Cinema, Fermi problems and general education

Abstract

During the past few years the authors have developed a new approach to the teaching ofphysical science, a general education course typically found in the curricula of nearly everycollege and university. This approach, called Physics in Films (Efthimiou and Llewellyn2006 Phys. Teach. 44 28–33), uses scenes from popular films to illustrate physical principlesand has excited student interest and improved student performance. A similar approach atthe senior/high-school level, nicknamed Hollywood Physics, has been developedby Chandler (2006 Phys. Teach. 44 290–2; 2002 Phys. Teach. 40 420–4). The twoapproaches may be considered complementary as they target different student groups.The analyses of many of the scenes in Physics in Films are a direct application of Fermicalculations—estimates and approximations designed to make solutions of complex andseemingly intractable problems understandable to the student non-specialist. The intentof this paper is to provide instructors with examples they can use to developskill in recognizing Fermi problems and making Fermi calculations in their owncourses.