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Re: [Phys-L] kinematics objectives



JD wrote:

By telling students their ideas are not crazy wrong, just /restricted/,
they are less likely to get defensive.

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That made me remember something from one of my first years teaching. I was presenting some of what Aristotle had to say about motion as in introduction to Newton's laws. I was about 10 minutes in when one of my students raised his hand to interrupt: "Wait. Are you saying that this stuff is WRONG?" I said it was...and he said "but this is the first thing you've said all year that I understand!"

Ever since then, I have made it a point to acknowledge that it is completely reasonable to believe that the natural state of an object is to be at rest. If you had to use your personal experience to choose between Galileo and Aristotle, Aristotle would win.

Similarly, it is just as reasonable to believe that the Sun goes around the Earth as do the stars. Aristotle was not a dumb guy. Neither were those ancient Greeks.