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Re: Tin Roof of Physics



When Bill Beaty says,"Physicists are supposed to be tearing up tin roofs and
brick walls all the time." I think he's hit the nail on the head. The teaching
of physics as dogma seems to me a far bigger problem than the use of the word
heat. The models of physics are constantly changing and in the over all
scheme of things any one model is of limited significance, but the process of
change goes on and it is learning how the process works that is really worth
the trouble. It is all too often a mistaken view of the non scientific world
that the scientists have got it right. This view makes it impossible for
scientific knowledge to be readily incorporated into daily decision making
processes. I am constantly reminding my students that this stuff did not
come from God on either gold or stone tablets!