Recent content by Sassan

I write "those experiments have a different (less rigorous) scientific basis than physics" and you read that as I "want to dismiss the science-ness of an entire branch of science." So much for communication.

Words must mean different things to us! "Hands-on knowledge" is not experimentation. Dissection is not experimentation; it is demonstration and, at best, exploration. Are medical students told by their professor, "This is the research question, and this is a hypothesis pertaining to that...

> experimental work in medicine, psychology, biology, materials science, Medical education does NOT involve experimentation; I know: I was married to a surgeon. Psychology involves experimentation but because they use mostly nominal/ordinal/interval (and not ratio) scales of measurement, those...

This is how: Physics (also chemistry) is different from all other subjects (I have an undergrad degree in physics and another in math, a Masters degree in math, another in philosophy, and a doctorate in Systems Sciences from an Ivy League institution) because it involves understanding nature via...

Yes, I must be ignorant about how teaching works after having taught at the university level since 1979 at three different universities, currently at California State University.

Thank you for your advice, and for the time you took to engage me. We have obviously reached the end of this particular line. However, I have some genuine questions (not in the argument mode) about some stuff that puzzles me. Thank you.

I made a generalization, and like every other generalization, there are exceptions. I am not commenting on the teaching ability of physicists. I am commenting on the fact that physics instructors (generally) feel their job is to pass on the knowledge they have to their students as opposed to...

I never said or implied that in teaching the role of the Lorentz factor in Special Relativity, the ONLY thing that matters is its geometric derivation. What I AM saying is that teaching that simple geometric derivation (in addition to everything else) creates a deeper understanding than just...

Neither. I mean deriving the mathematical expression for the Lorentz factor geometrically in one minute using Pythagoras' Theorem.

Maybe this question will clarify my point (which is not about popularizing physics but about teaching it deeply): Regarding the Lorentz factor, do you believe a student learning the Special Theory of Relativity needs to be taught only what the formula for the Lorentz factor is and what role it...

Thank you for your explanation. You sound like there is perfect consensus amongst professional physicists who read only peer-reviewed journals, and also that this elite group feels no need to communicate their knowledge to those at a lower level in a lucid, clear, logical manner. There is almost...

Correct. I should have said, "common logical sense" by which I mean LUCIDITY in explanation vs. shoving an equation down someone's throat. I am sorry it has not been clear that I am approaching this topic from the viewpoint of not physics but physics education. I have an undergraduate degree in...

That doesn’t explain ANYthing?! So if I gave that explanation of how we hear sound to people from 1,000 years ago (or to the children of today), you are saying they would not learn ANYthing?! If you want to argue for the sake of arguing, then we are done. But if you want to be fair and engage...

What is wrong with videos? A video is a medium through which information can be communicated. If I transcribed the contents of the same videos into words, printed them and bound them in the form of a book, suddenly that would have more credibility for you?! Just because a UCLA physics professor...

References provided for Frabjous regarding controversies and disagreements in explaining how EM waves travel in vacuum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk63uUhkZH4 The larger point here is the existence of controversies in physics theories that are supposed to be established and...