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Re: even more 'what flows'



This crusade will certainly go the same way as the Bernoulli and
centripetal/centrifugal wars--to be resurrected every 6 months without ever
any resolution.

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Richard W. Tarara

Rick's comment reminds me to bring up an issue:

Could it be that one problem with these 'crusades' be that we need to
consider what is appropriate for the particular students we are dealing
with? High degress of precision at advanced levels of technical
explanation are certainly desirable ultimately for those being inducted
into the profession, but are they for the 99+% of the students who are not
going to be professional physicists? (About 9 times more student
instruction hours in physics goes on for students who are not physics or
engineering majors that student instruction hours in physics for students
who are. There are more than 100 times more students experiencing
instruction in physics who are not physics or engineering majors than those
who are at any given time on the average.)

Might not such hair-splitting even be counter-productive both for students
who are not going to be physicists and need education and not training
_and_ for our profession in playing its part in contributing to our
civilization in certain ways?

This is not to say that the hair-splitting does not have purpose or even
value in its place, but to suggest that the purpose to which we tend to put
it might not really benefit those on whom we apply the results.

Dewey

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Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr. Phone: (208)385-3105
Professor of Physics Dept: (208)385-3775
Department of Physics/SN318 Fax: (208)385-4330
Boise State University dykstrad@varney.idbsu.edu
1910 University Drive Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570 novice piper
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