Re: [Phys-l] terminology

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

The power misusage is essentially a problem with common usage.  People tend
to naturally equate energy and power.  Concrete operational thinkers (30+ of
the population) actually have sever difficulty with understanding the
distinction.  Formal operational thinkers (<20% of HS graduates) have no
problems with it.

I remember my children seeing a "magic schoolbus" episode in which they
explicitly said power was the amount of energy.  This was thrown in at the
end of an otherwise fairly accurate episode.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> By physicists, too. In my General Physics II class, we just finished
> defining and discussing chromatic resolving power (no unit).
> A few weeks ago I mentioned, but did not "teach", the power of a lens
> (in diopters). (I don't blame this misuse of power on physicists.)
> There may be other misuses that don't come to my mind immediately.