Illuminating physics for students by David Griffiths

Physics teachers are fortunate (I am among friends, so I can speak frankly): ours is a subject the relevance and importance of which are beyond question, and which is intrinsically fascinating to anyone whose mind has not been corrupted by bad teaching or poisoned by dogma and superstition. I have never felt the need to “sell” physics, and efforts to do so under the banner “physics is fun” seem to me demeaning. Lay out our wares attractively in the marketplace of ideas and eager buyers will flock to us.

What we have on offer is nothing less than an explanation of how matter behaves on the most fundamental level. It is a story that is magnificent (by good fortune or divine benevolence), coherent (at least that is the goal), plausible (though far from obvious) and true (that is the most remarkable thing about it). It is imperfect and unfinished (of course), but always improving. It is, moreover, amazingly powerful and extraordinarily useful. Our job is to tell this story – even, if we are lucky, to add a sentence or a paragraph to it. And why not tell it with style and grace?

Griffiths came down to Corvallis and gave a talk when I was in grad school. It was pretty good — I felt like I almost understood Berry’s phase when he was done. (OSU had its own David Griffiths; fortunately they did not annihilate upon meeting)

I found a particular resonance with this comment

I have known people who are in some sense too smart to be clear; they cannot remember what it was like not to understand something, because, I suppose, they never had this experience. They may be outstanding physicists, but they do not belong in the classroom.

When I was teaching, and later when merely explaining, I’ve tried to understand the misconceptions people have, and the barrier that the misconceptions create. It’s not enough to tell someone that their answer is wrong — they need to understand why it’s wrong, too. Remembering what it was like to not understand something is really useful.