Reshaping the image of physics
DOI: 10.1063/1.3021781
Most students have a jaded image of the individuals who call themselves “physicists” and of the subject called “physics.” This regrettable state of affairs has arisen primarily because of the manner in which we present physics to our students, particularly to our beginning students. At present the wonder, the excitement, the awe and the enthusiasm of the physicist is too often missing. The intrinsic beauty of physics, its humanistic dimension and its inherent limitations are seldom part of our classroom fare and are unknown to the student.
This article is only available in PDF format
References
1. M. Mead, R. Metraux, Science 126, 384 (1957).
2. D. Beardslee, D. O’Dowd, Science 133, 997 (1961).
3. R. Feynman, in Frontiers of Science—A Survey, E. Hutchings, Jr, ed., Basic Books, New York, 1958, page 260.
4. J. Platt, The Excitement of Science, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1962, page 4.
5. K. Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Basic Books, New York, 1959, page 59.
6. P. Kusch, Bull. At. Scientists, October 1968, page 41.
7. L. Eiseley, The Mind as Nature, Harper and Row, New York (1962).
8. I. I. Rabi, in The Scientific Endeavor, Rockefeller Institute Press, page 306.
9. Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead as recorded by Lucien Price, Little, Brown, Boston, 1954, page 345.
10. A. Landé, From Dualism to Unity in Quantum Physics, Cambridge U.P., 1960, page vii.
11. E. Bright WilsonJr, Tetrahedron 17, 191 (1962).
12. E. Rabinowitch, Bull. At. Scientists, October 1968, page 23.
More about the authors
John S. Rigden, St Louis Campus of the University of Missouri.
