Re: Cause and Effect

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

On Tue, 24 Oct 2000, Leigh Palmer wrote:

> > This is a misconception, after all.  It is not correct.  However, a large
> > number of our students think this way.  At least it seems to me (does the
> > physics education research have anything to say on this?).
> >
> > I am just wondering if we may be inadvertently reinforcing this
> > misconception.  Maybe I should use a different header?
>
> I understand the problem; I just see no reason one should not simply
> tell students that a cause need not precede an effect, but it *may*
> do so. An effect cannot precede a cause.

I'm glad you agree with me that instructors need to explicitly mention
this when using the word "cause".  Granted, you may have, Leigh, but
before this thread, I never thought to do so (assuming it was a given that
students would properly interpret the equationa and know that force
doesn't precede the acceleration). Was I alone?  How many of us actually
told students that a cause need not precede an effect?

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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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