Wednesday 12 December 2012

A first attempt at mapping out the shape of ideas...



Welcome to my Physics log: which is intended mostly to be a record of my experience of learning Quantum Mechanics, but will sometimes feature revision of basic techniques! I hope that, not only will it be helpful for me, but also a good read for you. Some of the articles may be a short summary of a topic I've recently learnt, which I will build on as I go along, whilst other articles will record latest ideas I've had for study strategies- such as the development of mind-mapping as a method for taking notes, absorbing concepts and revision, or whether I found a particular video or text helpful.





Key topics as
stems... and related concepts as petals flowing from them...

I often find that words get in the way of understanding concepts in Physics...

I embarked on an OU level 2 Physics module back in 2010, with no prior background in science. This is no exaggeration. I dropped out of both science and maths at school. So I was plunging into the deep end, and that was exciting. But there was so much to read, and differentiating the important stuff from the nattering in-between was one of the biggest challenges of all. 

It was a struggle, but I somehow miraculously acquired a pass...

Quantum Mechanics will be my challenge for the new year. So, obviously, I'm wondering... what is the best way to go about absorbing all those concepts? What shape do they take? To work this out, I've been drawing some mind maps of Newton's three laws of motion... each one evolving differently from the other.

Here are a few samples of my attempts to shape the laws of motion...




 

Trying to capture the way that equations flow into different concepts






A portrait of Newton's second law