[Phys-L] Re: Animated Math - comments

["James R. Frysinger" <frysingerj@COFC.EDU>]

Dear Jack,

        I welcome the invitation to examine and comment on the material posted; I,
too, am a fan of Arons's _A Guide to Introductory Physics Teaching_ . That of
course does not qualify me as an expert. My freely given opinions are worth
perhaps exactly what I charge for them.


On Sunday 03 July 2005 14:36, Jack Uretsky wrote:
> Hi all-
....
> The introduction and first three chapters are on the net for anyone to
> view., comment on and, hopefully, steal if you think that you can do a
> better job of the remainder than I can.  It tries to incorporate the
> lessons taught by Arons and my own experiences with struggling students.
> (http://www.hep.anl.gov/jlu/ index.html click on  either .ps or .pdf under
> .book.)

        It might be useful here to know the perspective from which I comment. I
normally teach Introductory Physics at the College of Charleston. In my spare
time and as a volunteer, I field all the new and revised proposed standards
for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). I review
half of those and a colleague reviews the other half for compliance with the
IEEE's _American National Standard for the Use of the International System of
Units (SI): The Modern Metric System_ (IEEE/ASTM Std SI 10-2002).

        I have only just started reading the material that was posted but a few
things jarred me in quick order, so I thought it best to mention those before
I get distracted and forget:
1.      The SI symbol for second is s, not sec.
2.      The SI derived temperature scale is the Celsius scale now, no longer called
the Centigrade scale. The symbol is °C and the space comes between the number
and the raised circle, not between the raised circle and the number. A raised
circle immediately after the number (especially with a "C" following) would
indicate a plane angle value given in degrees.
3.      Modern practice is to start numbers of value less than 1 with a zero before
the decimal point. I know that mathematicians often don't bother but most of
our students will be going out to work in a world where that might be an
important habit to have already ingrained.
4.      In modern practice quantity symbols are set in slanted typeface today while
math and unit symbols are set upright. That rule applies whether this is the
main symbol or a subscripted symbol. Thus, in v_x, both the v and the x are
slanted, but in v_max only the v is slanted while the subscript max is
upright.
5.      I see no value in providing text or problems in non-SI units; in fact, that
alone would keep me from wanting to use the text in class. Over 96 % of the
world uses the SI almost exclusively and the other 4 % comprise mostly
Americans, who are much more familiar with the modern metric system than peer
pressure allows them to admit openly. Older faculty (i.e., in my age bracket)
have a tendency to view students' attitudes and experiences as they look back
and recall theirs having been. As you and Arons said, we need to listen to
the students more.
        The College of Charleston, where I teach, is a 4-year, liberal arts college.
Perhaps a third of my students are science majors; the others major in
diverse fields ranging from sculpture to history. For a few years I gave my
classes their choice on whether the class should be taught in metric-only or
in terms of both metric and non-metric units. Never did I have a class with
more than one student wanting to see non-metric units, so a few  years ago I
quit bothering to ask.
        I think the reason is that for decades now students in America have been
taught both metric and non-metric units but the simplicity of the metric
system has led to it being the one remembered best. A secondary factor is
that American students today are exposed much more to the metric units
outside of their science classes than they ever have before.

        Pertinent to the above, a link on my homepage (see signature block) leads to
my "SI Guide", which provides more information, including seminal reference
documents that are mostly available online.

        Apart from those comments above, I find the text offered here to be
refreshingly different and worthy of more perusal on my part.

        Thank you for posting this!

regards,
Jim

--
James R. Frysinger
Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist
Senior Member, IEEE

http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj
frysingerj@cofc.edu
j.frysinger@ieee.org

Office:
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