Learning from Wikipedia

This week, we're looking at on-line resources that can help students learn physics. Today, we're going to look at a web resource that is supposedly forbidden for students.

That's right: Wikipedia.

Professors warn students about Wikipedia, and rightly so: Because anyone can edit Wikipedia, it's vulnerable to incorrect information. (But don't worry; there's a Wikipedia article about Wikipedia's accuracy.) So most professors will agree that Wikipedia is not an acceptable reference to cite in an academic paper.

However, that doesn't mean students can't learn from Wikipedia, for three reasons:

1. While there are people who will spread misinformation on Wikipedia, there are just as many who will jump in to make corrections. Caution--not outright mistrust--is the name of the game.
2. The summaries of complicated topics like physics are, generally, very well written, with helpful diagrams, animations, etc.
3. Wikipedia articles are required to cite external sources. So, when you've finished reading an article, you can check its correctness in these sources (which usually are the references you want to cite in an academic paper).

Let's take, for example, the Wikipedia article about physics' particle in a box problem. Could a malicious user come along and ruin this article? Yes! Will the misinformation remain for long, with professors and students turning to it to check equations, look for examples & animations, and refresh their understanding of the problem? No!

The description is well written, with a nice qualitative introduction, followed by a direct solution of the one-dimensional problem organized in order of increasing complexity of topic filled with links to other articles that explain the technical terms employed, capped off with a discussion of higher-dimensional problems, based on the preceding one-dimensional discussion. The text is accompanied by helpful graphics and animations. At each step along the way, a math-equipped reader can check to make sure that the content is sound and edit as required.

And at the end of the article are references--good references available on-line or at a library.

So, can you learn physics from Wikipedia? Absolutely! But more importantly, you can learn how to learn, by reading carefully and checking the information along the way.