ronchop


I like to contrast physics with one special discpline: I follow the history of art in parallel to the history of physics. Does it work? You'll see...

The course is lecture-based with opportunities for discussion. Projects and readings outside of class will hopefully round out this big subject. The primary class exercise is weekly journals.

http://www.ronco.com/rco_aboutus.aspx
"Navigating the Universe" is an Intellectual history of physics, presented with an emphasis on how we learned to observe and eventually abstract to the mathematical patterns which guide the physical world.

The course is a lecture format with readings which accompany the topics. We'll follow the development of physics historically, from the Greeks through the current embarrassment that 95% of the mass and energy of the Universe seems to be...missing!
INSTRUCTOR:
Professor: Raymond Brock
Office: 3210 BPS
Phone: 3-1693
Office Hours: M 11-1
email: brock AT pa.msu.edu
AIM IM: chipbrock@mac.com

TEACHING ASSISTANT:
Danielle Larese
Office: 3228 BPS
Office Hours: Th 11-1
email: danielle.larese AT gmail.com
We'll also care about philosophical concepts and how scholars look at science as an object of study, the branch of philosophy called the Philosophy of Science. When we're done, you'll have a broad view of physics from the inside, and from the outside and hopefully have a sense of what science is, and maybe what it isn't.
BUT WAIT!
THERE'S MORE!
A twist!

Science is a way of knowing the world, but there are other disciplines which also make that claim. They all have their own domains, commitments, and rules.
Original Veg-O-matic