3 ms·

Reminds me of physics books from college where they might say "a horse is approaching a barn door at relativist speeds..." - always seemed much too contrived an

Reminds me of physics books from college where they might say "a horse is approaching a barn door at relativist speeds..." - always seemed much too contrived and I'd maybe have preferred "an exotic particle is moving towards an electron at...".

danielbarla 10y ago
I know I might be in the minority, but this kind of stuff doesn't bother me at all. The silly abstraction is essentially there to highlight which part of the problem / lesson you should be focusing on, and to stop you from going off on a tangent and getting bogged down in the gritty details. Going with your exotic particle example, once they've framed the problem like that, there's an implied expectation of reality and correctness which is likely going to be missing from an introductory example.
Sir_Cmpwn 10y ago
The physical behavior of a horse is better understood than that of an electron and might make it easier to consider the subject at hand, though. We know what path the horse will travel and we know that when the horse reaches the barn, it will go splat (well, in this case the barn will go splat). There are several competing theories that could describe what happens with the electron and the exotic particle, though. Also, it's fun to picture a horse travelling at relatavistic speeds :)
Jugurtha 10y ago
Check out Soviet books. You don't get the feeling the authors assume you're mentally challenged as you do in most other books. This is all fun, but I think knowing how to apply knowledge is an important part. Many don't have a problem with electrons and pulleys, but put a real world example and they're out of their wits compared to someone who uses to dead reckoning. https://mirtitles.org/ https://mirtitles.org/ There's an interesting book on the site by Belikov: "General Methods for Solving Physics Problems".

3 ms·

Reminds me of physics books from college where they might say "a horse is approaching a barn door at relativist speeds..." - always seemed much too contrived an

by callumprentice 10y ago

danielbarla 10y ago
I know I might be in the minority, but this kind of stuff doesn't bother me at all. The silly abstraction is essentially there to highlight which part of the problem / lesson you should be focusing on, and to stop you from going off on a tangent and getting bogged down in the gritty details. Going with your exotic particle example, once they've framed the problem like that, there's an implied expectation of reality and correctness which is likely going to be missing from an introductory example.
Sir_Cmpwn 10y ago
The physical behavior of a horse is better understood than that of an electron and might make it easier to consider the subject at hand, though. We know what path the horse will travel and we know that when the horse reaches the barn, it will go splat (well, in this case the barn will go splat). There are several competing theories that could describe what happens with the electron and the exotic particle, though. Also, it's fun to picture a horse travelling at relatavistic speeds :)
Jugurtha 10y ago
Check out Soviet books. You don't get the feeling the authors assume you're mentally challenged as you do in most other books. This is all fun, but I think knowing how to apply knowledge is an important part. Many don't have a problem with electrons and pulleys, but put a real world example and they're out of their wits compared to someone who uses to dead reckoning. https://mirtitles.org/ https://mirtitles.org/ There's an interesting book on the site by Belikov: "General Methods for Solving Physics Problems".