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On 01/12/2011 03:38 PM, Jeff Loats wrote:See, there's the point where I can tell you are not a teacher. Telling a student "maybe if you study hard, you might understand one day", is absolutely the wrong way to answer an honest question. There is always some way to look up something and then bring it back to the classroom in a way that the intelligent student can get some small part of the "very, very complicated" explanation. But, don't be condescending to the student like you suggest.
This term a curious student asked some great questions about what would
happen when such a collision took place.
What would happen if an alpha particle was fired head-on at an
electron.
I would tell the student: That's a great question, and I even
know the answer, but you're not going to like it. Even though
the question is simple, the answer is very, very complicated.
By way of analogy, note that the laws of chess are rather simple,
but the situations that arise during a chess game can be quite
complex. This is like chess, only more so. The rules are even
simpler, and the consequences are very, very complicated.
If you study real hard for the next several years you can get to the
point where you actually understand the answer to this question.