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Re: [Phys-L] feeler-dealer, third law, et cetera



On Dec 2, 2013, at 10:10 AM, brian whatcott wrote:

On Saturday, John M published a visualization of conductors in electric fields, quoted here:

"I made some images using a spreadsheet I put together long time ago to solve Poisson's law problems using the relaxation method. You can look at the results here. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/409806/WireInUniformField.pdf

John Mallinckrodt Cal Poly Pomona"

I didn't notice the sustained applause which this note certainly deserved.
The virtues of rendering concrete a concept in debate are so great!



On Dec 12, 2013, at 11:37 AM, Bruce Sherwood wrote:

Indeed, JD's questions have raised lots of interesting issues.



On Dec 13, 2013, at 5:00 AM, John Denker wrote [regarding Bruce]:

You're a smart guy. You could figure it out. There is some
interesting and important physics here.




I join Brian in sustained applause for John M's visualizations; they are cool and educational.

I also would like to thank the whole list, and especially Bruce and John D, for this very interesting thread about momentum and the 3rd law. And John C for his regular reminders about what we know about physics education. I have learned much from PHYS-L over the years, and it has vastly improved my teaching. Practical experience and education research pull in one direction and John D's clear physics sometimes pedagogically pulls in another direction. I hope this thread doesn't die out before I can reconcile the two and decide how to best teach my students! I mean this sincerely: keep up the good work! Maybe physics textbooks in the future will be even better because of the debates on PHYS-L. I don't know how or where else these debates could take place, and I think they are important--even to us spectators. They're even kind of fun--as long as they are civil.

Thanks all,
Larry