A Physics wiki (sort of).
This project can be thought of as a Physics wiki. The idea is to create a rough equivalent to Wikipedia, but specifically for Physics articles. The purpose is to teach people about Physics in a way that is easily accessible to all educational backgrounds. As useful as Wikipedia is, its scientific articles tend to be somewhat impenetrable for anyone who is not already heavily immersed in the scientific world. Furthermore, alternative sources of simple and descriptive educational resources for Physics are few and far between.
So, in essence, this project will become a website of articles covering specific Physics topics, for the user to browse as needed. However, what will hopefully set this site apart is the proposed division of each article into three separate versions. Each of these versions will be pitched at a different difficulty level, so the user will be able to pick the explanation that best suits the current extent of their knowledge.
One other planned feature that will hopefully set this project apart is the addition of courses. These will be structured routes through key areas of physics, and will be comprised of articles specifically written for the course, as opposed to simply being a collection of existing articles chained together. This way the site can provide two mains forms of educational material: a reference resource that users can dip into for help on specific topics, and a collection of structured introductions to various topics in physics, for those who want to learn things in more depth.
The current working title of the project is MegaPhysics. This is a vague homage to Hyper- Physics, which is a teaching resource with similar aims, and was part of the inspiration for this project. This is not necessarily the final title of the site, other titles have been suggested. ’GigaPhysics’ for example.
This could probably do with a slightly more in depth explanation than that provided in the Summary. The current suggestions for the three difficulty levels are ’Layman’, ’Enthusiast’ and ’Expert’. The Layman level of complexity is pitched at those who are assumed to have virtually no prior knowledge of Physics. An average member of the public. This means that when writing the version of the article for this level the author must work under the assumption that this may be the only article on Physics this person may have read. The Enthusiast level of complexity is aimed at the standard high school student studying Physics, which in UK educational terms means somewhere around the GCSE level, possibly approaching A Level standard. These articles may assume knowledge of basic concepts of Physics, so not everything has to be explained simplistically, but the author must be careful not to drift into making regular use of terms that are not familiar to this level of reader. The Expert level of complexity is targeted at those studying Physics at degree level, and may approach the intricacy of articles to be found on Wikipedia. However, the focus should still be on education and explanation, which authors should prioritise over formality or completeness. The target audience should be specifically first and second year Physics undergraduates.