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[Phys-L] In the Private Universe



In the private universe tapes discussion weather, they were not science
or engineering majors though as I recall one person did describe a
number of technical courses. One woman said she had no science in
college and had gotten along just fine.
I think the power of the piece about the seasons rests not just in the
notion that these graduates got it wrong, but that the reason they got
is wrong may be the way they constructed their belief based on a
mistaken notion of the earths orbit coupled with their experience of
being warmer when you are close to something hot.

I suspect the delivered explanation whenever it was given was perhaps
too complicated for the students to understand, given the way it was
probably presented, so it was easier for them to believe what they knew,
the orbit as shown indicated that the earth was really close to the sun
sometimes and really far away others, and of course they knew it was
hotter getting close to a fire. So why bother with all the silliness
about tilt of the earth and indirect and all that other stuff that just
didn't make sense in a lecture.

cheers,

joe

Robert Cohen wrote:

On Monday, February 21, 2005 11:47 PM, Richard Hake wrote:


However, I think MIT graduates - the future elite of U.S.
engineering/technology - should be able to figure out how to
make the connections from their knowledge or observations that...



Is this from the Private Universe tapes? If so, I thought the
interviewees were Harvard graduates. Does anyone know exactly who was
being interviewed? Were they all graduates? Does anyone know their
majors? I'm assuming they weren't science but I don't know.

____________________________________________________
Robert Cohen; 570-422-3428; www.esu.edu/~bbq
East Stroudsburg University; E. Stroudsburg, PA 18301




--
Joseph J. Bellina, Jr. Ph.D.
574-284-4662, 4968
Saint Mary's College
Dept. of Chemistry and Physics
Notre Dame, IN, 46556