Re: The Rise and Fall of Simple Machines

[Herbert H Gottlieb <herbgottlieb@JUNO.COM>]

On Mon, 22 Nov 1999 14:03:31 -0500 Joe Taylor <jat178@EMAIL.PSU.EDU>
writes:
> Hi Phys-L gang,
> I grow more and more  convinced  that simple machines provide
> a very meaningful context for the discussion of important physics
> concepts.  How and why did they fall from grace (and out of most high
> school physics curricula)?

Simple machines are usually introduced in science courses taught in
elementary and middle schools and reintroduced in high school and
college physics courses. The best selling high school physics textbook,
Hewitt's "Conceptual Physics" covers simple machines in detail.
Similarly,
the 1999 edition of Holt's "Modern Physics"  still devotes eight full
pages to
simple machines.

Herb Gottlieb from New York City
(Where levers, pulleys, and inclined planes are still found in the
physics storeroom
of all our high schools)