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Re: Choosing Coordinate Systems



Maybe a good example would help the students understand. Go ahead and do an
incline problem in a standard coordinate system (vertical & horizontal),
then redo the problem using the rotated axes (parallel & perpendicular to
the incline). This should sufficiently illustrate the points made by
others.

Rick

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Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
rtarara@saintmarys.edu

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----- Original Message -----
From: "Tina Fanetti" <FanettT@QUEST.WITCC.CC.IA.US>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2001 12:00 PM
Subject: Choosing Coordinate Systems


When you doing force problems/examples for your students, how do you
explain why you choose the coordinate system you do? I told them I pick the
coordinate system that will make it easy.

Actaully a more appropriate way to see this is the orientation of the
coordinate axis. We are only using x-y coordinates at this point.

TIna

Tina Fanetti
Physics Instructor
Western Iowa Technical Community College
4647 Stone Ave
Sioux City IA 51102
712-274-8733 ext 1429