Re: On 1/4*Pi*epsilon in Coulomb's law

["Timothy S. Sullivan" <sullivan@KENYON.EDU>]

I am sympathetic to the issues you raise and the many more like them.
However, I don't think of, say, the 1/4 pi epsilon_0, or the archaic
term "permittivity" as "dogma". Rather I emphasize that physics is a
very human endeavor and in particular that the terminology of physics
has a *history*. In fact, I have great fun when introducing units. I
have a class vote with every new quantity about whether the combination
of base SI units is good enough or whether we should honor some "dead
white guy". I talk about the injustice of dropping a single letter from
Alessandro Volta's name when we keep all of Ampere's.

Everything about physics isn't perfectly rational. Some things just have
to be accepted (although you do want to keep it to a minimum, of
course.) Pointing this out makes physics more human and therefore less
intimidating
to our students, in my opinion.

Tim Sullivan
sullivan@kenyon.edu

Ludwik Kowalski wrote:
>
snip
> Am I the only
> one who is bothered by dogmatization of elementary
> physics imposed on us by SI?
> Ludwik Kowalski