IPMB Machete Order

What’s the best order to watch the Star War movies? Aficionados have been arguing about this for years. (In fact, this debate raged before the sequel triology was released. For this blog post, we’ll pretend these Episodes VII, VIII, and IX don’t exist). Two options are to watch them in order of their release (starting with Episode IV released in May 1977, when I was in high school), or to watch them in order of episode number. A third suggestion is to watch them in “Machete Order”:

1. Episode IV, A New Hope
2. Episode V, The Empire Strikes Back
3. Episode II, Attack of the Clones 
4. Episode III, Revenge of the Sith 
5. Episode VI, Return of the Jedi

Note that Episode I, The Phantom Menace, is not included; Rod Hilton, the inventor of the Machete Order, believed the series was better off without it. Unfortunately, by eliminating Episode I we miss out on the best scenes with Jar-Jar Binks.

What does all this Star Wars talk have to do with Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology? It’s fun to invent a new order of the chapters and sections when studying from IPMB. Below I present my “IPMB Machete Order.” Enjoy.

 

First Semester

Chapter 1: Mechanics. Sections 1.1 and 1.2 are where everyone should start: talking about distance scales and models.

Chapter 2: Exponential Growth and Decay. Chapter 2 introduces some necessary mathematics before diving into the physics.

Chapter 10: Feedback and Control. Much of Sections 10.1–10.7 and 10.11–10.12 can be considered mathematical biology, and follows naturally after Chapter 2.

Chapter 1, Mechanics. Physics almost always starts with mechanics. This ordering respects that tradition. Sections 1.3–1.20 discuss biomechanics and fluid dynamics.

Chapter 13: Sound and Ultrasound. Acoustics can be thought of as part of mechanics. The wave equation is introduced. Ultrasound is used for imaging, but Fourier analysis is not used as extensively as in other imaging techniques, so ultrasonic imaging can be analyzed before the power of Fourier methods are introduced.

Chapter 4: Transport in an Infinite Medium. Diffusion follows naturally from mechanics. The diffusion equation can be compared to and contrasted with the wave equation that will have been studied already.

Chapter 14: Atoms and Light. Section 14.6 discusses the diffusion approximation of photon transport in a turbid medium. It might be best to study this section right after studying diffusion in general.

Chapter 5: Transport through Neutral Membranes. This chapter applies diffusion to transport through membranes. It also introduces osmosis.

Chapter 14: Atoms and Light. Russ Hobbie and I don’t develop light as a consequence of Maxwell’s equations, so there’s no reason to delay Sections 14.1-14.5 and 14.7-14.15 and wait to discuss optics after the electricity and magnetism chapters.

Chapter 15: Interactions of Photons and Charged Particles with Matter. After describing infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light in Chapter 14, it is natural to analyze x-rays in Chapter 15.

Chapter 16: Medical Use of X-Rays. Chapter 16 follows naturally after Chapter 15 (the two are almost one long chapter about x-rays).

Chapter 3: Systems of Many Particles. Usually, an introductory physics sequence covers mechanics, heat, and sound in the first semester, and electricity, magnetism, and modern physics in the second. Therefore, Chapter 3 about thermodynamics fits naturally at the end of the first semester. One advantage of this ordering is that diffusion is already familiar, so the heat equation (another name for the diffusion equation) is easier to understand. It’s true that the concept of the Boltzmann factor and absolute temperature are used in earlier chapters. No ordering is perfect. 

Second Semester

Chapter 6: Impulses in Nerve and Muscle Cells. Chapter 6 begins a sequence of chapters about electricity and magnetism, the traditional starting point for a second semester of physics.

Chapter 7: The Exterior Potential and the Electrocardiogram. More bioelectricity.

Chapter 10: Feedback and Control. Sections 10.8–10.9 apply mathematics to the heart. They fit naturally after Chapter 7.

Chapter 9: Electricity and Magnetism at the Cellular Level. Sections 9.1–9.9 are about electricity, not magnetism, and might best follow the two chapters on bioelectricity.

Chapter 8: Biomagnetism. Magnetism traditionally follows electricity, and we won’t change that order.

Chapter 9: Electricity and Magnetism at the Cellular Level. The last section, Section 9.10, deals with the effects of weak electric and magnetic fields, and can be covered after the biomagnetism chapter.

Chapter 11: The Method of Least Squares and Signal Analysis. Chapter 11 contains some heavy duty mathematics, including Fourier analysis, so it is appropriate that it comes late in the semester. Yet, the reason we include these topics is because they are essential for several chapters on imaging.

Chapter 12: Images. Chapter 12 follows naturally after Chapter 11. A highlight of the chapter is the analysis of tomography. General properties of two-dimensional images are developed.

Chapter 18: Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Now that you have the full power of Fourier techniques, you can study MRI.

Chapter 17: Nuclear Physics and Nuclear Medicine. Modern physics typically appears near the end of a introductory physics sequence, and we preserve that order. Yet, several of the nuclear medicine imaging techniques, such as positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), require an understanding of tomographic methods.

The good news is that you don’t have to adopt the IPMB Machete Order; you can just follow the order presented in the book. Or, you can make up your own. When I taught Biological Physics and Medical Physics at Oakland University, I followed the order of the chapters in the book, except I skipped Chapter 9 (no time) and I moved Chapters 11 and 12 to after Chapter 16 to avoid starting the second semester with a lot of heavy-duty mathematics. If you find a different ordering that works for you, let me know. 

Finally, the last thing we need to do is figure out how the sequel trilogy fits into the Star Wars Machete Order.

Machete order on the Big Bang Theory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keSFjjhUyVA

Source: http://hobbieroth.blogspot.com/2022/01/ipmb-machete-order.html