Originally posted by Affinity
Senior science is quite suitable for this purpose, I think physics should be there to prepare us for tertiary study.
mathematics is an inseparable part of physics.
To prove my point, please attempt the following:
explain why a mass defect leads to a release of energy. And as HSC students, we don't understand why E=mc^2, if you use that formula please explain why it is so and not E=3mc^2 or E=mc^5.
it is not possible to change the speed of a charged particle by a magnetic field, explain. One of this year's students apparently did not know this and talked about using varying magnetic fields to accelerate electrons. Perhaps a result of removing mathematics from the course.
Explain how max planck's assumption of energy being quantised and discrete instead of being continous solved the 'Ultraviolet catastrophe' for black bodies., in particular, explain how does this postulate imply that the radiation intensity would eventually decrease to nothing at a sufficiently high frequency. I had trouble convincing a friend that this is the consequence.. coz I can't bring mathematics into my explanation.
Why would transmission by a higher voltage reduce energy loss to heat?
How did Bardeen, Cooper and Stirrer came up with their theory on superconductivity? Just by thinking general concepts? no, they did alot of work on mathematics before they proposed the theory.
It's easier to fudge a half answer now(those responses that get -6/10 to 8/10) but it is also harder to score full marks because only a few students would have idea of exactly what the markers are looking for.
Actually most of the questions you are asking are questions that need to be answered in detail or and are "out of the scope" of our syallabus. The whole purpose of physics is to give us a foundation to the concepts that will be studied in university. As much as i want to know how the BCS theory came about, you know it is going to be complex, and we just dont have the time in on course to look at all this in detail, let alone remember it. Plus it just not physics we are (were) doing at high school, there are atleast another 5 subjects!
Why make it hard for yourself?
See why learn detailed concepts when you might not even want to continue the studies elsewhere?
Physics is just like everyother course; we just touch the surface of it, if we go into detail about quantum mechanics, there arent any students going to be doing physics.
For example when you read a novel in primary school, all you "analyse" is the plot. But when you get to 7th or 8th grade, you start to look at the themes, plot, and characters. When you get to 10th grade you start to look at it in more detail, relate the story to context (to a lesser extent), and then when you hit 12th grade you start looking at the mileu, context and interpreations of the novel in different era, relate the message of the novel to current or past worl events. A typical example of this is: Animal Farm. When you read animal farm in primary school, you had no idea it was about revolutionary figures or political ideologies, you didnt know that it was a farcical parody of democracy...
Another example in Chemistry: All through highschool we learn that photosynthesis is just one reaction. Go to uni and there is about 10 reactions in between.
Same thing with Physics at high school, now we are just learning about the basic concepts. If you start applying detailed maths into physics then it just gets too complicated.
But answers to questions like:
Originally posted by Affinity
Why would transmission by a higher voltage reduce energy loss to heat?
We already know. (well you should have learnt why)
Power=currentxVoltage
apllying the Conservation of energy
VI=VI
