If you think about it, physics is at the root of many human activities. Nevertheless, it is obvious that the majority of people don't like it and keep away, actually: This seems to be the normal way to feel towards this subject. This includes many people who usually are very motivated to get their hands - or rather their brains - on every piece of knowledge that could help them through their days.
I must confess: I cannot really explain this contradiction. And at my heart, I do not accept this fact as inalterable. I hope that only the way how physics is presented to us when we are pupils causes the majority to shake their heads and say "NO!!".
So why are SOME not turned away?
As I was not turned away, I look at myself first. How come I even liked physics?
When I was small - really small, two to six years old - I asked a lot of questions, just like all the kids do. I was lucky that I was not put in front of a TV set (actually, we didn't have one), but rather could get on my parent's nerves.
At the end of that period, when I was five to six, I was lucky again: My mom continued to answer my questions honestly. She did not say "Magic!" when I asked how the radio worked. She said: "I don't know." Man, was I mad at her! "You don't know anything; you are the most stupid mother in the world!" She took my compliments with patience, that is most of the time. I did not lose my inquisitiveness.
And then the comic strips. There was Gyro Gearloose and his surprising inventions. Again I was lucky: I grew up in a country where he was called "Daniel Düsentrieb", what translates to Daniel Jetpropulsion, a name far less defamatory than the original one. I wanted to become an inventor. The world would applaud me for giving it the most ingenious appliances.
When I presented this idea to my godmother, her stunning answer was: "Well, then you have to learn a lot. You'd better become a good pupil in school then." I was not very enthusiastic about this answer and wanted an explanation. I hoped I could discuss this statement away. She replied: "Let's imagine you are about to invent the coffee pot. Wouldn't it be better then you knew that this thing has already been invented before?"
The invention of the electron microscope was certainly something different from that of a coffee pot. She was a technical assistant to Prof. Dr. Ernst Ruska, the man who invented the first electron microscope, a device that employs electrons instead of light to make the smallest things visible. So she did not leave it at this one tricky hint. I came to understand that as a future inventor, I had to learn physics. (Had she been a chemist’s assistant, I would have understood that I had to learn chemistry.)
Later when I worked amongst physicists, I would occasionally ask my colleagues what it was that motivated them. Mostly I heard one of two answers: "The theory is what motivates me" was one, and "I like to play around with all the apparatus" was the other, far more frequent one.
So I think, although external coincidences certainly do play a role and decide about how deep an involvement with physics will go, the driving forces which are at the root are very wide spread: Curiosity, thrive for explanations, fascination with machinery, yes and the wish to achieve something others will applaud you for.
And this is why I dare to hope that even people who hate physics today, have only been turned away by circumstances in their learning career and could possibly be helped to regain a positive view, and help surface the treasures of physics for the benefit of ordinary people.
After 20 years of being a physicist, Dr. Thomas Oestereich turned from scientific research to a life as an author and editor of his home school curriculum. He now seeks to help his readers gain access to the insights of physics. Bringing the achievements of science to a larger public, he hopes to finally contribute to a better knowledge of the options and constraints of decision making in our democratic society.
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