Do you remember this problem from high school. "A block of wood slides over a wooden inclined plane having an angle theta. Compute the distance the block will slide before friction stops it." (or something like that). Why would anyone even worry about a dumb block slide over a dumb inclined plane? Weren't the wheels invented to save you from all that trouble? The only time I would have worried about such a thing would be if I belong to the ancient Egyptian civilization and was building pyramids (great structure those! built before they could fully understand the wheel). So coming back to the problem, a totally unconvincing and impractical issue.
As I mentioned in my last post, I am reading that funny but interesting book "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman". So while reading this book I hit this interesting chapter about the education system in Brazil. At some point in his distinguished academic career, Dr. Feynman taught students in a University in Brazil. From his personal teaching experiences, Dr. Feynman mentions that the education in Brazil was quite pedantic, by which I mean bookish. Students were supposed to read a book cover to cover and then memorize them. Thus the students could easily rattle off a huge complicated definition or identify any complex scientific theory from a book. But if they had to explain it in terms of occurring in nature or understand the practicality of the phenomena, they would be lost. This was particularly true for students of Engineering and Physics. No wonder, Dr. Feynman found the Engineering and Physics students quite dumb when it came to applying their knowledge.
Having said that, looking back at what I studied and what I understood (in practical sense, that is) I don't find myself in a situation dissimilar to those students at the Brazilian Universities. Looking back I now realize that the things I felt quite complex and going over my head were actually so because I could never relate to the practical usage of those theories (my experimental observations were always extrapolated in the lab because we could never get the right readings). So was Math. Math always was and has been my nemesis. The only thing I could do well were the Partial Differential Equations and Trigonometry because they were quite elegant and I had a great Prof. who taught them well. But now I realize that if I found practical examples for those other problems I'd certainly be much more comfortable with Math. With regard to Physics, I never had a genius for imagining things in my mind (just like the problem I mentioned at the start). It was during this time that I came across these great eye-opening books "Maths can be fun" and "Physics can be fun" by a Russian author named Yakov Perelman that changed the way I looked at these subjects. Unfortunately, I could not sustain that interest for long (completely my fault and not those books). And all those darned definitions one had to memorize!! It was like taking a very cold shower on a very cold morning (couldn't think of a more apt comparison. When I do, will re-edit). Brrrr!! I still have nightmares about my grad school days.
But if you still are studying or have a passing interest in Physics or Maths, don't miss out on the books by Perelman. They will certainly change your views about these so called difficult sciences for the better. So have fun while you learn.
Friday, July 4, 2008
All those darned definitions!!!
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