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Re: The sign of g -> acceleration



We have been working on the venacular and what acceleration in is in physics. Also the first two labs are from RTP and do a lot with it.

I told them that deceleration really doesn't happen in physics and the book goes ahead and uses the word decceleration....

I didn't have much luck with my calc physics students today either. I was trying to draw out their misconceptions of velocity and acceleration like suggested in Arons and they were very resistant to discuss it.

I think it was Arons or it was on this list that suggested students believe acceleration and velocity are the same thing. So I tried to get my students to tell me what acceleration and velocity are. All I get are derivative this and derivative that and I was like words. They couldn't define acceleration without the derivative.

I finally asked what does it mean when a car accelerates from 0 to 60.
Eventually I got the correct answer but it was really difficult.

We will do free fall in calc physics on Fri. Hopefully I won't butcher it again.

Tina

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