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RE: addendum to : reply to Rick



On Wed, 1 May 1996, Richard W. Tarara wrote:

Actually my preferred way to work with the non-inertial frames is NOT to
analyze from within. That is, we acknowledge the sensations within the
accelerating frame BUT then analyze it from the point of view of the
inertial frame. This then allows the student to 'see' that the effects
felt ARE 'backwards' from the real forces causing them. This seems to
work reasonably well in my classes!

Having just come back to my office from my first class meeting on rotating
coordinate systems in our junior mechanics course, I agree 100%. Many
text problems (such as those at the end of Ch. 10 in Marion and Thornton
which I happen to be using at the moment) are FAR easier to solve in the
inertial frame, but can also be easily visualized in the rotating frame
and offer a nice way of understanding the effects that are observed in the
rotating frame.

One wonderful use of the Interactive Physics (IP) package is to set up and
observe various phenomena in different reference frames. IP makes this
very easy to do. A demo that I have put together with IP illustrates some
of the effects that would accompany diving into a pool in a rotating space
station under the effects of "artificial gravity." By changing the "take
off" speed, the direction, and the rotational speed of the diver, you can
make the diver perform maneuvers worthy of straight 10's at the Olympics.

If you are interested in taking a look, this demo and others are
available at

http://www.sci.csupomona.edu/~mallinckrodt/index.ip.html

John
----------------------------------------------------------------
A. John Mallinckrodt email: mallinckrodt@csupomona.edu
Professor of Physics voice: 909-869-4054
Cal Poly Pomona fax: 909-869-4396
Pomona, CA 91768 office: Building 8, Room 223
web: http://www.sci.csupomona.edu/~mallinckrodt/