Radically Modern Introductory Physics (has anyone gone through this?)

Interesting. The author does have a point, to wit that a lot of the things most students would find exciting are in the "later" parts of physics in more traditional courses.

But I am not completely convinced with this approach. My personal bugbear is not so much the teaching of physics, but the teaching of physics and mathematics as if they are two completely separate subjects. One advantage of teaching physics in the "traditional" sense, is that the kind of math that you need to properly teach the fundamentals of classical mechanics comes before the kind of mathematics you need to teach quantum mechanics.

Glarg. Looking at the "Summary of Material in Chapters 1-3", it sure looks more difficult than the initial material for calculus based classical mechanics (e.g. Newton's laws).

I've already done introductory classical mechanics and E&M/optics many years ago, so maybe I'll give this a try, but I'd be interested in any data from those who don't have that background.

Also, it occurs to me that this is likely pretty much a course for physics majors or others needing that sort and level of material. There are lots of fields where you only need introductory classical mechanics and E&M, maybe some quantum mechanics, but e.g. special relativity is highly optional (although it is said it can be useful in teaching E&M: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativistic_electromagnetism).