Physics – Physics Education
Scientific paper
Sep 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000phyed..35..368b&link_type=abstract
Physics Education, Volume 35, Issue 5, pp. 368-369 (2000).
Physics
Physics Education
Scientific paper
Breithaupt's new book is big: at 727 pages, it will be a hefty addition to any student's bag. According to the preface, the book is designed to help students achieve the transition from GCSE to A-level and to succeed well at this level. It also aims to cover the requirements of the compulsory parts of all new syllabuses and to cover most of the optional material, too. The book is organized into seven themes along traditional lines: mechanics, materials, fields, waves, electricity, inside the atom, and physics in medicine. Each theme begins with a colourful title page that outlines what the theme is about, lists the applications that students will meet in their reading, identifies prior learning from GCSE and gives a checklist of what students should be able to do once they have finished their reading of the theme. This is all very useful. The text of the book is illustrated with many colourful photographs, pictures and cartoons, but despite this it looks very dense. There are a lot of words on every page in a small font that makes them seem very unfriendly, and although the book claims to be readable I rather doubt that the layout will encourage voluntary reading of the text. Each chapter ends with a useful summary and a selection of short questions that allow students to test their understanding. Each theme has a set of multiple choice and long questions. Some of the questions have an icon referring the student to the accompanying CD (more of this later).
There is much up-to-date material in the book. For example, the section on cosmology gives a brief description of the inflationary scenario within the Big Bang model of the origin of the universe, although no mechanism for the inflation is given, which might prove unsatisfying to some students. I do have some reservations about the presentation of some topics within the book: the discussion of relativistic mass, for example, states that `Einstein showed that the mass ... is given by the formula ...' and quotes the equation for relativistic mass. In fact, Einstein came to the conclusion that the only sensible definition of mass is the rest mass and this point ought at least to be mentioned. When discussing de Broglie's relation, the text states: `Each photon has energy hf which is equivalent to mass m on a scale mc2 = hf'. This may lead some to think that the photon has mass, especially when this relationship is compared with the equation for relativistic mass, which seems then to imply that the photon has non-zero rest mass. de Broglie came to his relation via the connection between the momentum and energy of a photon so that pc=hf and the de Broglie relationship then follows. When discussing particle physics, forces between particles mediated by virtual photons are discussed and it is stated that `the exchange is impossible to detect and hence the term virtual is used to describe the photon'. Of course, the exchange is not impossible to detect as it is the cause of the detectable force between the particles.
These quibbles aside, the book is a comprehensive reference that students and teachers will find useful.
The accompanying Course Guide has a lot of very useful material in it. It gives students advice on the transition from GCSE to A-level, sections on essential mathematics, data analysis, laboratory work, communication and IT skills, advice on assessment, A-level grade criteria and information about how Key Skills are incorporated into A-level physics. A very useful section, given Mr Breithaupt's experience as an examiner at this level, is the section on model answers, which shows exactly what examiners are looking for when they mark A-level scripts. My one reservation here regards units and dimensions: the technique of dimensional analysis is explained and there is advice on using equations to derive the units of answers. It was then disappointing to see that when example calculations were given, units were not consistently used in all steps of the calculations: it is in my view good practice to keep track of the units by including them at each step. Not only were units sometimes given and sometimes not, worse was to find examples where the units for only some quantities were given at intermediate stages. This leads to examples where intermediate steps apparently have different units from the final answers. Students at this level should be aware that not only the numerical values but also the units must balance in equations.
The CD gives model answers with a unique feature: Live Authored Solutions. Students can choose to have solutions presented as if they are being written by hand on the computer screen with an accompanying commentary that explains the thought processes of the writer. This could be a very useful feature for students who need to see more than the steps in the solution written out. Disappointing here was that all the solutions---at least on the sample CD I saw---were given by the same male voice. A little variety and the implication that women too might be able to answer the problems would have been nice!
Overall, the whole package is comprehensive. A reference copy might well prove a sound investment and I can see a great deal of value in students having their own copies of the course guide.
S R Carson
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