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BBC documentary highlights on YouTube: ATOM

JacksinPA

JacksinPA

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This 3-part 2015 BBC documentary on the discovery of the structure of the atom is worth your time if you have some basic education in science. I found it on BBC Prime, to which I subscribe. Starting at the discovery of the atoms itself & going as far as quantum electrodynamics, I have to admit that I found the last episode hard to absorb even with my education in chemistry, as they go from atoms being physical things to atoms as being mathematical constructs. But overall very absorbing.
 
JacksinPA said:
YouTube

This 3-part 2015 BBC documentary on the discovery of the structure of the atom is worth your time if you have some basic education in science. I found it on BBC Prime, to which I subscribe. Starting at the discovery of the atoms itself & going as far as quantum electrodynamics, I have to admit that I found the last episode hard to absorb even with my education in chemistry, as they go from atoms being physical things to atoms as being mathematical constructs. But overall very absorbing.
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Wasn't aware of this series; thank you! Physics is fascinating, but the history of scientific discovery can be even more fascinating, because it recounts the process of discovery.

As to math, well what can I say? I believe everyone should have a reasonable working background in mathematics through basic calculus. Why? Because mathematics is one of our fundamental building blocks of knowledge. As a skill, I put it math right up there with reading & writing, and I see it as important - in terms of raw knowledge - as is understanding the history of Western Civilization. One needs to see themselves in context, and that's what getting a good education does. But more practically, a working knowledge of basic math means one can do physics, or economics, or engineering, or finance, or navigation, etc., etc. With a working knowledge of math, one can pick-up any of the aforementioned discipline's text books and reasonably tutor one's self.

Being familiar with and understanding basic mathematical expressions, gives one an intuitive understanding of these subjects. By simply looking at an equation for a brief moment, if you're math fluent, allows you to immediately understand the relationships represented. That immediate & unambiguous understanding would otherwise require paragraphs of prose, and lots of reading & comprehension time, in order to understand the same thing that's immediately apparent by quickly looking at the mathematical expression.

And yeah - as you may have guessed I insisted my kids get a good college-prep education in math, and I still can't believe they actually listened to my advice and did as I asked! And in time, each one thanked me for pushing them, especially when they got to their universities and saw they could go right into their core discipline coursework, rather than get stuck in extra remedial and basic college level math classes like many of their classmates.
 
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Chomsky said:
Wasn't aware of this series; thank you! Physics is fascinating, but the history of scientific discovery can be even more fascinating, because it recounts the process of discovery.

As to math, well what can I say? I believe everyone should have a reasonable working background in mathematics through basic calculus. Why? Because mathematics is one of our fundamental building blocks of knowledge. As a skill, I put it math right up there with reading & writing, and I see it as important - in terms of raw knowledge - as is understanding the history of Western Civilization. One needs to see themselves in context, and that's what getting a good education does. But more practically, a working knowledge of basic math means one can do physics, or economics, or engineering, or finance, or navigation, etc., etc. With a working knowledge of math, one can pick-up any of the aforementioned discipline's text books and reasonably tutor one's self.

Being familiar with and understanding basic mathematical expressions, gives one an intuitive understanding of these subjects. By simply looking at an equation for a brief moment, if you're math fluent, allows you to immediately understand the relationships represented. That immediate & unambiguous understanding would otherwise require paragraphs of prose, and lots of reading & comprehension time, in order to understand the same thing that's immediately apparent by quickly looking at the mathematical expression.

And yeah - as you may have guessed I insisted my kids get a good college-prep education in math, and I still can't believe they actually listened to my advice and did as I asked! And in time, each one thanked me for pushing them, especially when they got to their universities and saw they could go right into their core discipline coursework, rather than get stuck in extra remedial and basic college level math classes like many of their classmates.
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I agree that a good foundation in basic math through calculus 1 is the minimum needed to be able to understand the sciences.

We moved fairly often during my middle & high school years & I really had no idea what I wanted to do with my life until I took chemistry in my HS senior year. I got a 99% on the NY State Regents exam in chemistry & argued with the proctor about that missing point because it was a question of interpretation about its meaning.

Unfortunately I had been interviewed by the elderly lady 'guidance counselor' my junior year so she had no idea that I would later be headed off to college to major in chemistry. As a result I graduated from HS without having taken trigonometry, which I would have gladly taken in summer school after graduating but I had no idea that it was going to be a requirement for a chem major. So when I got to Physics in freshman year I was completely in the dark about cos this & tan that. Same in calculus, where trig functions are commonly found. Pulling Ds in your freshmen & sophomore years is not a good way to make it through college with a minimum 2.0 needed to graduate. I aced 2 years of German in summer school before my senior year or I would not have made that diploma.
 
Chomsky said:
Wasn't aware of this series; thank you! Physics is fascinating, but the history of scientific discovery can be even more fascinating, because it recounts the process of discovery.

As to math, well what can I say? I believe everyone should have a reasonable working background in mathematics through basic calculus. Why? Because mathematics is one of our fundamental building blocks of knowledge. As a skill, I put it math right up there with reading & writing, and I see it as important - in terms of raw knowledge - as is understanding the history of Western Civilization. One needs to see themselves in context, and that's what getting a good education does. But more practically, a working knowledge of basic math means one can do physics, or economics, or engineering, or finance, or navigation, etc., etc. With a working knowledge of math, one can pick-up any of the aforementioned discipline's text books and reasonably tutor one's self.

Being familiar with and understanding basic mathematical expressions, gives one an intuitive understanding of these subjects. By simply looking at an equation for a brief moment, if you're math fluent, allows you to immediately understand the relationships represented. That immediate & unambiguous understanding would otherwise require paragraphs of prose, and lots of reading & comprehension time, in order to understand the same thing that's immediately apparent by quickly looking at the mathematical expression.

And yeah - as you may have guessed I insisted my kids get a good college-prep education in math, and I still can't believe they actually listened to my advice and did as I asked! And in time, each one thanked me for pushing them, especially when they got to their universities and saw they could go right into their core discipline coursework, rather than get stuck in extra remedial and basic college level math classes like many of their classmates.
Click to expand...

This documentary focuses on the people who made the series of discoveries that made clear the structure of the atom: Marie Curie's discovery of radioactivity, Rutherford, Einstein, etc. How Einstein used the study of Brownian motion of pollen seeds floating on water to calculate the dimension of the atom is worth watching it by itself. And how Rutherford discovered the neutron & that the inside of an atom was 99.9999% empty are well worth the time to watch this video (3 actually). The sound quality of the physicist's voice in episode 2 is marginal but I have a hard time understanding Brit anyway.
 
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