Re: new methods of proof

[palmer@sfu.ca (Leigh Palmer)]

> Computer simulations are
> great for providing examples, developing physical intuition, and showing
> the results of advanced methods.

I agree. I learned more about celestial mechanics from simulating three
body interactions than I could ever have learned from, for example,
astronomical observations of triple stars. However "developing physical
intuition" by simulating the ballistic trajectory of a projectile is
not my cup of tea at all. Send the students out to throw rocks instead.

> For example, today I passed out graphs
> showing the extent of fringing in a paralletl plate capacitor (The
> program took 25 min to run on a 133 MHz pentium.)
> -
> By the way, I would appreciate it if any readers with convenient references
> to calculations of fringing would send them to me at

Have you considered doing that problem (which is two dimensional) on a
spreadsheet, solving Laplace's equation by relaxation? It is a direct
implementation of a physical principle in a very easy-to-understand
medium. You can have your students simulating their own boundary value
problems and watching them converge. I have a 100 MHz Power Macintosh
which functions very well with Microsoft Excel on that sort of problem.

Leigh