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Re: physics/pedagogy of coffee-mixing

At 10:06 AM -0400 6/25/00, John Denker, you wrote about
physics/pedagogy of coffee-mixing:

I my experience, there are quite a few kids at the high-school level who
-- are strongly attracted to the wrong analysis,
-- are not convinced by the correct qualitative argument, and
-- are not even convinced by a detailed mathematical analysis.

So the questions for today are
*) Why do people have a hard time with this riddle?
*) What can be learned from this family of mistakes?
*) In what other circumstances might people be tempted to
make similar mistakes? What are the warning signs?

And what about kids at the college/university and even graduate school level?

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