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Newton's Second Law



I enjoyed the comments made by Ludwik Kowalski and John Denker relative
to my original question about N2.

I am sure that the graphs of F and a that Ludwik saw were great BUT I am
always trying to look at such graphs from the beginning student's point
of view, someone who has just seen N2 and is beginning to grapple with
its implications.

I see two concerns from this point of view. The first was mentioned by
John is that an accelerometer of this type is using N2 to measure
acceleration so we have circular logic. The second is that an
accelerometer must have very little meaning to a beginning student. I
would much rather that a beginner see a plot of v vs t and understand
that a is the slope. I think we have to be cautious about using
equipment that tends to hide the fundamental quantities that we want
beginners to understand well.

Certainly measuring the force directly is an advantage in N2 but my
original question was posed because an air track cannot support a force
sensor (not the ones we have anyway) and so I was looking for other ways
to establish the force.

Thanks for all the great comments on this topic. Dave Abineri


--
David Abineri dabineri@choice.net