In P103 we will take a journey designed to provide liberal arts students a comprehensive overview of the wonders of the field of physics. Our target will be to cover those topics that would have been known by Albert Einstein. The metaphor of our course being a journey permits us to touch an important issue.
Serious travelers can greatly benefit if they have previously mastered the local language.
To fully appreciate the geology, culture, traditions in the region surrounding Europe's tallest mountain, Mont Blanc, it is undeniably helpful to be able to engage in a discourse with French and Italian scientists and local residents who know the region well, and to do so in their native languages. Since mathematics is the language of science, the inference is that the full appreciation of science requires the complete use of mathematics. While this is true, it must be emphasized that enormous appreciation of the wonders of physics can be derived from discussions of the major principles of physics even without the use of extensive mathematics. By the end of the course students should have a good grasp of the major physical principles that govern the Universe in which we reside, and a sense of the intricate steps involved in their development. They should have a sense of the scientific process of rigorously developing and testing theories.