Effectively Illustrating Nature’s Magic with Magic

Abstract

There is an ongoing challenge with STEM education: making physics, math, and science, in general, interesting, understandable, and retentive for college science and non-science majors, K-12 students, and the public. If not imparting detailed knowledge, at least one would like to introduce important concepts that will be remembered, appreciated, and hopefully would be pursued in more detail by audience members. One solution: as noted by Socrates, “Wisdom begins in wonder.” Indeed, magic as a form of wonderment dates back to Socrates and even earlier. One of the first magic books, The Discoverie of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot, was published in 1584, predating publication of many science texts. In this paper the author, based on recent research, advocates using special forms of magic to both amaze and teach, and in particular to illustrate the wonders of modern physics, i.e., Nature’s magic, but with connections also to classical physics.