After years of keeping them in boxes, I recently got out my University Physics and Math books and put them on my shelves. Just getting them out inspired me :-). This morning while testing the Open Yale Courses feed that I had added to OER Recommender, I ran across the Fundamentals of Physics course. This led me to R. Shankar’s home page, where I noticed an old friend,
Shankar’s book that I used in my quantum mechanics class at the University of Utah. I also smiled to see him list his
Most important contribution to physics
“Discovered a small parameter that justifies most calculations performed in physics: 1/ego, where ego is the author’s ego.”
Very clever. It is cool to see a self-deprecating physicist. The description of his other book shown there: Basic Training in Mathematics rang true to my experience. My love and interest while studying at the UofU was always Physics, but I ended up taking so much math that I decided to go ahead and major in Math as well. While doing so, I found that almost everything I learned in my Math classes I had previously learned in my Physics classes :-).
Posted on May 23rd, 2008 by joel
Filed under: stem

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