Chronology | Current Month | Current Thread | Current Date |
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] | [Date Index] [Thread Index] | [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] | [Date Prev] [Date Next] |
We're less successful at exploiting the faltering steps in mechanical
determinism, but we do want students to know that even Newton had some
misconceptions, for example, about the central force requirements of
planetary motion (it was one of his rivals, Hooke, that originally
proposed some kind of central force suggestion, while Newton was still
thinking about planets being dragged around, I believe). And, we want
students to get some idea of the staggering leap made by Newton to
associate motions near the Earth with those in the heavens. Finally, we
hoe that they will appreciate the difference between a description of a
phenomenon and an "explanation" of the phenomenon, and, of course, the
importance of mathematics as a descriptive tool.