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Re: Rigid bodies, or hard bodies?



*"Rigid bodies, or hard bodies?"*
Donald E. Simanek wrote on Thu, 13 Mar 1997 11:27:38 -0500 (EST)=20

but is misleading to students. Perhaps we should simply speak of "hard"=20
bodies. At least we should point out that the rigid bodies talked about
*are* deformable.

I see this a bit different: I use the term "rigid body" ("starrer
Koerper") as an intentional idealization (and exaggeration),
where I *tell* my students what I do (problems where deformations
are not important) - and I try to make them question these
idealizations in every step. So when talking about (elastic and
inelastic) collisions - bodies HAVE to be deformed: No place for
"rigid" any more.
But I would not prefer "hard". That term is too near to their
everyday experience and it might mislead them to regarding every
"hard" body as "rigid" - but thats where they come from!

Bye, bye
Guntbert
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+please correct me, if I misuse some technical terms+
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Mag. Guntbert Reiter, Graz, Austria
teacher for physics, mathematics and computer science
e-mail : guntbert@cut.big.ac.at