four fundamental states of matter, characterized by the presence of a significant portion of charged particles in any combination of ions or electrons. It is the most abundant form of ordinary matter in the universe, being mostly associated with stars, including the Sun. Extending to the rarefied intracluster medium and possibly to intergalactic regions, plasma can be artificially generated by heating a neutral gas or subjecting it to a strong electromagnetic field.
MADNESS is a high-level software environment for the solution of integral and differential equations in many dimensions using adaptive and fast harmonic analysis methods with guaranteed precision based on multiresolution analysis and separated representations .
The Feynman Lectures on Physics is a physics textbook based on some lectures by Richard Feynman, a Nobel laureate who has sometimes been called "The Great Explainer". The lectures were presented before undergraduate students at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), during 1961–1963. The book's co-authors are Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, and Matthew Sands.
BigDFT is a free software package for physicists and chemists, distributed under the GNU General Public License, whose main program allows the total energy, charge density, and electronic structure of systems made of electrons and nuclei to be calculated within density functional theory (DFT), using pseudopotentials, and a wavelet basis.
Robert Luke Devaney is an American mathematician, the Feld Family Professor of Teaching Excellence at Boston University. His research involves dynamical systems and fractals.
Bidyendu Mohan Deb is an Indian theoretical chemist, chemical physicist and a professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata (IISER). he is known for his studies in theoretical chemistry and chemical physics. He is an elected fellow of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, The World Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Sciences. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1981, for his contributions to chemical sciences.