Nuffield Advanced Physics: The Units

The authors of Nuffield Advanced Physics were alert to the fact that the sixth form pattern for which the course was to be designed might vanish almost as soon as the materials were published. What was not clear at the time of writing was the form a new pattern would take.

The authors responded to this challenge by dividing the course up into a number of Units. Each of these was to be thought of as a building brick which could be fitted together with other Units to make up a course.

As published, the ten units made up a two-year sixth form course that had been tested as far as possible, and had been modified in the light of that trial experience. It was not thought essential to teach the course in numerical order of Units. The Teachers' guide for each Unit indicated the connections with other Units, and the possibilities for, and constraints upon, various rearrangements.

Unit 1 was designed specifically as the introductory Unit for the course as a whole. Then Units 2 to 5 contained introductory material needed later, and so had to come early. After that, the order was fairly free.