Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: energy is only an attribute



At 9:35 AM -0500 2/3/00, Richard W. Tarara wrote:
I offer a challenge to the proponents of this 'hard-line' stance. Write a
text book, for non-science majors, on ENERGY. That is, describe what
Con-Edison and its cousins are selling us, what is done in those big
buildings with all the wires coming out of them, what Standard Oil sells,
how it makes our cars move, what keeps the temperature in our homes
comfortable in the winter (indeed what keeps the earth from cooling to
absolute zero), describe the technology associated with all this, explain
the physics behind all this, and stay true to energy is a property of ???
throughout. If they can do such and do it so that a typical student at this
level can more clearly understand the world in which they live (and do so
more correctly and with more ease than the current approaches and language),
then I may well buy into this point of view. ;-)

Rick

and I MIGHT buy into it when the grad schools QUIT TEACHING THE
POYNTING VECTOR!!!

(or else come up a suitable set of waffle words so that we poor
unsuspecting students are no longer tempted to think in terms of
energy transport.)

-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-
\ / \ / \ N / \ C / \ S / \ S / \ M / \ / \ /
`-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-'
Chuck Britton Education is what is left when
britton@academic.ncssm.edu you have forgotten everything
North Carolina School of Science & Math you learned in school.
(919) 286-3366 x224 Albert Einstein, 1936