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The mathematics of radios are a lot more difficult than the basic boolean logic and discrete math for intro to programming. Radios and circuits are in different

by melony 4y ago

The mathematics of radios are a lot more difficult than the basic boolean logic and discrete math for intro to programming. Radios and circuits are in differential equations territory. A thorough explanation of the RF concept of "ground" and transmission lines is impossible to do at the high school level without handwaving away most of the details.

majormajor 4y ago
I'm not sure I follow. My father had a hobbyist radio kit in his youth, but he didn't understand all the details then. He later learned diffeq in college. It was and still is quite easy to build many already-discovered things without understanding them.
- wrp 4y ago
  You are thinking of assembling pre-made kits. The math is for designing circuits from scratch.
wrp 4y ago
> [things]...impossible to do at the high school level without handwaving away most of the details. Something about my dad's generation is that I observed them to be more ready to resort to workbench tinkering to get over patches where their math gave out. Following your point, maybe this results from their early experiences of aiming beyond their math capabilities.
QuadmasterXLII 4y ago
I may be showing my filter bubble, but what fraction of highschoolers get to first order systems of linear differential equations? We heavily covered them in BC calc but I guess I don't know if that's the curriculum or my teacher going the extra mile
- jerf 4y ago
  I covered them in high school, but in isolation. I think it'd have to be a dedicated high school program explicitly built to cover differential equations and tie them back to physics and then also get far enough into EM for that to be the way you can teach about radios. Not even remotely all high school students could handle that and I think even in an accelerated program you'd have to consciously be sacrificing something else to get there, e.g., organic chemistry or something. There's only so much time. I mean, even in college, the physics I took that did EM with full, undiluted multivariable calculus was considered the accelerated/advanced track. "Normal" EM worked with a lot less math. I'm sure the 1950s kids were indeed learning handwaving approximations. That's not a criticism. You can get a long way on good handwaving approximations.
WastingMyTime89 4y ago
RLC circuits and the associated differential equations definitely were part of the high-school curriculum when I was there fifteen years ago. That’s 90% of what you need for an intro to RF concept. My understanding is that the US doesn’t require a lot of maths in high school which might explain why people view this later there.

by melony 4y ago

majormajor 4y ago

I'm not sure I follow. My father had a hobbyist radio kit in his youth, but he didn't understand all the details then. He later learned diffeq in college. It was and still is quite easy to build many already-discovered things without understanding them.

wrp 4y ago
You are thinking of assembling pre-made kits. The math is for designing circuits from scratch.

wrp 4y ago

> [things]...impossible to do at the high school level without handwaving away most of the details. Something about my dad's generation is that I observed them to be more ready to resort to workbench tinkering to get over patches where their math gave out. Following your point, maybe this results from their early experiences of aiming beyond their math capabilities.

QuadmasterXLII 4y ago

I may be showing my filter bubble, but what fraction of highschoolers get to first order systems of linear differential equations? We heavily covered them in BC calc but I guess I don't know if that's the curriculum or my teacher going the extra mile

jerf 4y ago
I covered them in high school, but in isolation. I think it'd have to be a dedicated high school program explicitly built to cover differential equations and tie them back to physics and then also get far enough into EM for that to be the way you can teach about radios. Not even remotely all high school students could handle that and I think even in an accelerated program you'd have to consciously be sacrificing something else to get there, e.g., organic chemistry or something. There's only so much time. I mean, even in college, the physics I took that did EM with full, undiluted multivariable calculus was considered the accelerated/advanced track. "Normal" EM worked with a lot less math. I'm sure the 1950s kids were indeed learning handwaving approximations. That's not a criticism. You can get a long way on good handwaving approximations.

WastingMyTime89 4y ago

RLC circuits and the associated differential equations definitely were part of the high-school curriculum when I was there fifteen years ago. That’s 90% of what you need for an intro to RF concept. My understanding is that the US doesn’t require a lot of maths in high school which might explain why people view this later there.