- #1
whitsona
- 28
- 8
I am about to do a unit on the wonders of vector decomposition for year 2 in a 3 years science curriculum where the kids follow along with the historical developments of science.
It's the science class I wish I'd had before becoming an engineer at MIT.
In year 3, we are with Einstein and Feynman. We do Markovski diagrams OK. But, the kids eventually get a shell-shocked look about them as the math turns into squiggles before their eyes and they stop believing me when I tell them there is stuff they can grok in that soup as we march through to Schrodinger and Bell's Theorem.
But, in year 2, the kids really grab hold of a lot of concepts with the parabola unit. And, the vector decomposition is a big win. I have students every year who are really worried that their ping pong balls won't trace one out as we film them because they built their catapults incorrectly. And, then they have a moment of pure physics joy when those simple. little invisible vectors work together an make that beautiful parabola happen.
This has me wondering if I could express a parabola in Bra-ket notation for them now-- so that next year they will have something familiar to grab onto when we get this far.
But, I never covered this part in my formal education (just an engineer, not a physicist) and I'm not sure how to get the notation right. Anyone inspired to help me out? Many thanks!
It's the science class I wish I'd had before becoming an engineer at MIT.
In year 3, we are with Einstein and Feynman. We do Markovski diagrams OK. But, the kids eventually get a shell-shocked look about them as the math turns into squiggles before their eyes and they stop believing me when I tell them there is stuff they can grok in that soup as we march through to Schrodinger and Bell's Theorem.
But, in year 2, the kids really grab hold of a lot of concepts with the parabola unit. And, the vector decomposition is a big win. I have students every year who are really worried that their ping pong balls won't trace one out as we film them because they built their catapults incorrectly. And, then they have a moment of pure physics joy when those simple. little invisible vectors work together an make that beautiful parabola happen.
This has me wondering if I could express a parabola in Bra-ket notation for them now-- so that next year they will have something familiar to grab onto when we get this far.
But, I never covered this part in my formal education (just an engineer, not a physicist) and I'm not sure how to get the notation right. Anyone inspired to help me out? Many thanks!