There are many other books on physics demonstrations listed in the bibliography. A number of these are far more complete than the book I have written. Some are quite old and do not make use of the advances in instrumentation of the past few decades. I have attempted to complement these works by concentrating less on the description of the apparatus, much of which is now well-known and commercially available, but more on techniques for bringing them to life and generating interest in them. For example, I have included historical anecdotes and other commentary to add to the interest and have suggested alternate uses for the apparatus. I have provided brief explanations of those facets of the demonstrations that may not be obvious to a trained physicist or physics teacher. I have also emphasized safety more than is usual in such books.
The usual style of books on physics demonstrations is to list the important concepts and to give a large number of demonstrations to illustrate each one. The majority of these demonstrations, though pedagogically sound, are not very suitable because they require close, careful measurement, or they are not easily visible to a large audience, or they are simply not very exciting. They belong in a laboratory, not as part of a lecture. I have taken a different approach, in that I describe the demonstrations first and then mention the many physics concepts that are illustrated. This departure from the usual teaching mode in which the concepts are introduced sequentially has proved especially effective for informal presentations to the public and to children who have not studied physics.
When I cause a soap bubble filled with methane gas to explode by touching a lighted candle to it (section 2.4), no one in the audience is asleep, and I can proceed to discuss thin films, surface tension, Archimedes' principle or any number of other related topics with their full attention.
The usual style of books on physics demonstrations is to list the important concepts and to give a large number of demonstrations to illustrate each one. The majority of these demonstrations, though pedagogically sound, are not very suitable because they require close, careful measurement, or they are not easily visible to a large audience, or they are simply not very exciting. They belong in a laboratory, not as part of a lecture. I have taken a different approach, in that I describe the demonstrations first and then mention the many physics concepts that are illustrated. This departure from the usual teaching mode in which the concepts are introduced sequentially has proved especially effective for informal presentations to the public and to children who have not studied physics.
When I cause a soap bubble filled with methane gas to explode by touching a lighted candle to it (section 2.4), no one in the audience is asleep, and I can proceed to discuss thin films, surface tension, Archimedes' principle or any number of other related topics with their full attention.
No comments:
Post a Comment