Physics for Future Presidents

Physics for Future Presidents is the name of a course taught by UC Berkeley professor Richard A. Muller that I was privileged to listen via podcast this year. Professor Muller has traveled to Alaska and is not your typical Berkeley professor. What do I mean? Listen to the podcast, especially the episodes dealing with nukes.

But the main reason that I hope you will listen to Prof. Muller’s course and maybe read his textbook is that he really makes physics interesting and intelligible to laypeople. I speak as one who flunked physics for math majors not once, but twice at UCLA roughly twenty years ago.

Physics for Future Presidents is light on math and heavy on the everyday physics that is likely to be of interest to future policymakers and informed voters. He does this in what I believe to be a nearly nonpartisan way. Listen to this course and you’ll understand:

• Why you see metal joints on concrete bridges.
• Why a dirty bomb attack in a major city is unlikely to kill many people by radiation sickness or cancer.
• Why hybrid cars make sense but hydrogen doesn’t.
• Why, statistically speaking, we can’t ever really know how many people died from diseases directly attributable to Chernobyl.
• Why solar-powered cars are unlikely, but solar generating plants in desert areas make sense.

Although not needed by future presidents, Prof. Muller also provides understandable explanations of relativity and the current understanding of the origins of the universe.

If you’ve been afraid of physics, you need to hear this class. If you’re comfy with math-based physics, you’ll like the refresher.

My feeling is that anybody from high-school up would benefit from this course. Maybe even your advanced middle-schooler. So please listen. If you do, please drop Prof. Muller a line. He likes to hear from people around the world who find his podcast.

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