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Re: [Phys-l] ivory windmills



I guess I'd be more concerned about the 2 million year answer for what
should be about 5 days! The number of digits is of secondary concern? ;-)

Rick

Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, Indiana

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From: "John Mallinckrodt" <ajm@csupomona.edu>
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2012 12:49 PM
To: "Forum for Physics Educators" <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu>
Subject: Re: [Phys-l] ivory windmills

That's certainly what I would say. Yesterday I took my students to task
for giving answers like "1,911,741 years" to the question "How long would
you have to pedal a bike at full throttle to lose 1 kg assuming that you
generate 1/2 hp of useful power and your body is about 25% efficient at
converting stored energy to useful work." I don't feel the least bit
guilty about having done so. Quite the contrary, I would feel remiss in
my instructional duties to allow them to continue embarrassing themselves
in public that way.

John Mallinckrodt
Cal Poly Pomona

On Apr 12, 2012, at 9:11 AM, Robert Cohen wrote:

I don't disagree with the main point but it seems to me that the sig fig
examples serve to illustrate the problems with rounding intermediate
steps, not the use of sig figs at the end. Am I mistaken?

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_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l