This is a directory node, to collect a catalog of probability-related issues.
By the time students reach the calculus-based physics course, they are "supposed" to already know what a probability distribution is; if not, it's high time they learned.
Probability is required by Common Core starting in sixth grade. At a selective college, you'd think some notion of probability would be a requirement for admission. Failing that, you'd think it would be a prerequisite for the calculus-based physics course. Failing that, it ought to be a requirement for passing the course.
The concept of probability has many applications, in physics and elsewhere.
Uncertainty can be understood in terms of probability distributions and not otherwise; see item #101 for a catalog of uncertainty-related issues.
Entropy can be understood in terms of probability and not otherwise; see item #158 in particular, and see item #155 for a catalog of entropy-related issues.
Obviously quantum mechanics depends on probability from top to bottom.
It is sometimes argued that nonmajors should take a physics course because of the side-benefits it confers. The required reasoning skills are more important than any of the domain-specific physics factoids. In particular, for many students, having a feel for how probability works is far more important than F=ma or any other domain-specific physics concept.
More than once I've interviewed grown-ups who say the only thing they remember from college physics is that it forced them to learn algebra ... which the algebra course never did. In that spirit, I would hope that the physics course would provide a reason to learn probability and to gain experience with probabilistic reasoning.
This is a directory node, to collect a catalog of probability-related issues.
By the time students reach the calculus-based physics course, they are "supposed" to already know what a probability distribution is; if not, it's high time they learned.
Probability is required by Common Core starting in sixth grade. At a selective college, you'd think some notion of probability would be a requirement for admission. Failing that, you'd think it would be a prerequisite for the calculus-based physics course. Failing that, it ought to be a requirement for passing the course.
The concept of probability has many applications, in physics and elsewhere.
Uncertainty can be understood in terms of probability distributions and not otherwise; see item #101 for a catalog of uncertainty-related issues.
Entropy can be understood in terms of probability and not otherwise; see item #158 in particular, and see item #155 for a catalog of entropy-related issues.
Obviously quantum mechanics depends on probability from top to bottom.
It is sometimes argued that nonmajors should take a physics course because of the side-benefits it confers. The required reasoning skills are more important than any of the domain-specific physics factoids. In particular, for many students, having a feel for how probability works is far more important than F=ma or any other domain-specific physics concept.
More than once I've interviewed grown-ups who say the only thing they remember from college physics is that it forced them to learn algebra ... which the algebra course never did. In that spirit, I would hope that the physics course would provide a reason to learn probability and to gain experience with probabilistic reasoning.