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Relativity as a General Audience Course: The Inventor's Paradox and the Explainer's Paradox

COFFEE_KLATCH · Invited

Abstract

Through a decade of teaching special relativity to general-audience students, I have evolved a teaching strategy that combines numerical, algebraic, and qualitative reasoning. The course treats only space-time aspects of relativity, with no mention of momentum-energy. The non-science majors taking this course leave with an understanding of relativity that is in some ways demonstrably superior to the understanding shown by physics graduate students.

Authors

  • Daniel Styer

    Oberlin College