Originally Posted by
RChung
I've taught both undergrads and graduates. I tell them that as undergrads, we teach them the simple models; as graduates, we teach them the full-on, detailed, obsessive models; and as professors we spend the rest of our careers figuring out when we have to do the detailed full-on exhaustive and exhausting thing and when we can get away with the simple thing.
Yep. In physics, the reasons you teach simple models to undergrads are 1) simple models usually have closed-form solutions 2) simple models sometimes more clearly convey the basic underlying principles and 3) undergrads rarely possess the mathematical tools required to solve complex models. As you mentioned, once you acquire the ability to handle complex models, the game is determining when you need the complex model and when you can get away with a simple model.