Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: transfer of momentum




I agree with your suggestion. I also think we should not use Newton's
original work, just as most have found they can't use Feynman's text.

I wonder what would happen if we eliminated the work acceleration and
only used change in velocity, or if you wanted change in momentum. By
eliminating the word you would eliminate the task of developing a
conceptual understanding for it. I would also like to eliminate the
word displacement, since it is just the change in position. It seems to
me that students can handle vector position and vector velocity pretty
well. They can do change in position and change in velocity too, but
vector acceleration, the change of a change is just too much
for many of them to conceptualize. I'd rather just talk about the rate of
change of velocity, or of momentum. The term displacement is, in my mind,
superfluous.


I'm little perplexed by the above; the author has just given a rather
succinct explanation of the concepts of displacement and acceleration and
says students can get this. Eliminating the word doesn't eliminate the need
for developing the conceptual understanding.

If you can get students to understand change of velocity and rate of change
of velocity, you've achieved your goal of getting them to understand
acceleration. All that's left to do is the easy part of giving those
conceptualizations a name.

Joel Rauber