The Physics Department at the Junior College, in collaboration with the Department of Physics at the Faculty of Science will be hosting a public talk entitled 'The art of building the universe: how physicists construct mathematical models of the physical world'. The talk will be delivered by Dr David Sands from the University of Hull, UK.
date: Wednesday 31 May
time: 18:15
time: 18:15
venue: Erin Serracino Inglott Hall - Lecture Theatre 1 (LT1), University of Malta Msida Campus
Abstract
Great discoveries in physics capture the imagination, as shown by the excitement surrounding the recent discoveries of the Higgs boson and gravitational waves. Physics has always held a wide popular appeal and science programmes on arcane topics like quantum physics and the nature of the universe regularly feature on television. In seeking to explain highly mathematical and complex ideas to non-specialists, such programmes are necessarily limited in their scope. One thing in particular that is never discussed is the art of the physicist: the ability to construct complex mathematical descriptions of the physical world that underpin modern physics. In fact, physicists rarely think, let alone talk, about how they do what they do, but to many lay people this ability to construct mathematical models is as puzzling as the physics itself. It is a skill that is not explicitly taught to undergraduates but which develops with time. It is the art in the title of this talk. The author has researched different areas of physics stretching back over more than thirty years. His present interest is in physics education and particular, students’ ways of thinking. He is actively researching the process of building mathematical models and how modelling can be taught. In this talk he will share his insights from his educational research into the construction of mathematical models and show how the physicist begins to build a theoretical understanding of the world around him.