[Phys-L] Re: Newton's Laws memory aid

[betwys1 at SBCGLOBAL.NET (Brian Whatcott)]

At 04:17 PM 12/7/2004, you wrote:
> I was reviewing at the end of the semester, and of course there were
> students who weren't understanding as well as I had hoped.  Newton's laws,
> forces, etc were still giving problems.
>
> One particular challenge was identifying forces to include on a free body
> diagram.  Some wanted to add a  force in the direction of motion even when
> none was present.  Some poetic muse struck me and I can up with the two
> line poem:
>
> "Every force
>    must have a source."
>
>
> Feeling inspired - or just wanting to torture my students some more ;-)  -
> I tried again, and came up with:
>
> "Any change in course
>    must have a net force."
>
>
> So are these too silly or too simplistic to be worth presenting to college
> students?  I must have said each of these 10 times during one hour, but it
> focused attention on identifying the agent for each force (which also
> helped when discussing N3) and helped avoid "force in the direction of
> motion" or "centripetal force" on free body diagrams.  The one thing I
> worry about is them messing up the word "net".
>
> So what do you all think? Thumbs up or thumbs down?
>
>
> Tim Folkerts


I would vote that the most helpful teachers offer a range of memory and
  understanding aids: mnemonics, nonsense verse and prose, wildcat idea
associations,
parody, animation, dramatisation, humor...to name a few.



Brian Whatcott    Altus OK    Eureka!