1.5. How Deep Do We Go?

So, this is not the place for you to become a scientist. But it is a place to do some work and I will both be gentle and clear about what I hope you’ll take away.

Every lesson will itemize three categories of goals that I hope you’ll achieve. After completing each lesson, I hope you will know some things well and have a feeling for others. I call these levels of achievement Understanding, Appreciating, and Familiarizing.

• Understanding. This will often mean demonstrating some facility with a calculation or reading a graph in order to acquire insight. It probably means that you’ve followed a simple mathematical argument interactively. For example to Understand a recipe means that you’ve prepared a meal using it. It doesn’t mean that you created the recipe.

• Appreciating. This is less quantitative and less demanding than Understanding. To Appreciate a recipe you would realize that to sweeten it you’d add sugar, but not be able to predict exactly how much to add. You’d need an expert, but you’d know who to ask and what to request.

• Familiarizing. This is a fly-by of some story or feature of a bit of our physics story. To be Familiar means that you know to go to Mr Google or ChatGPT for information, because you can’t remember the details. Continuing with the food analogy, you might be Familiar with the idea that recipes for chocolate cookies exist, but you’d need the web or a cookbook in order to Appreciate or Understand one.