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That
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WHY... |
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| 1. Most modern technology
came from physics. |
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Any technology involving
electricity, magnetism, mechanics, heat, light, sound, optics, etc. comes
from physics. Even though the basic knowledge required to discover
fertilizers, drugs, plastics, and chemicals comes from chemistry and in some
cases biology, all of these items have to be manufactured, and manufacturing
is dominated by physics-based technology. |
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| 2. Most branches of
sciences contain principles obtained from physics. |
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Like technology, it is hard
to find a branch of science which does not contain some physics-related
aspect such as electricity, magnetism, mechanics, heat, light, sound,
optics, etc. Chemistry in particular becomes indistinguishable from physics
when delving into the atomic model. Physics has been called the most basic
science and in many cases it is required in order to understand concepts in
other sciences. |
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| 3. Physics classes can
help polish the skills in math and logic. |
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Physics classes provide
practice in both algebra and geometry. These are the types of mathematics
and general reasoning. However, physics is not a math
class. To understand the concepts of physics students have to use analogies.
To work physics problems, students must be able to read and comprehend short
paragraphs packed with information. Physics develops both math and verbal
skills. |
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| 4. College recruiters
recognize the value of physics classes. |
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College recruiters tend to
be favorably impressed by transcripts containing challenging classes like
physics. They know it is relatively easy to attain a high GPA by taking a
light course load. Success in high school physics is considered a sign of
academic maturity and ability. Some technically oriented college programs
will deny entrance to students who have not taken high school physics. |
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| 5. College success for
virtually all science, computer, engineering, and premedical majors depends
on passing physics. |
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College level physics is a
required course for all of these majors. Engineering is almost entirely
applied physics. Pre-medicine majors are typically required to take the same
number of physics as biology classes! Also, about 25% of the science
knowledge required for the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) is based on
physics. College physics courses for freshman often have 200 or more
students in them and can be impersonal. They move at a fast pace and have a
high failure rate. Some colleges will not allow a student to take college
level physics unless they have had high school physics. Studies (ref 2,4)
indicate that a high quality high school physics course helps significantly
reduce the failure rate in college-level physics. These studies suggest that
students with a high school physics course score on average about one letter
grade higher in college physics than students with no high school physics
background. Students themselves typically indicate that high school physics
is a significant factor in their ability to handle college-level physics
material. |
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| 6. Physics classes hone
thinking skills. |
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Physics is about the only
high school-level class which requires both mathematical and verbal skills.
All problems in physics are word problems which require students to think
logically, use analogies, and deal with subtle shades of meaning. Passing
scores in AP (Advanced Placement) calculus correlate with high PSAT math
scores. Passing scores in AP literature courses correlate with high PSAT
verbal scores. AP physics is the only AP course where passing scores
correlate with both high verbal and high math PSAT scores. Physics courses
teach students to think and this is a valuable skill apart from the
knowledge content of physics. For instance the law school entrance exam LSAT
requires no particular content knowledge, however, about 67% of an
applicant's score depends on answering logical reasoning and logic game
questions. |
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| 7. The job market for
people with skills in physics is strong. |
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Engineers are applied
physicists and comprise the second largest profession in America (second
only to teaching) with about 1.4 million members. By comparison, there are
about 500 thousand medical doctors and only around 100 thousand biologists.
However, even medical doctors and most biologists have to take college-level
physics courses. Knowledge of physics is a prerequisite for many forms of
employment. |
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| 8. A knowledge of physics
is needed to understand music, art, and literature. |
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Physics is the science which
deals with sound. It is impossible to understand how instruments work or to
build a theory of music without resorting to physics. Einstein, for
instance, was an accomplished violinist. Physics is also the science of
light. What could be more basic to an understanding of art? Leonardo da
Vinci was not only a great artist but also an outstanding physicist. He was
one of the first physicists to develop a wave theory of light. Clearly
physicists have been influenced by literary figures. The physics term
quark was taken from James Joyce and the term boojaums from Lewis
Carroll (ref 12). By the same token, many commonly used expressions in our
everyday language come from physics. These include quantum leap,
free fall, light years, black holes, resonance, and
being on the same wave length. Many authors have used allusions to
physics in their literary works. William Faulkner, for instance, used the
symbolism of time dilation in The Sound and the Fury. John Updike and
a host of other poets have used physics metaphors in their work. The arts
and humanities cannot be fully understood without some background in
physics. |
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