Simple Calculations but Amusing Lessons about Teaching Nanotechnology in Higher Education

The higher education should follow closely the fast development of modern science and technology. Particularly in those disciplines about engineering and applied sciences, the lessons about state-of-the-art techniques are very important to cultivate the students’ innovation ability and capability of solving the complex engineering problems. However, how to effectively teach these contents needs careful considerations. Here, it is demonstrated that the simple calculations can achieve amusing results about the lessons on nanotechnologies such as electrospinning and electrospraying. The surface enlargement effects of nanomaterials including 2-dimensional graphene, 1-dimensional electrospun nanofiber, and 0-dimensional nanoparticle are calculated. All the calculation demonstrate that the magnitude of surface area increase is equal to the magnitude the size decrease. These simple calculations can be good start points for giving lessons about nanotechnologies to college students, can make the courses more vivid, and can provoke the students’ interests about new kinds of advanced techniques.