Re: Cause and Effect

[Robert A Cohen <bbq@ESU.EDU>]

I had written...

> > A lot of students think that a ball that is thrown accelerates while it is
> > in the air as a result of a "force of the throw" (have them consider a
> > curve ball, for example).
> >
> > Might our use of the word "cause" be contributing to this misconception?

to which Leigh wrote:

> Do you believe that the force acing on the spinning, translating ball
> would not be present if the ball were prevented by a constraint from
> curving? I don't; I believe that a real force of constraint would be
> necessary to equilibrate the Bernoulli force to prevent the curving.

Let me be a little clearer.  Might our use of the word "cause" be
inadvertently reinforcing this misconception by implying a
non-simultaneity between force and acceleration?

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| Robert Cohen               Department of Physics       |
|                            East Stroudsburg University |
| bbq@esu.edu                East Stroudsburg, PA  18301 |
| http://www.esu.edu/~bbq/   (570) 422-3428              |
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