“In the beginning we must simplify the subject,
thus unavoidably falsifying it, and later we must
sophisticate away the falsely simple beginning.”
—Maimonides
On the first day of my first undergrad physics class, the prof told us, “Everything we teach you in first year physics is a lie. But sometimes one has to lie to get at the truth; until you understand these lies, you cannot understand the deeper truths behind them.”
This section is a lot like that.
Most of what we cover will appear to be familiar things done in familiar ways.
Almost none of it is.
But it will simplify things to pretend otherwise long enough to cover the material once; afterward we will go back and look more deeply at what is really going on.