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Re: heat, centrifugal force, etc.



Bob Sciamanda wrote:

[1] Included as part of the
teaching of Newtonian mechanics are an appreciation of its historical
position, its limitations as an early model, and anticipatory glimpses of
its successors. [2] But I don't think we should teach modern physics
as if GR
and QM sprang from nothing yesterday. [3] We owe it to our students
and to
Newton, Lagrange, Euler, et al to give the Newtonian model a full
hearing on
its own merits and limitations. [4] This is how our race came to GR
and QM;
give modern students a chance at the same fulfilling experience.

Hmmmmm....

A) I completely agree with [1] and [2]. But that's not a
sufficient basis for the conclusions [3] and [4], and it
certainly doesn't justify teaching students that centrifugal
force doesn't exist.

Recently my nephew's high-school football coach used
the term "centrifugal force". My nephew and a classmate
corrected him, telling him there was no such thing as
centrifugal force. I had to explain to the kids that
the coach had used the term entirely correctly. The
kids find it amusing that in this case at least, the
coach has the physics right and the physics teacher
has it wrong. The kids find it less than amusing that
they have to remember that they are required to speak
of centrifugal force in one class and forbidden to
speak of it in another.

B) Mentioning a little (!) bit of the historical context
of scientific discoveries has its place, but history
is verrrry far from being a reliable guide as to what
to teach or even what order to teach it in.

-- Our race came to astronomy via Mars-the-god-of-war and
Venus-the-god-of-love.
-- Our race came to electromagnetism via luminiferous ether.
-- Our race came to medicine via leeches and homeopathy.
-- Our race is coming to civil rights via feudalism,
racism, and sexism.
-- Etc. etc.

Yes, I want my students to be aware of such things, but
it would not be "fulfilling" to require them to retrace
those steps personally, to learn and then unlearn every
bit of foolishness our race has ever come up with.

C) The typical physicist is not qualified to teach the
history of physics. The way the "historical" development
of science is typically taught is a gross distortion of
the actual history. Kuhn had something to say about this.