illuminating science

I found quite a cool website today - a course from Colorado University on The Physics of Everyday Life. (Bet you wouldn’t have guessed that from the post title, hey?)

It’s a collection of lecture notes (follow the sidebar link) on a variety of physics concepts applied to everyday phenomena - rainbows, microwaves, gravity, etc. A lot of it is standard first-year physics stuff (so could be a good supplement to people taking related courses, particularly “physics for biologists” style courses like we offer at UQ!) but there’s also some quite good discussions - I actually learned quite a bit from the discussion of microwaves ovens. I “knew” the physics, but I hadn’t quite appreciated its applications.

I think it’s quite an interesting and well written set of notes, and would be worth having a look at. Also interesting is that they use a “clicker” system - students all purchase a portable “multi choice” controller, which is registered to their ID. Then, the lecturer puts up a multi-guess multi-choice question, gets students to vote on their answer, and so gets instant feedback on how well the class is understanding the material. I’ve heard of it before, but not seen it in action; I’d be interested to hear from anyone who’s had experience with it.