This is mostly addressed to the PER gurus, but others should need no
invitation to chime in, as their experience is appreciated and valuable.
There was a post a while back that suggested that the PER research was
indicating that it is best to quote g as follows:
g = 9.8 N/kg rather than g = 9.8 m/s^2
the question I have is following a traditional sequence of kinematics
first, while introducing free-fall what do you suggest for g?
They haven't been introduced to the Newton or force as of yet.
I can think of some possibilities (in random order)
1) use m/s^2 as has been traditionally the case, ignoring the PER
comment post
2) use m/s^2 while doing kinematics and then switch to N/kg when I start
dynamics.
3) use N/kg from the beginning and just tell the students that it
equates to m/s^2, but not writing it that and basically not worrying
about any confusion that the use of the N unit would cause since we will
be getting pretty quickly to dynamics.
Any advice or comments?
________________________
Joel Rauber
Department of Physics - SDSU