![]() Despite the fact that people pay me to do research for them, I never pursued a degree.įor me, this book began with an e-mail. ![]() Still, I have learned a lot of math and physics. A lot of things have happened since then-I am one of those individuals who got sidetracked by life. I started to teach myself math and physics when I was eleven. Welcome, then, to The Theoretical Minimum-Classical Mechanics, and good luck! The books closely follow the Internet courses that you will find on the Web. It means not fat encyclopedic textbooks that explain everything, but thin books that explain everything important. For me, the theoretical minimum means just what you need to know in order to proceed to the next level. Landau was a very demanding man: His theoretical minimum meant just about everything he knew, which of course no one else could possibly know. The TM in Russia meant everything a student needed to know to work under Landau himself. It originated with the great Russian physicist Lev Landau. The term theoretical minimum was not my own invention. One of the main inquiries is whether I will ever convert the lectures into books? The Theoretical Minimum is the answer. From all over the world I get thousands of e-mail messages. They are out on the Internet, and it seems that they are tremendously popular: Stanford is not the only place with people hungry to learn physics. The result was a sequence of courses intended to bring these students to the forefront of modern physics and cosmology.įortunately, someone (not I) had the bright idea to videorecord the classes. They were ready to try their hand at learning the real thing-with equations. A lot of them had a bit of background, a bit of physics, a rusty but not dead knowledge of calculus, and some experience at solving technical problems. They wanted more than the Scientific American experience. What became clear after a couple of quarters is that the students were not completely satisfied with the layperson’s courses I was teaching. Also, having been “around the block” a few times, they were not at all afraid to ask questions, so the class had a lively vibrancy that academic classes often lack. ![]() These students were there for only one reason: Not to get credit, not to get a degree, and not to be tested, but just to learn and indulge their curiosity. And it was very satisfying in a way that teaching undergraduate and graduate students was sometimes not. So I thought that it might just serve my purposes in finding someone to explain physics to, as well as their purposes, and it might also be fun to teach a course on modern physics. This program offers courses for people in the local nonacademic community. ![]() That’s when I first found out about Stanford’s Continuing Studies program. There ought to be a way for people to develop their interest by interacting with active scientists, but there didn’t seem to be one. As a rule, Stanford and other universities don’t allow outsiders into classes, and, for most of these grownups, going back to school as a full-time student is not a realistic option. Unfortunately there was not much opportunity for such folks to take courses. Now, after a career or two, they wanted to get back into it, at least at a casual level. They had had all kinds of careers but never forgot their one-time infatuation with the laws of the universe. As it happens, the Stanford area has a lot of people who once wanted to study physics, but life got in the way. Figuring out the best way to explain something is almost always the best way to understand it yourself.Ībout ten years ago someone asked me if I would teach a course for the public. Even when I’m at my desk doing research, there’s a dialog going on in my head. For me it’s much more than teaching: It’s a way of thinking. ![]()
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