Collateral Readings in the Philosophy and History of Physics for the Introductory Science and Engineering Physics Course

Abstract

The standard introductory course for the science and engineering students is too often completely crammed with formulas and problems and gives the beginning student no idea whatsoever of the excitement of physics, and of its philosophy, history, and research frontier. Several new introductory courses have made a fresh start and attenpted to introduce the excitement of research physics. However, very little effort has been expended on the other problem, that of making the beginning student aware of the philosophy and history of physics. This objective can be accomplished by a series of selected readings in the original literature and in the literature of the philosophy of physics. The author of this paper has experimented for several years with collateral reading of this nature in the introductory course and the results have been excellent.