Six Ideas That Shaped Physics: Unit T : Some Processes Are Irreversible

Six Ideas That Shaped Physics is consistent with the three basic principles of the IUPP (Introductory University Physics Project, Pomona College, USA): The pace of the introductory course should be reduced so that a broader range of students can achieve an acceptable level of competence and satisfaction; there should be more contemporary physics in the course; and the course should use one or more story lines to help organize ideas and help motivate student interest. The author adds three principles of his own to help round-out this exceptional new outlook: The course should seek to embrace the best of what educational research has taught us about conceptual and structural problems with the standard course; the course should stake out a middle ground between the standard introductory course and exciting but radical courses that require a substantial investment in infrastructure and/or training; and the course should be useful in fairly standard environments and should be easy for teachers to understand and adopt. This organized system of learning proves effective because students gain confidence as they proceed to more difficult concepts.