Courses for Non-science Students

The approaches that try to attract students to physics by merely writing in words the mathematical formulas (“physics for poets”), or by step-by-step detailed explanations, appear somewhat naïve. “Physics for humanities” requires mainly different contents beyond the simplified formalism. The cultural contents of physics may trigger the interest of many presently identified as not apt to physics, bringing into physics classes the students often lost within the common educational practice.

The courses in this chapter conceptualize and attempt to explore a continuing dialogue between science/engineering and the arts, which has affected life and attitudes throughout history and promises to do so for the future. Scientists and engineers are human and fallible and consequently they and their discoveries are influenced by what might be called their cultural contexts. Conversely artists and their works are influenced by changes in scientific thought.