Table of contents

The authors discuss the relationship between the teaching of science and mathematics in secondary schools. An attempt is made to analyse the general dissatisfaction in present teaching methods.

The author discusses the relationship between physics and mathematics teaching at the sixth-form level. Some difficulties associated with the sequencing of topics are discussed, and a technique for developing a strategy for reducing the mismatch between the two subjects is outlined.

The paper considers the types of mathematics which are taught in schools at the sixth form level. An attempt is made to define the points on the naturalistic-formalistic spectrum which is most suitable for teaching to mathematically very able, fairly able, or average pupils.

A two year mathematics course, entitled Applied Mathematics I, is discussed which has been used for the pre-service education of future physics and chemistry teachers.

The article describes an introductory course which does not presuppose Newtonian mechanics. In this course an explicit derivation of newtonian mechanics as a particular case of special relativity precedes the teaching of newtonian mechanics.

A simple experiment is described to demonstrate the inadequacy of classical dynamics and the ability of relativistic dynamics to describe the motion of electrons whose energy ranges up to 10 keV (1.6 fJ). A high sensitivity is achieved with modest experimental equipment by using a method where only a small deviation from a comparatively large stationary effect is measured. The slight variation of the trajectory, or rather of a single point of it, is the quantity actually measured.

With a view towards a more generalised use of analogue computers in schools for improving existing physics courses, the author discusses the specifications of a school built analogue computer.

The authors discuss some of the difficulties that arise when courses are transferred from one teacher to another, and describe experiences of the transfer of a self paced course both to another teacher in the same university and to a teacher in a different university. This experience may provide some guidelines for the design of courses to make them more easily transferable and suggests a procedure to ease such transitions.

A new school physics course is described in which a presentation of related applications of physical principles based on the theory of flight (or elementary aerodynamics) is developed.

Describes a very simple capacitance manometer which could be used by students in an undergraduate laboratory in experiments for studying the thermodynamic properties of liquids, e.g. the determination of the degree of superheat of the liquid or variation of its saturated vapour pressure with temperature. In such experiments, because of changes in temperature of the system when the liquid boils, an accurate measurement of the instantaneous pressure is very important.