Here a new book that is at once completely silly and really quite an accomplishment ( I hope!). Quoting directly from the book's site,
Each chapter is built around a conversation between Chad Orzel, a physics professor at Union College, and his dog Emmy...in which Emmy seizes upon some aspect of quantum mechanics as a way to obtain doggy goals.
Most of us have some experience with doggy goals, I suspect. It's great to see a physicist finding a fun and accessible way to help his students shift perspectives, from regular Newtonian reality to a quantum perspective, using this familiar and non-threatening knowledge to get started.
There are two introductory articles on the site to give you a sense of how much more easily your dog may adapt to nonintuitive concepts in quantum physics more easily than most of us - especially the first time around. I like the "Talking to your human about physics" article best, but both that one and "Talking to your dog about physics" are a great way to waste time. Which is, sometimes, just what you need.
Maybe I should try to talk to my dog (Ruby) about statistics - before I teach another class?
Posts
4 comments:
I think you should !!!
That means - to describe the interesting and sophisticated modern statistics so that even Ruby could understand. Then all your students would grasp it, and - will have great fun...
BTW - it seems as the book of the kind I would like. I still remember little book about Quantum Chemistry by late prof. Kolos:
"Quantum Chemistry couched in non-mathematical language" (I'm not sure about the title translation though).
Thanks for the post - great.
What a fun idea...but a challenge. My favorite part of the dog talking to his human was when the dog thought he could use a search algorithm to find rabbits in the back yard. It would be tough to outdo that...but I will give it some thought, if Ruby will help me.
In the meantime, you are most welcome to send a few modern stats questions along for her to "chew on".
I don't think I knew of Prof. Kolos, but you remind me that I had a great time reading "Mr Tompkins" books, like this one about relativity and modern physics, way back in another century.
Did you see these books? George Gamov was the author.
Dogs learning, even teaching(!), quantum physics...! Is there another planet you are on? It sounds fun! I was tempted to switch--for a moment... However, I expect I'll get there eventually, as I stay on track on my path and play in my garden with people and words. I do believe the paths converge--deeply. I'm looking forward to a greater meeting of the minds and hearts--maybe already in retirement, when you could have Ruby teach me?
I Believe dogs are far more intelligent than we anticipate. It's a nice, unique,uncommon thing you shared Diane,thanks.
Post a Comment