Re: "Charged" capacitor mis-terminology

["Donald E. Simanek" <dsimanek@eagle.lhup.edu>]

On Thu, 19 Feb 1998, Prof. John P. Ertel (wizard) wrote:

> I maintain that the CONTINUITY EQUATION is not difficult to understand at
> all.  Rather, every student I have ever talked to about this has
> understood the CONTINUITY EQUATION very well.  OK, maybe they have never
> thought of the mathematical statement, but they know and understand it
> just the same.
>
> How could anyone ever think that most students don't know or understand
> the CONTINUITY EQUATION.  They know and understand the concept very well
> --- the simply don't recognize it in the mathematical form that we
> commonly show them.

Well, I've had many undergraduates who will respond to a question testing
this concept, saying that they believe that resistors heat up because the
electrons lose kinetic energy when passing through the resistor, which is
the same as saying they go in faster than they come out. I would have
thought they'd not respond this way if they really grasped the continuity
equation, or Kirchoff's laws.

	-- Donald

......................................................................
Dr. Donald E. Simanek                            Office: 717-893-2079
Professor of Physics                                FAX: 717-893-2048
Lock Haven University, Lock Haven, PA. 17745
dsimanek@eagle.lhup.edu                 http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek
......................................................................
Where we realize that students don't always know what you think they
should know.
......................................................................