Hello Herman!

25 Apr 03 18:16, you wrote to me:

 BS>> Physics is really one of the subjects i can use to something,
 BS>> then i see somekind of mechanical machine, i'm allways
 BS>> calculating on it in my head, so far as i can :)

 HT> That's good.  It's a habit of every physicist.

Else it's not funny :)

 BS>> What about you?

 HT> I teach physics at a two-year college in the USA.  I'm mostly
 HT> interested in the philosophy of science, and especially the philosophy
 HT> of physics.

Ok, does they get somekind of a BA then they are done?

 HT> And of course, physics education.  I like to use
 HT> computer-based lab exercises for my students.  They allow an
 HT> inquiry-based approach rather than the old-fashioned approach of
 HT> having the student simply verify something that he's already supposed
 HT> to know.

Computers is nice for physical experiments, there can make the tests more
presicely. And it can in few seconds make f'(x) or other goodys if it's
making a graph.

 HT> The big problem in physics education is the new notion that physics
 HT> needs to be more accessible to a larger number of students.

You need to teach many in one hour?

 HT> It used
 HT> to be that we needed to have only a few bright students understand
 HT> physics -- so we could teach our courses with a sink-or-swim attitude.

Well i'm studing computer science in somekind of a college. We have the
same thing there :( Some student doesn't know how to fx. make a linked
list, because they don't know the privous stuff about pointers..

It's the same in physics if they don't have a BASIC physics, such as the
laws of Newton, Basic electronic, Energy knowledge, Ideal Gas knowledge and
so on.

 HT> Nowadays we have to do better.  We need to expose a larger number of
 HT> students to physics, and we need to figure out a better way to do
 HT> that.

Ok, in buisness where they need physicists, they want them as Candidates or BA?

 HT> For example, the petro-chemical industry is very strong in our county
 HT> (yes, that's county, not country) so at the community college where I
 HT> teach I'm trying to get students who seek that particular two-year
 HT> college degree to understand a little bit about fluids, heat, and
 HT> thermodynamics.

Oh yes, ofcause. Personally i think Thermodynamics is very interesting. :)

Actually i miss physical education alot, then we are talking about it :)

 HT> On your continent you don't have these problems as everyone who
 HT> graduates from high school has already been exposed to quite a bit of
 HT> physics.

If you had Physics on A niveau, the most advanced we looked at was the
Reality theori of Einstien.

 HT> That's good.  Nowadays physicists need to know a lot about computers
 HT> and computer science if they want to be employable.

Yeah, physics and computer science is alot in a greate harmonie. But my
math is the problem, I can not more math, than i should know to understand
the physics in high school.

Regards, Bo

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