Re: [Phys-L] The Make-Believe World of Real-World Physics

["Dan L. MacIsaac" <danmacisaac@gmail.com>]

Mazur usefully discriminates between problems and exercises.  

On first encounter, it's a problem.  After repetition, it becomes an exercise.

I believe that a  technique or algorithm turns a problem into an exercise.

In my classes, students spend a lot of time doing problems in groups; exercises
are individual homework and / or review practice.

Dan M



On Jul 12, 2013, at 11:49 AM, "Rauber, Joel" <Joel.Rauber@SDSTATE.EDU> wrote:

> |
> | -- We do *not* do hard problems in this class.
> | ++ We do important problems.
> | ++ We do interesting problems.
> | ++ We do problems that /would be hard/ if you didn't know the
> |  right technique for solving them.  So, let's get started learning
> |  some useful techniques......
> |
>
>
> What's so bad about saying that we *do* hard problems in this class and that is one of many reasons the class is worthwhile; we learn techniques for dealing with hard problems and you will that much the better off for it.  This doesn't differ much from the above as what I'm calling a "hard problem" seems to be referred to as "would be hard" in the above.  However, the distinction is not to be scared off by problem just because someone says it's hard,  even if the someone is yourself.
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