- #1
Elwin.Martin
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I have to do an essay for a composition class where we explain something "I don't quite know everything about but feel as though I have a firm grasp of" and I was originally planning to do an analysis of sorts of a post-modern literary work but my professor thought it would be more in line with my other papers if I did something I was working on in Physics.
Though I'll be starting some decent physics this fall (Modern and directed studies in QFT) I'm still concerned about my basics so I decided a few weeks ago to start reading through some basic texts to check my understanding of topics. I've been reading through Crowell's book on Physics and Hewitt's on conceptual Physics (If you hit this thread Mr. Crowell, I really like the book!) and watching Susskind's lectures (though I'm not that far in any of these yet since it's a bit to do at once).
I decided that I would try to explain what Light is. We read a passage that was from the 1920s that described why the sky is blue and I figured I could try to figure out a reasonable explanation of what light is on basic conceptual level.
My goal is to try and discuss the different perception people have of light a little and try to better explain the idea that light is "both a particle and a wave" etc. This is largely because I feel that this is done poorly for most people not only because not everybody reads their books and some books are just awful (I'm very grateful to have two solid conceptual books to refer to) but also because some teachers don't really understand themselves. My own high school Physics teacher knew her Classical Mechanics extremely well and the same went for her Classical E&M but anything beyond that was pushing her comfort zone.
Anyway, I came here to ask if anyone would like to read it and see what they think. If anything is wrong don't hesitate to point it out, but please have a solid explanation or a reference at your disposal, I'd like to learn something from this. I'm not looking to have people point out issues with commas or anything, this is solely content oriented. If someone feels this needs to be HW I'll move it but I'm not really asking for help with the writing assignment, just in seeing if I understand the ideas well enough to explain them to someone else.
If any interest is expressed I will likely post a copy of the draft later tonight.
Thank you in advanced for your time,
Elwin
Though I'll be starting some decent physics this fall (Modern and directed studies in QFT) I'm still concerned about my basics so I decided a few weeks ago to start reading through some basic texts to check my understanding of topics. I've been reading through Crowell's book on Physics and Hewitt's on conceptual Physics (If you hit this thread Mr. Crowell, I really like the book!) and watching Susskind's lectures (though I'm not that far in any of these yet since it's a bit to do at once).
I decided that I would try to explain what Light is. We read a passage that was from the 1920s that described why the sky is blue and I figured I could try to figure out a reasonable explanation of what light is on basic conceptual level.
My goal is to try and discuss the different perception people have of light a little and try to better explain the idea that light is "both a particle and a wave" etc. This is largely because I feel that this is done poorly for most people not only because not everybody reads their books and some books are just awful (I'm very grateful to have two solid conceptual books to refer to) but also because some teachers don't really understand themselves. My own high school Physics teacher knew her Classical Mechanics extremely well and the same went for her Classical E&M but anything beyond that was pushing her comfort zone.
Anyway, I came here to ask if anyone would like to read it and see what they think. If anything is wrong don't hesitate to point it out, but please have a solid explanation or a reference at your disposal, I'd like to learn something from this. I'm not looking to have people point out issues with commas or anything, this is solely content oriented. If someone feels this needs to be HW I'll move it but I'm not really asking for help with the writing assignment, just in seeing if I understand the ideas well enough to explain them to someone else.
If any interest is expressed I will likely post a copy of the draft later tonight.
Thank you in advanced for your time,
Elwin
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