Non conceptual physics

Wednesday 22 February 2023

There is a brilliant textbook called conceptual physics by Paul Hewitt but how can you teach non-conceptual physics? Here is an example:

Ohm's Law (non conceptual)

The current through a resistor of resistance 12 Ω connected to a battery with voltage 6 V is 0.5 A. This can be expressed by the equation:

I equals V over R

Where

V = Voltage (Volts)

I = Current (Amps)

R = Resistance (Ohms)

Exam question

Calculate the current that flows when a 12 V battery is connected to a 6 Ω resistor.

Given the information a student can answer the question but don't have to understand anything about the quantities. One of my ex students won the Norwegian physics olympiad. He was brilliant at solving problems including those involving capacitance. However when we covered capacitance in the IB course he admitted to having no idea what a capacitor looked like or what it was used for. Given the information here a student could not answer the question:

Explain why the resistance of a wire is proportional to its  length.