Fields in Physics are like Curried Functions or Physics for Functional Programmers (1994)
BibTeX
@MISC{Leavens94fieldsin,
author = {Gary Leavens and Gary T. Leavens},
title = {Fields in Physics are like Curried Functions or Physics for Functional Programmers},
year = {1994}
}
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Abstract
Good motivating examples for teaching the utility of curried functions can be taken from Physics. The curried function perspective can also be used to help functional programmers understand fields in Physics. The correspondence between the curried function view of vector fields and the usual view taken in Physics is also explained. 1 Introduction The earth and everything in it is held together by forces that can be modeled using curried functions. Yet many students think that curried functions have little to do with their everyday experience, and so have trouble grasping the concept. Typical examples, given in texts on programming languages or functional programming, are curried mapping and reduction functions on lists, which connect only with students' experience in programming. A novel 1 approach is to draw more compelling examples from Physics. Once one understands curried functions, it is easy to understand the concept of a field in Physics. Fields are similar to curried functio...
