Markelz Teaching

STUDENTS: This is a resource page for my teaching, not for specific course information or communication. Please log onto ublearns to get info for your class or email me directly.

Courses taught

PHY107 Physics for Scientists and Engineers: Newtonian Mechanics
PHY108 Physics for Scientists and Engineers: Electro Magnetism
PHY208 Physics Sophmore Lab: Quantum phenomena
PHY307 Special Relativity and thermodynamics
PHY403/503 Electromagnetism I
PHY 404/504 Electromagnetism II
PHY 407/551 Advanced Lab I
PHY 408/552 Advanced Lab II
BPH 400 Introduction to Biophysics

Resources

Examples of Bad/Sad Physics

Engineering Disasters

Hyatt Walkway Disaster

Lost Mars Probe
Sept. 11, 2001

Demo Sites

http://www.psrc-online.org/index.html

http://groups.physics.umn.edu/demo/list.html#mechanics

http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/index.html

Force, vectors and friction: http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/vector_toy/index.html

Center of Mass...angular momentum: http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/balancing_stick.html
http://www.nanohub.org/
Excellent EM flash simulations: http://www.hep.uiuc.edu/home/mats/flash/index.html
Life Science demos....useful to the biophysicist learning sample prep: http://lifesciences.envmed.rochester.edu/animation.html

Physics in the Movies

Example Questions Motivated by Movies:

Topic: Special Relativity
Movie: Contact
Questions:

In the movie Jodie Foster’s character is in a machine in which she is observed to fall to earth in seconds (let's say 60 s). She claims that this is equivalent to 8 h in her rest frame. What is her rest frame’s velocity relative to earth for such a time dilation? Hint: the slow moving clock in this case is the earth's.

The radio transmissions received in 1990 from the Vega system are of the opening ceremony of the 1936 Berlin Olympic games. Assuming the beings on Vega transmitted these signal back to earth the moment they were received, how far away in meters is the Vega system from earth?

Topic: Projectile Motion
Movie: October Sky
Questions:

The boys are accused of starting a fire, but prove that this is incorrect. How do they prove this?

Philosophy

Every teacher must determine their own teaching philosophy. For me there are two aspects to the study of physics: 1.) awareness and understanding of physical phenomena and laws and 2.) ability to predict physical outcomes. In order to achieve the first aspect does not require high math skills, the second aspect does. That is a simple fact and unfortunately U.S. students do not have high math skills when they enter college. Most students end up taking remedial math classes and physics professors MUST teach the math as they go, at the expense of spending time teaching the physics. This simple fact if ignored will cause your students anguish and in the end despair. They will simply not be equipped to do the problems and will never achieve the satisfaction and joy that you so strongly want to convey in the pursuit of physics.

However you can not successfully predict outcomes without aspect one. Many a student tries blind application of equations in a random fashion hoping to somehow achieve the right answer. One approach is the physics through inquiry. That is: A) expose the students to the physical phenomena, get them to ask questions of why the event occurs and draw correlations between different aspects of the problem to self formulate the math B) present the formal equations describing the math and C) perform problem solving as interactively as possible. Utilize in class demos. Have entire modules built around these. Make it clear...a incorrect prediction equals disaster whereas a correct prediction equals way cool results.

We too often see evidence of bad science: a.) building and machines that have major flaws and do not consider all the physical forces, b.) charlatan claims of perpetual motion machines and nonphysical potions and treatments that claim to cure a wide variety of ills, (magnet wristband therapy, FIR underwear) and c.) false claims of scientific breakthroughs. University faculty have distinct responsibility and opportunity to ensure that we train our future engineers and scientists to the highest standards, instilling in them a responsibility to be careful and correct in both their designs and their claims.

My chief aims are to:

A.) convey the joy and wonder of physical phenomena
B.) instill the importance of the ability to predict physical outcome
C.) develop a desire to be precise and careful in calculations and designs

Chief misunderstandings to look out for:

1. Normal force.

2. F = ma. Students ALWAYS seem to think that the force IS the mass times acceleration, rather than the acceleration of a mass results from a net applied force.

3. Rotational motion...do not see angle as a description of position.

4. AMPERE'S LAW: assumption that if no enclosed current, no magnetic field. Focus on explanation of a path integral. Here's a nice example to go through in class.