Re: When Physical Intuition Fails

["John S. Denker" <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

John Clement wrote:
> The recent issue of AJP posed a problem which NO physics professors (20) or
> students (67) could solve.
...
> The question was posed in a quiz to the
> students and was given in a 15 min oral interview to the faculty.  No hints

John Mallinckrodt wrote:
...
> I give an important hint (nay, THE important hint)

Tina Fanetti wrote:
...
> Want to share the important hint??

I think I know what THE hint is.  I'm not going to spill
the beans just yet.  But here's a meta-hint:  I know two
ways to do the problem.

I was able to solve the problem (exactly, quantitatively, and
with confidence in the correctness) in a few minutes using the
elegant method.

Then, just for "fun", I tried the other method.  Even knowing
the right answer it took me 17 minutes (without any oral
interviewers heckling me)... and I made a mistake!  I goofed a
minus sign.  I had to re-do it, which took another 15 minutes,
so if I had tried the inelegant method first I would certainly
have been counted among those who couldn't solve it in 15 minutes.

This has implications as to the ordering and emphasis of topics
when we teach.  Details later.

My teachers were fond of saying:
  "Education is the process of cultivating your intuition"

In the same vein:  somewhere in Misner/Thorne/Wheeler it says,
approximately:  If a complex calculation gives a simple answer,
we ought to look for a simpler method.

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of Charles Addams,
Edward Gorey, or Gary Larson.

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.