Introduction & Course Objectives
"Physics & Politics" - History 253/ Physics 53 is both a History
course and a GenEd science course. We feel that for a complete appreciation
of the history, basic understanding of the important physics concepts is imperative.
Still, all that this "physics" portion of the course aims to provide
is a general and conceptual understanding of the basic physics. Even though
you are not expected to do physics, you are expected to understand the basic
concepts. For this no prior background in physics is expected of you, and
I will teach you all the mathematics that we may use in the course as we go along; so if
you do not remember any of your high school mathematics, you don't need to
be concerned.
The primary text for the physics portion of this course is this web-book. These pages include
descriptions of the topics, similar to class notes, links to other Web sites,
and questions. Some of the pages include assigned exercises involving interactive
applets. I strongly recommend that you read the assigned pages before you
come to class and prepare yourself to answer the questions from the question
list. To get familiar with uses of a web-book please read: " what is a web-book?" These web pages are augmented with other readings, especially for the later half of the course. For the nuclear portion we will read several chapters from the book: "Nuclear Choices, A Citizen's Guide to Nuclear Technology," by Richards Wolfson; MIT Press, 1995.
To develop a good understanding
of the physics concepts read the material s l o w l y, say one paragraph
at a a time. Then try to explain what you've read (to yourself, or preferably
to some one else). If you cannot explain it clearly, reread the same paragraph.
(In this way reading a two-page assignment could take a some time and effort!)
Try to ask questions from yourself too. Once you've completed the reading
assignment, reread the whole thing and then try to answer the questions. (What was in the previous paragraph that you just read?!)
Last Modified: Sunday, September 5,
2004 malekis@union.edu
What's a web-book?
A web-book is a collection of web-pages, like an electronic book, along with web-links. Similar to a conventional book it is mostly text based. The text part of the book could be printed and read just as one reads a conventional paperbound book. In addition to text a web-book may contain interactive simulations (applets) and/or animated images. Of course, unlike the text portion, these sections of the web-book could only be explored electronically. But the most important difference between a web-book and a conventional paper type is that the web-book could be made "alive". Because of its electronic format, a web-book could get modified as it is being used. In this sense the web-book is not the product of the author alone, but of the reader too.
An easy way of modifying this web-book is for you to copy and paste it into your own application program (use a web authoring program or just a word processor). For example, you could copy and paste answer portions of the text just under an individual question. You could also search the web for additions/alternative explanations, etc. and embed these into this web-book to create your own. Finally, you could modify the "looks" of the book by eliminating/adding your own choice of art work. All in all, you can create what best suites your needs/pleasures.
In terms of credit or copy rights, you should feel free to use and modify any portion of my web-book without concerns about copy rights or "credits". All of this is "free"! I would, however, very much appreciate it if you e-mail me with any suggestions and comments to provide me with your input.
I have designed these pages so that when you print the pages you end up with the text and relevant images. The photographs and the "side information" that appear on the right side of the text portion on the pages will not print out. You could print these separately, if you like. These images serve two purposes. First, they act as visual markers that may help with remembering concepts , by associating them with unrelated images, or just the "location" of the page. Second, they break the monotony of the text. Enjoy them!