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



You might be a redneck physicist if you buy 48 cans of
Big Flats beer and cool them off using liquid nitrogen.


On 07/29/2013 07:29 AM, William Maddox wrote:
In this universe the acceleration of a ball at peak question would
not be considered ill posed in the context of a physics test
following chapters on projectile motion and gravity.

Congratulations on living in such a nice universe (A).

Meanwhile, there are plenty of people on this list who
live in a different universe (B), where students find
this question hard or at least counterintuitive.

I reckon this list is extremely valuable, because it allows
us to recognize and discuss the difference between these
two universes.
-- Why is this an easy question in one universe but not the other?
-- Can we move everybody from universe (B) to universe (A)?
-- If so, how?

I remind everybody yet again that many things that seem
hard at the beginning of the road seem easy (and are easy)
at the end of the road.

=============================

Physicists tend to write as little as they feel necessary.

... which can be a big part of the problem, if they misjudge
what is "necessary". This is known to be a problem whenever
experts are talking to non-experts, including students.
Miscommunication makes things hard, even things that ideally
"should" not be hard.