A formula tells a story, yes?
December 3, 2020 11:30 AM Subscribe
I was trying to refresh my knowledge of high school chemistry to help a family member with their homework and didn't like the way their textbook and several other sources I looked into introduced formulas without giving any real explanation of what the formulas represented in real life. Just X is defined by A times B divided by C, the end. Do you know resources that are not like that?
From my own high school I remember first being taught how a certain process worked and THEN how to write down the formula. So for example, I was taught that when two bodies with a mass are at a distance from one another then the force pulling them towards each other increases with their respective mass and decreases with distance squared. That was the concept, and you then wrote down the formula that was just a shorter way to say the same thing.
Now I look at my family member's textbooks and I see, for example, the explanation of the dissociation constant. And it's virtually just the formula, as in, just the symbols (A times B divided by C) without any clarification of what it actually means in real life, why we use it, where it comes from, and so on. I cannot imagine a more off-putting way to explain this stuff. I looked at Khan Academy and it still wasn't explained the way I would have liked.
I found an example that was closer to what I was looking for and it's here:
https://youtu.be/7C_HsfB_6PQ?t=16
Do you know any middle/high school level resources for physics or chemistry that are more like this? I do not mean like physics for poets, formulas are completely fine, just as long as they are given proper context. Does not need to be comprehensive, just anything more interesting than what they are currently learning from.
From my own high school I remember first being taught how a certain process worked and THEN how to write down the formula. So for example, I was taught that when two bodies with a mass are at a distance from one another then the force pulling them towards each other increases with their respective mass and decreases with distance squared. That was the concept, and you then wrote down the formula that was just a shorter way to say the same thing.
Now I look at my family member's textbooks and I see, for example, the explanation of the dissociation constant. And it's virtually just the formula, as in, just the symbols (A times B divided by C) without any clarification of what it actually means in real life, why we use it, where it comes from, and so on. I cannot imagine a more off-putting way to explain this stuff. I looked at Khan Academy and it still wasn't explained the way I would have liked.
I found an example that was closer to what I was looking for and it's here:
https://youtu.be/7C_HsfB_6PQ?t=16
Do you know any middle/high school level resources for physics or chemistry that are more like this? I do not mean like physics for poets, formulas are completely fine, just as long as they are given proper context. Does not need to be comprehensive, just anything more interesting than what they are currently learning from.
Response by poster: Yes, exactly, something like Feynman but for middle/high schoolers - I have greatly enjoyed [the simpler] parts of his lectures but the math is just too advanced for me.
He more or less wrote something as scathing about how physics students are taught formulas about refraction of light without realizing they describe something they can actually see.
posted by M. at 11:56 AM on December 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
He more or less wrote something as scathing about how physics students are taught formulas about refraction of light without realizing they describe something they can actually see.
posted by M. at 11:56 AM on December 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Prof Dave Explains on YouTube is a good chemistry resource, and I think he has some physics content too. As a teacher my favorite thing about it is they are clear but short, so you can use them in class without kids eyes glazing over and you can then do something to reinforce the concept.
posted by Wretch729 at 12:11 PM on December 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Wretch729 at 12:11 PM on December 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
Best answer: The Mechanical Universe ... is a critically-acclaimed series of 52 thirty-minute videos covering the basic topics of an introductory university physics course.
I watched it when I was 15 so .... It's old but good and is full of long explanations.
posted by zengargoyle at 1:18 PM on December 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
I watched it when I was 15 so .... It's old but good and is full of long explanations.
posted by zengargoyle at 1:18 PM on December 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
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These were lectures given to undergrads at Caltech, so not exactly middle/high-school level, but take a look at them -- Feynman believed strongly in explaining things. Here is the chapter on the theory of gravitation for instance.
posted by vogon_poet at 11:42 AM on December 3, 2020 [2 favorites]