Postmodern Physics - Colleges Fail to Teach Basics - Even in Physics!

popecenter.org ^ | May 16, 2007 | Frank Tipler

[neverdem]

Editor’s Note: Guest writer Frank Tipler is a professor of physics at Tulane University.

[TChris]

College is for liberal indoctrination, not education. Talk to David Horowitz about the situation.

[HarmlessLovableFuzzball]

Forget Relativistic Physics. How many properly understand Classical (Newtonian) Physics ?

[SpinyNorman]

This is what many parents go into debt for! More money for less education.

Soon the tide will shift, and our best students will have to go out of country for a real education, to places like China and India.

[Nathan Zachary]

"I am aware of no American university that requires, for an undergraduate degree in physics, a course in general relativity, which is Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity."

That's because it conflicts with evolutionist theory that planets form from clouds of star dust. Particles colliding in space under the influence of gravity from a large body, such as the sun, cannot and will never gather together and form a planet no matter how many billions of years pass. Add a moon to constantly pull things apart and you've really got problems. So, out with it...

[Eva]

It’s as if law schools stopped requiring students to take courses in crucial subjects like contracts and property law.

Well, Harvard Law school has stopped basing the freshman law courses on precidence, and instead are teaching the effects of foreign law on the US legal system. My husband (not a physicist) has been trying to work out a problem with radio waves that are producing a strong electrical current on ships' cranes. The FCC granted a radio license to operate a station, very close to the docks. The tankers were the first company to be effected, but it wasn't long before all the companies in the area were effected. It seems that no one at the FCC understands the physics of radiowaves and the effect that they can have on surrounding industry.

[NonValueAdded]

As long as the physicist feels good about the “research” they’re conducting, what difference does the outcome make? All they need is a consensus for it to be proven science. /tu

[pabianice]

It’s Feminist Physics. The scientist is encouraged to arrive at the solution that makes her feel best about herself.

[Dinsdale]

That's controlled by the Engineering schools.

The classical physics/Calculus tracks have to continue or bridges will start falling down much more frequently. When I took the sequence 90% of the students were from the engineering school (90% of those that completed the sequence anyhow).

That's also why quantum physics will continue to be taught. It has real industrial applications.

Relativism only takes you so far.

[Dinsdale]

Sounds like you understand physics as well as you understand biology!

[jude24]

Well, Harvard Law school has stopped basing the freshman law courses on precidence,

Got a cite? (And it's spelled "precedents.")

[pabianice]

Well, Harvard Law school has stopped basing the freshman law courses on precidence, and instead are teaching the effects of foreign law on the US legal system. My husband (not a physicist) has been trying to work out a problem with radio waves that are producing a strong electrical current on ships' cranes. The FCC granted a radio license to operate a station, very close to the docks. The tankers were the first company to be effected, but it wasn't long before all the companies in the area were effected. It seems that no one at the FCC understands the physics of radiowaves and the effect that they can have on surrounding industry.

Meanwhile, the FAA is headed by a woman who doesn't know the difference between an aileron and an airdale, and the FAA is staffed with lawyers, most of whom have never actually piloted an aircraft.

[tophat9000]

bump

[Zakeet]

Forget Relativistic Physics. How many properly understand Classical (Newtonian) Physics?

Amen!

Newton gave us the industrial revolution. Einstein explained how light bends in a gravity lens.

Both systems are interesting, but only one has any practical application in the real world. This poor slob who payed his own way through an engineering degree is glad that all of his limited time and money were applied toward something that would put meat on the table rather than something that tickles the fancy of an erudite prof.

[Constantine XIII]

Ever feel like you’re in a room with a whole lot of people who have not idea what’s being discussed? :p

I’mma calling in backup! (hope ya’ll don’t mind!)

[Ouderkirk]

I remember using Tipler’s textbooks as an undergrad. He’s right...general relativity and the standard model were both electives for undergrads. I took them because I wanted to, not because it was a degree requirement.

As an undergraduate student...what did I know about what I needed to know, and never knew the difference.

[ColdWater]

That's because it conflicts with evolutionist theory that planets form from clouds of star dust.

I see you get your MISeducation from the creationists' websites.

[riverdawg]

I just Googled the physics department at the local state university and found a two-course, graduate-level sequence in general relativity, along with the standard fare of courses in classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, eletromagnetics, etc.

[KarlInOhio]

The physics faculty’s increasing ignorance of basic physics is starting to show up in their research, as I describe at length in my recent book, The Physics of Christianity (Doubleday, 2007). I show that, across all disciplines, a collapse of belief in Christianity over the past several decades among university faculty has been accompanied by a collapse in the belief that there is fundamental truth which should be imparted to students.

That's because physics faculties have been taken over by professors who place students into boxes where they randomly either learn or don't learn physics and are in an indeterminate state until you open the box and observe them.

Seriously, how much of this is an argument over how many of the classes should be required vs. electives? When I got my masters in electrical engineering, I had a total of three required classes. Everything else was an elective chosen by me with the aid of my advisor. Could I have skated through on the bare minimum with a lot of off topic classes? Well, probably not because my advisor would have rejected my course choices and told me I needed more focus.

[Logophile]

That's controlled by the Engineering schools. The classical physics/Calculus tracks have to continue or bridges will start falling down much more frequently. When I took the sequence 90% of the students were from the engineering school (90% of those that completed the sequence anyhow). . . . That's also why quantum physics will continue to be taught. It has real industrial applications.

You make an interesting and valid point. Relativity, whether special or general, is irrelevant to most branches of engineering. For that matter, it is irrelevant to most branches of physical and biological science.

Still, I am surprised that physics majors are not required to have a course in relativity.