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Re: COMMON UNITS




On Thu, 25 Sep 1997 08:04:48 -0500 "Richard W. Tarara"
<rtarara@saintmarys.edu> writes:
It seems to me that a sure way to lose an introductory class right at
the
start (especially a 'liberal arts' class) is to rigorously adhere to
metric/SI units when talking about everyday experiences. *** Or to
carelessly split an infinitive.**** Students (in
the
U.S.) have no real feel for meters/second or Newtons, but do
understand
miles/hour and pounds. They can do kinematics calculations in their
head
if you use cars moving along the highway at familiar speeds and
distances
in their familiar 'miles'. One of the most memorable segments (for
students) of any film I've used over the years, is the Ring of Truth
(Change) episode where Morrison uses Jelly Donuts as a unit of energy
measure. Two years later, students still refer to that as the 'Jelly
Donut
film.'

The educational researchers keep telling us that we should work from
the
familiar towards the new so I wouldn't be so quick to discard feet,
miles,
hours, pounds or even 32 ft/s^2.

Rick

What about 32.2 ft-poundmass/sec^2-poundforce = g sub c, which no one
mentioned in the F=ma thread?

Regards / The Amateur (still listening)

P.S. to Dave Bowman: I cancelled the talk because of doubt. I will
write you soon. I think I know what to do; but, obviously, our solution
is not 'problem-free'.
From: LUDWIK KOWALSKI <kowalskil@alpha.montclair.edu>

The only number I would like to keep secret (responding to Santos)
is
32 ft/s^2. Conversions to SI? Yes. Doing physics with common units?
No.