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[Phys-L] Re: Elecric Field Lines



John,
On second thought, I see your point - even granting the inference "any and
all Cvectors"- that this is not a canceling operation.
It is one of those liberties which we take with mathematical rigor, as eg;
replacing (ds/dt)*dt with ds and calling it "canceling" the dt.

There is a justifying logic, but "canceling" is not the proper word for it.

Bob Sciamanda
Physics, Edinboro Univ of PA (Em)
http://www.winbeam.com/~trebor/
trebor@winbeam.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Sciamanda" <trebor@WINBEAM.COM>
To: <PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 10:31 AM
Subject: Re: Elecric Field Lines


| JM wrote:
|| . . .
|| Just yesterday I had every student in a junior E and M class tell me
|| that, if Cvector dot Avector = Cvector dot Bvector for any Cvector
|| then we can cancel the Cvector on both sides of the equation and
|| determine that Avector = Bvector. That is the right answer, and the
|| argument is appealing, but it is, nevertheless, wrong.
|| . . .
|
| Perhaps they were inferring "for any Cvector" to mean "for any and all
| possible Cvectors"
|
| Bob Sciamanda
| Physics, Edinboro Univ of PA (Em)
| http://www.winbeam.com/~trebor/
| trebor@winbeam.com
|
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