Re: [Phys-l] What's in a Touch?

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

The web page content was apparently designed by
willisb@telusplanet.net
So anyone who has looked at the page could E-mail this person with exactly
what you think of it.  Be specific.  Also your comments could go on this
list, or copy me at clement@hal-pc.org

Your academic credentials and a link to your university web page would also
serve as a useful bludgeon.  This sort of thing needs to be exposed,
embarrassed, and terminated.

My take is that it could be mad more accurate, but the idea of touch simply
doesn't have any meaning when you are talking about 2 atoms.  They don't
really have a surface.  Indeed the concept of touch as we use it
macroscopically has no meaning in the sub-microscopic world.  It could be
redefined I suppose.

Apparently the designer also puts out other web pages on science, and if
they are as bad as this drivel, he needs to be firmly chastised.  We need to
try to make the textbooks and other physics sources more correct.  Texbooks
are intractable because the publishers stone wall and don't make the needed
changes.  Read Feynman if you need evidence here.  But encyclopedias and
other references can be changed, and I have even been an agent for such
change on occasion.  John Hubisz put out a good report on texts, but the
publishers then claim the new editions are OK, but they lie through their
teeth.

Hmm, I was just struck by the phrase "lie through their teeth" and wondered
where it originally came from.  A quick web search revealed only
speculation.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX 

> Teachers often ask me, when I point out what's wrong with the
> explanations in their textbooks, how this can happen. Unfortunately
> it's as you said--writers with limited science background just copy
> from bad sources or even somewhat reputable sources without knowing
> they are propagating wrong science. It's always interesting to see
> electrons in orbit around a nucleus, but their version of nuclear
> force is a new one for me!
>
> Bill
>
>
> William C. Robertson, Ph.D.
>
>
> On Nov 4, 2010, at 6:26 PM, John Clement wrote:
>
> > This is the drivel they are feeding the students!  Actually the other
> > physics sections of this schools web site are not really bad at all.
> > Actually a good Canadian expression in keeping with the location.
> >
> > John M. Clement
> > Houston, TX
> >
> > > Thanks for the laugh. Then again, it's not all that funny!
> > >
> > > Bill
> > >
> > >
> > > William C. Robertson, Ph.D.
> > >
> > >
> > > On Nov 4, 2010, at 12:10 PM, John Clement wrote:
> > >
> > > > http://www.worsleyschool.net/science/files/touch/touch.html
> > > >
> > > > Here is a web site where we can all argue about the physics.  I have
> > > > sent
> > > > them some E-mail and they made a few minor corrections, but decline
> > > > to see
> > > > my major objections to this ill considered analysis.
> > > >
> > > > How many things do you find wrong?  I think they copied this out of
> > > > a bad
> > > > textbook.
> > > >
> > > > John M. Clement
> > > > Houston, TX
> > > >
> > > >
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