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The Old Barometer Story (was "Problem Solving in Physics")



(Apologies for the cross-posting.)

In his 7/13/00 POD(1) post "Problem Solving in Physics," Bob Beck wrote:

"Allow me to share the following story (perhaps apocryphal), inspired by
our recent discussions of 'Problem Solving in Physics.' "

ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
A DANE TAKES A PHYSICS EXAM

The following concerns a question in a physics degree exam at the
University of Copenhagen:

"Describe how to determine the height of a skyscraper with a barometer."
One student replied: "You tie a long piece of string to the neck of the
barometer and lower it from the top of the building until it reaches the
ground. The length of the string plus the length of the barometer will
equal the height of the building. . . . . . (or) . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .(unorthodox methods a,b,c,d, etc. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . .

If you merely wanted to be boring and orthodox about it, of course,
you could use the barometer to measure the air pressure on the roof
of the skyscraper and on the ground, and convert the difference in
millibars into feet to give the height of the building.

But since we are constantly being exhorted to exercise independence
of mind and apply scientific methods, undoubtedly the best way would
be to knock on the janitor's door and say to him 'If you would like a
nice new barometer, I will give you this one if you tell me the
height of this skyscraper'.

The student was Niels Bohr, the only Dane to win the Nobel prize for
Physics (1922)."
ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

The "Old Barometer Story" (OBS) has been appearing in various forms
for many decades. As far as I have been able to determine, the
original author is unknown. The above version, featuring Bohr as a
student at Copenhagen University, is almost certainly false.

According to Abraham Pais(2):

pppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp
Bohr's principal teacher at Copenhagen University was Christian
Christiansen, the first Danish physicist of stature after Oersted and
Lorenz. . . . In 1903 . . . .(when Bohr entered the University). . .
Christiansen was the one and only professor. . . in physics *tout
court*." Bohr wrote of him "I was fortunate enough to come under the
guidance of Professor Christiansen, a profoundly original and highly
endowed physicist." Christiansen also thought highly of Bohr, writing
"I have never met anybody like you who went to the bottom of
everything and also had the energy to pursue it to completion, and
who in addition was so interested in life as a whole.
pppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp

So the story's depiction of Bohr as contemptuous of pedestrian
physics instruction at Copenhagen University appears to be
inconsistent with the historical facts.

A science-fiction OBS, "loosely adapted from 'STRATA,' an early work
by Terry Pratchett," was given by Michael Goldenberg in his 2/12/98
Math-Teach(3) post
"A pointless story":

gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg
There was a king who had a high tower built. He called all his
wisest men and women of philosophy, theology, science and mathematics
together and said, "I will give the finest tract of land in the
kingdom and a chest full of treasure to the person who can determine
the height of that tower using nothing but a barometer. Those who
fail will be exiled to the desert, because that's the way it goes for
the not-wise-enough." So the wise folk tried and tried and, although
they could find the height to within a few centimeters, this was not
considered accurate enough and they were sent to the desert. Then
one day, the wisest person, who hadn't hazarded an answer yet, took
the barometer to the home of the king's master builder and said, "I
will give you this beautiful barometer if you will be so good as to
tell me the height of the tower.
gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg


Despite its fictional nature, the OBS, in its various guises, can
serve as a reminder of the boring algorithmic nature of many
physics/math "problems" and the rebellion of many good students(4,5)
against the rote learning required in many [usually ineffective(6,7)]
traditional passive-student physics courses and in much [usually
ineffective(8-10)] K-12 science/math instruction.(11)

Fortunately, more interesting and challenging physics problems are
now available.(12)

A search of the Phys-L(13) archives indicates that since 1996 there
have been at least 23 OBS postings on at least 4 separate threads
(Phys-L'ers rarely consult the archives before initiating a thread):

a. "barometer test", 3 posts, 9/24/96 to 9/25/96;

b. "Bohr story", 8 posts, 1/5/00 to 1/7/00,

c. "Tuesday funny", 5 posts, all on 5/23/00,

d. "barometer story", 7 posts, 5/23/000 to 5/24/00.

Rick Strickert in Phys-L posts of 1/5/00 and 5/24/00 points out that
a polemic version of the OBS titled "Angels on the Head of a Pin: A
Modern Parable," by Alexander Callandra appeared in the "Saturday
Review" of 12/21/68, and has been placed on the web by:

(a) Joachim Verhagen at
<http://www.xs4all.nl/~jcdverha/scijokes/2_12.html#subindex> as part
of his science jokes page <http://www.xs4all.nl/~jcdverha/scijokes/>.
Thus far, Verhagen's divergent-thinking readers have submitted 109
(mostly hair-brained) ways to measure the height of a building with a
barometer.

(b) Ronald Standler (attorney/physicist/electrical engineer) at
<http://www.rbs0.com/baromete.htm> as part of his
"Creativity in Science and Engineering"
<http://www.rbs0.com/create.htm#anchor444450>.

Callandra ends his version of the OBS with:

"At this point I asked the student if he really did know the
conventional answer to this question. He admitted that he did, said
that he was fed up with high school and college instructors trying to
teach him how to think, using the 'scientific method,' and to explore
the deep inner logic of the subject in a pedantic way, as is often
done in the NEW MATHEMATICS, rather than teaching him the structure of
the subject. With this in mind, he decided to revive scholasticism as
an academic lark to challenge the Sputnik-panicked classrooms of
America." (Our CAPS.)

I agree with Verhagen that Callandra seems confused, and it's not
clear what point (if any) he was trying to make. Callandra's
confusion and evident distaste for the "New Math" of the 60's has its
modern counterpart in the confusion and distaste for the "New-New
Math" of the 90's apparent at Mathematically Correct (MC)
<http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/mathman/>. [As shown at
<http://mathematicallycorrect.com/what.htm>, MC also abhors
"collaborative learning," "constructivism" (which it erroneously
equates with "discovery learning"), and "whole-language" reading
instruction.]

How long will it be before an OBS with an anti-new-new-math message
appears at the MC website?


Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>


REFERENCES AND FOOTNOTES
1. POD (Professional and Organizational Development) is a discussion
group with no archive!! and (evidently) no homepage!!.

To subscribe to POD send the message "sub pod <your name>" (without
the quotes and carets) to <listproc@catfish.valdosta.edu>.

One can access the July POD discussion of "Problem Solving in
Physics" by sending the message "GET POD log0007" to
<listproc@catfish.valdosta.edu>. The POD discussion was initiated by
an MIT physics professor who needed a "non-physics diagnostic that
probes someone's ability to solve problems in creative fashion.
Using such a diagnostic at the beginning and end of a physics course
might be
interesting because we often justify physics courses by a) providing
a base of knowledge and b) improving students general ability to
solve problems rather than plug-and-chug."

2. A. Pais, "Niels Bohr's Times, in Physics, Philosophy, and Polity"
(Clarendon Press - Oxford, 1991).

3. Math-Teach is a discussion list for mathematics educators with
archives at <http://forum.swarthmore.edu/epigone/math-teach> and
homepage at <http://forum.swarthmore.edu/discussions/>.

4. S. Tobias, "They're Not Dumb, They're Different: Stalking the
Second Tier" (Research Corporation, 1990).

5. Elaine Seymour and Nancy Hewitt, "Talking About Leaving: Factors
Contributing to High Attrition Rates Among Science, Mathematics, and
Engineering Undergraduate Majors" (Bureau of Sociological Research,
University of Colorado, 1994); Elaine Seymour, "Guest Comment: Why
undergraduates leave the sciences," American Journal of Physics
63(3), 203-211 (1995).

6. R.R. Hake, "Interactive-engagement vs traditional methods: A
six-thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for introductory
physics courses," Am. J. Phys. 66, 64-74 (1998); on the Web at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/>.

7. R.C. Hilborn, "Guest Comment: Revitalizing undergraduate physics
- Who needs it?" Am. J. Phys. 65, 175-177 (1997).

8. S. Bowen, "TIMSS - An Analysis of the International High School
Physics Test," APS Forum on Education Newsletter, Summer 1998, pp.
7-10, on the web at
<http://www.research.att.com/~kbl/APS/aug98/TIMSS2.htm>.

9. M. Neuschatz, "What can the TIMSS teach us?" The Science Teacher
66(1), 23-26 (1999).

10. NRC Committee for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering
Education, Global Perspectives For Local Action: Using TIMSS to
Improve U.S. Mathematics and Engineering Education (National Academy
Press, 1999). A description of the book is on the web at
<http://www.nap.edu/catalog/9605.html>.

11. S. Mahajan & R.R. Hake, "Is It Finally Time for a Physics
Counterpart of the Benezet/Berman Math Experiment of the 1930's?"
Physics Education Research Conference 2000: Teacher Education, Univ.
of Guelph, August 2-2, 2000; abstract available at
<http://www.sci.ccny.cuny.edu/~rstein/perc2000.htm>. See also the
"Benezet Centre" at <http://wol.ra.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/benezet/>,
esp. the section on "Rote Learning."

12. R.R. Hake, "Interactive-engagement methods in introductory
mechanics courses," on the Web at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/> and
submitted on 6/19/98 to the "Physics Education Research Supplement to
AJP"(PERS). Reference 66 gives 20 sources of conceptually oriented
problems and questions.

13. Phys-L is a forum with about 650 subscribers interested in
physics education, with homepage at
<http://purcell.phy.nau.edu/phys-l/> and archives at
<http://mailgate.nau.edu/archives/phys-l.html>.