- #1
liorde
- 15
- 0
I am a physics student, doing my graduate degree.
I am wondering if anyone else feels like me concerning the following topic:
Physics is usually presented in a very imprecise way, and it would be much easier to understand if it would be presented more precisely.
I felt this way towards all my physics courses so far, and I refer both to lecturers and to textbooks.
I wish physics would be taught in a much more rigorous way.
An example which I encountered recently is the Lagrangian formalism of the electromagnetic field. From the standard notation it is very hard to understand, for example, if the Lagrangian density is a function of the type [tex]{ℝ^n} \to ℝ[/tex] or of the type [tex]\left\{ {{ℝ^m} \to ℝ} \right\} \to ℝ[/tex] Or with respect to what exactly do I differentiate in the expression [tex]\frac{{\partial {\cal L}\left( {\phi \;,\;{\partial ^\mu }\phi } \right)}}{{\partial \phi }}[/tex] etc. (I am not requesting for answers on these issues. I'm jut trying to give an example).
For me, personally, physics would be much easier to cope with if it were presented more precisely and rigorously.
Do you agree?
What do you think is the reason that physicists tend to be so fuzzy and unclear in their definitions?
I am wondering if anyone else feels like me concerning the following topic:
Physics is usually presented in a very imprecise way, and it would be much easier to understand if it would be presented more precisely.
I felt this way towards all my physics courses so far, and I refer both to lecturers and to textbooks.
I wish physics would be taught in a much more rigorous way.
An example which I encountered recently is the Lagrangian formalism of the electromagnetic field. From the standard notation it is very hard to understand, for example, if the Lagrangian density is a function of the type [tex]{ℝ^n} \to ℝ[/tex] or of the type [tex]\left\{ {{ℝ^m} \to ℝ} \right\} \to ℝ[/tex] Or with respect to what exactly do I differentiate in the expression [tex]\frac{{\partial {\cal L}\left( {\phi \;,\;{\partial ^\mu }\phi } \right)}}{{\partial \phi }}[/tex] etc. (I am not requesting for answers on these issues. I'm jut trying to give an example).
For me, personally, physics would be much easier to cope with if it were presented more precisely and rigorously.
Do you agree?
What do you think is the reason that physicists tend to be so fuzzy and unclear in their definitions?