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Re: [Phys-L] conceptual physics



On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 02:19:15PM -0400, Aburr@aol.com wrote:

The recent post on the conceptual physics course will produce answers to
questions in which I am interested. I have one general comment and a more
specific question.
-
The overwhelming goal of a conceptual physics course should be to convince
students that you can ask nature questions and that nature will answer
back.
-
Specifically, in today’s testing climate, I need examples of non-essay
type questions which will assess the student’s grasp of physics concepts with
answers which are not just regurgitation.

One fun thing to do is present a classical "free energy" machine, like one
from the The Museum of Unworkable Devices

http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/museum/unwork.htm

and ask the students to describe why exactly the device wouldn't work.
Can't beat that for assessing whether they understand the basic principles.
I'll point out that some of the problems can be quite difficult, like the
"Buoyancy motor #4" (my personal favorite).

-X