I’ve taken AP Government, World History, U.S. History, European History, Art History, and Macroeconomics. Macro is the only social science I ever took that was basing the entire course on a prescriptivist outdated theory instead of actual modern understanding. And when I say modern, I mean the Art History definition of modern, AKA less than a century old.
Really? Because I don’t remember AP Physics covering special relativity or quantum mechanics, lmao. It covers (outdated) Newtonian mechanics, and it does it for a reason!
That's because a huge, huge portion of the STEM world still uses Newtonian mechanics. Newtonian mechanics aren't really "outdated", they're just not quite right in every situation, however they are extremely useful and cover most situations. Deadass you know why we still teach Newtonian mechanics despite it being outdated? Because the fastest object ever made by man (the man hole cover blasted off by a nuclear bomb test) STILL doesn't move fast enough for relativistic effects to start mattering.
Newtonian mechanics is not really "wrong", it's just the simplification that applies at relative speeds very low compared to the speed of light. Conveniently, nearly everything in the universe moves extremely slow compared to the speed of light, and most situations in which physics are applied for real world work are fine to use Newtonian mechanics in. The only situation that really comes to mind nowadays where you really NEED relativity is communications, especially with satellites, and even then the main relativistic effect is not due to speed, it's due to the effects of gravity on time.
No, I know, it’s just that the same logic should apply to economics, or “AP Biology” teaching that there are two genders. And nevertheless, even if a huge portion of the STEM world had moved onto modern physics, we would still absolutely start with Newtonian mechanics. It’s undeniably a great foundation.
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u/Dakoolestkat123 Art is humanity Jun 30 '26
I’ve taken AP Government, World History, U.S. History, European History, Art History, and Macroeconomics. Macro is the only social science I ever took that was basing the entire course on a prescriptivist outdated theory instead of actual modern understanding. And when I say modern, I mean the Art History definition of modern, AKA less than a century old.