Unified Approach to Physics at the University Level

Repeated criticisms have been made recently of conventional university physics courses. A brief discussion is given of these criticisms followed by a summary of different methods of teaching physics. A proposal is then put forward giving the design of a course which, it is contended, should offer advantages over conventional courses. This is achieved by departing from the “compartmentalized” division of the subject and replacing it by a unified treatment. Such a course should provide the undergraduate with an all-round knowledge of fundamental principles and allow easy incorporation of new developments in physics. The suggested course may conveniently follow the sequence: mechanics, field phenomena, and matter.