Re: Graphing by Hand

["Daniel L. MacIsaac" <Dan.MacIsaac@nau.edu>]

> > Hi!
> >   The question should be: Is there reason to still teach students what
> > a graph is?
> >   In my opinion, anybody who knows what a graph is, can plot it
> > "by hand". But a person who can make a computer to plot a graph does
> > not necessarily have the foggiest idea what the graph means.
> >   Regards    Emilio
>
> In my experience many students who have constructed graphs by hand, haven't
> the foggiest idea either.
>
> Dewey
I think it's safe to say that preparing a graph (Y vs X; units, sig figs on
axes, labelling etc) is different from interpreting the intercepts, slopes
and critical points by assigning them to physical phenomena.  The first
SHOULD be readily learnable like editing or writing essays, the latter is 
in my opinion much more difficult. 

If you'd like to see an attempt at teaching the former, go to 
http://www.physics.purdue.edu/phys152l/  and look under the links labelled
MA2: Graphical Analysis & Least Square Fitting, and 
KaleidaGraph Summary

I'd be grateful if anyone could point me at web materials attempting to
teach the interpretation of graphs to physics students; I'd like to 
review them and recommend them as appropriate to my own students.

Dan M

Dan MacIsaac, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Northern AZ Univ
danmac@nau.edu  http://www.phy.nau.edu/~danmac/homepage.html