Re: impulse/momentum

[Herbert H Gottlieb <herbgottlieb@JUNO.COM>]

On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 07:31:32 +0530 "D.V.N.Sarma"
<hyd1_narayana@SANCHARNET.IN> writes:
> I never meant to say that we should do only useful problems in
> classes. It is impossible to teach physics in a graded manner
> without modelling and idealising. What all I meant to say is that
> we have to keep in mind the limitations of our teaching.

What is meant by "useful problems"? Are there any "useless"
problems that we assign to students? If so, what is an example
of a "useless" problem?  Perhaps it might be better to call
such problems "impractical" rather than useless.

The last statement above (about the limitations of our teaching)
should be clarified.  What are some limitations of our teaching
that we have to keep in mind? Do all of us face the same
limitations in our teaching, or do these limitations vary
greatly from teacher to teacher?

Herb Gottlieb from New York City
(Where we never assign useless problems to our physics students)