Sanjoy Mahajan's Home Page

In May 2000 Physics Today fired Jeff Schmidt, a long-time, excellent editor, for writing a brilliant book too close to the truth: Disciplined Minds. The American Institute of Physics, publishers of Physics Today, have just settled the case on terms very favorable to Schmidt. Here are documents about the settlement.

I was a physics lecturer at the University of Cambridge, in David MacKay's Inference group where I followed my interests in improving physics and mathematics teaching and in writing textbooks, supported by the Gatsby Charitable Trust. I am now at at MIT.

Iraq war
My favorite poster from the peace demonstration in London (Feb 2003): Make Tea Not War. And in one picture, an explanation of the war on Iraq.

Physics and war
Talk (18 Nov 2004)
Physics, physics education, and war.

Courses
MIT IAP course (2006): 8.298 Lies and Damn Lies
IB thermodynamics (2004) course website
Reading the media, given at Caltech (January 2002).

Approximation materials
Caltech order-of-magnitude-physics course materials from 1995 and 1997 (syllabi, problem and solution sets, exams, handouts)
Examples of how to teach approximation
Dissertation (US letter format) including one-half of a textbook on order-of-magnitude physics.
The draft textbook is also available on its own. The MIT IAP course page has a more recent version.

Science/math education

Classic report on mathematics teaching by Louis Benezet, about an experiment done 70 years ago in Manchester, New Hampshire.
My papers on history of science and science teaching for the 2001 IHPST conference in Denver, Colorado.
My observations on teaching first-year physics.
Teaching survey: A study of physics teaching in Cambridge physics department.

Antiwar
Mark Littman QC on Nato's illegal and immoral bombing of Yugoslavia.

Computer Othello
BILL: An Othello program released under the GPL. About 210KB. It was once one of the strongest Othello players in the world (since far surpassed!).

Other teaching materials
At Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Teaching material used for IA (first-year) physics. Notes on relativity (spacetime diagrams) are here.

Iraq war	My favorite poster from the peace demonstration in London (Feb 2003): Make Tea Not War. And in one picture, an explanation of the war on Iraq.
Physics and war	Talk (18 Nov 2004) Physics, physics education, and war.
Courses	MIT IAP course (2006): 8.298 Lies and Damn Lies IB thermodynamics (2004) course website Reading the media, given at Caltech (January 2002).
Approximation materials	Caltech order-of-magnitude-physics course materials from 1995 and 1997 (syllabi, problem and solution sets, exams, handouts) Examples of how to teach approximation Dissertation (US letter format) including one-half of a textbook on order-of-magnitude physics. The draft textbook is also available on its own. The MIT IAP course page has a more recent version.
Science/math education	Classic report on mathematics teaching by Louis Benezet, about an experiment done 70 years ago in Manchester, New Hampshire. My papers on history of science and science teaching for the 2001 IHPST conference in Denver, Colorado. My observations on teaching first-year physics. Teaching survey: A study of physics teaching in Cambridge physics department.
Antiwar	Mark Littman QC on Nato's illegal and immoral bombing of Yugoslavia.
Computer Othello	BILL: An Othello program released under the GPL. About 210KB. It was once one of the strongest Othello players in the world (since far surpassed!).
Other teaching materials	At Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Teaching material used for IA (first-year) physics. Notes on relativity (spacetime diagrams) are here.