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Salient. Victoria University of Wellington Students' Newspaper. Volume 31, Number 18. July 30, 1968

Suggestions wanted

page 3

Suggestions wanted

Arts students are invited to submit suggestions on what they want from the proposed General Physics course. The course, counting as one unit towards a B.A., will not count towards a B.Sc.

Professor Barber

Professor Barber

There will be three lectures and two hours practical work each week.

Students interested are asked to contact Professor Barber of the Physics Department.

The text book is "Physical Science for Liberal Arts Students" by H. N. Swenson and J. E. Woods of Queens College, New York.

Formulae appear in the book, but Professor Barber said he does not expect Arts students to remember most of them.

It would be sufficient for a student to know how to use them in problems, he said.

The book looks at the evolution of science, ancient astronomy, modern astronomy, mechanics, energy and heat, an outline of atomic ideas of matter, electricity, magnetism, light, quantum theory of the atom and "wave mechanics". Professor Barber would like to add Einstein's theory of relativity.

Lectures will consist of practical demonstrations and the answering by collective effort of the questions proposed at the end of the chapters.

Lectures on the textbook will use up about three quarters of the year. Students are not expected to acquire a detailed familiarity with all topics.

Professor Barber proposes that about the middle of the year each student should work up a dissertation on some topic; or he may be given perhaps 12 questions on a topic, and find answers to them by reading or by enquiry.

For the two hours practical work a week, students may wish to repeat for themselves the demonstrations made in lectures.

It is also suggested that students make fire by friction, chip arrowheads, grind corn, make pottery, spin wool, make paper and ink, candles, and work metals.

These arts are the basis of a great deal of present-day technology.

Professor Barber invites suggestions for more "scientific" activities.

The course will be able to cope with between 30 and 60 students.

The emphasis of the General Physics course will be on how the ideas of physics were discovered. their relevance in other studies and the part that physical science plays or might play in industrial production and social progress.