Chronology | Current Month | Current Thread | Current Date |
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] | [Date Index] [Thread Index] | [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] | [Date Prev] [Date Next] |
Now a philosophical and pedagogical point: If the argument
is going to depend on a force unknown to physics -- certainly
unknown to me and probably unknown to the students -- where
do we draw the line? Where is the line between caricature
and travesty?
In particular, wouldn't it be pedagogically better to go with
all-out farce, so that the students /know/ it's a farce,
rather than foisting on them something that looks like
physics but isn't? For example, I would be tempted to
"explain" that the Fairy Godmother comes down and puts some
charge in her Easter basket, carries it to the other
terminal, and dumps it out.