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Agreed generally with Horowitzian though Einstein's view on gravity, motion etc can be taught without all the math and can be certainly explained to high school students.

Einstein developed many of his concepts though thought experiments where he imagined common experiences under uncommon conditions. The best known example is his ride on a streetcar away from a clock tower on his way to work. He imagined what would happen if instead of going 25 km/hour or whatever, he literally rode on the beam of light as it bounced off the clock. How would his experience of things around him change? The answers get progressively weirder as you move from considering how relative time changes (ie on the streetcar vs on the street) to how relative mass changes. The result (along with a bunch of other stuff) is the Special Theory of Relativity.

Similarly I would say quantum theory can be taught at a level high school students could understand using thought experiments like the Schrodinger cat idea. The main benefit of this stuff is that it's incredibly interesting!! Not to take anything away from Newton et al, but 20th c physics is totally mind-blowing. Great way to turn high school kids, at least some of them, onto science for its own sake.

What's American Idol?

Sometimes at parties, people find me a little weird.
However I hope their views change after the publication of my latest book entitled, 'A Truss Full Of Lentils'.

You're right - all those other people are weird.

Yes, I agree. That's why I said "qualitative analysis". It is fascinating.

What's even more mind-blowing to me is how powerful quantum mechanics and the various ideas that spin off of it is for explaining a lot of things we see. Chemists, for example, still use Lewis bonding theory because it is a powerful tool for predicting molecular geometry. However, both Lewis Theory and the more advanced Valence Bond Theory fail to explain why the oxygen molecule is paramagnetic (attracted by a magnet). Both indicate that it has no unpaired electrons and therefore should be diamagnetic. But experimental data shows that oxygen is attracted to magnets. The very powerful Molecular Orbital Theory reveals that the oxygen molecule does indeed have an unpaired electron in an antibonding orbital that results in the molecule being paramagnetic.

Everybody is somebody's weirdo.

I watch a lot of television, I keep Netflix busy and I'm interested in other aspects of popular culture, too. I can make conversation and "pass" for normal if I wish, but I don't really enjoy the company of people unless there's that special spark shared by kindred spirits.

I was definitely a weird kid (Aspergers, I reckon, though it was decades before it had a name), but as a young adult—especially during my years at UCLA and later when I was a newcomer to New York City—there was a seemingly endless supply of interesting people with whom to socialize (or not).

I'm relatively isolated now, and that's fine, too; social events, and the attendant pressure to be "on," are more exhausting now than ever. Often alone, never lonely is a credo that's always worked for me.

Steven

Perfect example of the millions of things I'd want to ask too.

Couldn't agree more. And I had the same experience as sotto voce when I left my small town home to attend university -- all of a sudden there were a lot of people just like me to talk to if I felt like it. I'm good company for myself, fortunately.

Hi gooddog, come on over and play all your works in progress and discuss Everything to do with piano and the great challenges of mastering it... If only!!

I really need a piano friend or two. No wonder i am enjoying lessons so much, but an unpaid friend would be nice I'm sure I'll find one soon enough, and my very best piano-friend will come back from overseas.

I'm a happy socialiser and don't mind talking about many things. Except TV! - mine exploded many years ago rather loudly with a bright flash. Then I noticed my house was nicer without it so I never replaced it. I get more music done with no tv.

Socialise: the English language has some strange words.

That's a good credo.... I will make it my own.

I think they gave a name to Asperger's in the 90s. They like to give names to everything these days, like "social phobia" for "shyness"... They have given several names to my weirdness, but the main one remains Asperger's, which is OK because I like to be an aspie...

I reckon everyone on this forum is a bit weird. It attracts weird muso types. I’m not into radio pop and I don’t watch TV.
I agree that in France, people like to discuss and debate profound topics e.g. what is there after death? whereas in Sydney people at parties tend to be a bit more superficial.

I'm a cytotechnologist.

Just to prove how weird I am, he's a picture of my own little "illegal alien" a caudex of Cycas siamensis "silver" I'm rooting. It came straigt from Thailand. Right now it's on top of the refrigerator keeping warm and has begun to root. Give it about a year and it should leaf out again. (Knock on wood.)

In principle Newtonian physics isn't even close to right. Newtonian physics says that a force is acting on a falling object. Relativity says that no force acts on a falling body until it hits the deck. Conceptually they couldn't be more different. And are't the fundamental concepts the most important thing to teach in high school? Without the fundamentals you have nothing to build on.


Using that logic we might teach that airplanes fly by magic. It's far easier to understand than fussing with thrust, lift & drag.

But exactly what do you work on? And good luck with the Cycas siamensis!

That's deeply cool Frycek - it's amazing the things that turn out to be alive.....

Except for the science teacher part, I'm the same with you gooddog. But if you're a science teacher, there's quite a different in age between you and me.

I have other hobbies and interests I like to talk about, and although classical piano is easily my primary choice of music to listen to, I listen to some heavy metal and rock.

I get by the best I can.

In principle yes though in practice not necessarily. Newton is close enough to right for much of modern engineering to work for example.

These days I seem to socialize mostly with people of similar interests. Although very few play an instrument, most enjoy listening to music, science and cycling. Often when I meet new people, however, it's another story. I'm an organic chemist by training and once people find that out they usually say "Oh, I failed chemistry" or "I hate chemistry" so that's not the greatest start to a conversation. I also don't watch tv and don't have children. I used to read the books that Oprah recommended and other popular fiction and that often helped me to find a common ground for conversation at social events.

That's the beauty of teaching biology. On the high school level, physics and chemistry are by necessity, taught at a fairly low level. (I also teach 9th grade general science and we still use the Bohr model because it is easily understandable.)In contrast, high school level biology is always evolving (pun). We're able to introduce biotechnology, transformation, protein synthesis, protein folding and the rudiments of how antibiotics work. True, it's at a low level, but the kids find it fascinating and relevant and we generally don't have to dilute or bend the truth to gain understanding.

A cytotechnlogist prescreens cellular samples for malignant cells and marks them for a pathologist. Our big success story is pap smears but we work on specimens from all body sites.