Re: [Phys-L] foundations of physics: special relativity

[Marty Weiss <martweiss@comcast.net>]

The map method of teaching vectors is the one that most interests students.  Especially if you have the campus grounds to make it into a scavenger hunt where you can teach compass readings and they have to draw the directional vectors on graph paper or on a map and get to where "X marks the spot".  If it's not too cold when we get to this section I can get there early and bury something then map it out without anyone seeing what I am doing.  It's not strictly physics and purists will object taking so much time to do it, but sometimes you just have to go astray and have fun.   (This is for regular 11th grade high school physics, not honors and not general.) 

If it's cold or rainy, etc. then I would use a large map of the US or the State and have them plot out travel vectors from city to city and find the mileage and the usual distance vs displacements measurements with resultants.  Not as much fun as doing it outdoors, but it gets the point across.  Throw in some gas mileage facts and have them figure out how many liters of gas it would take to go from A to B to C and back.  Or use velocities, etc. and figure out how long it takes to go on your voyage.    Lots to learn from all this!   

 In this private school where we don't have any State mandated tests to worry about I can take my time and do both the outdoor and indoor projects, if we have good weather for the outdoor project.     
 
On Oct 3, 2015, at 4:25 PM, Richard Tarara wrote:

> In Ancient times (1960s) I my first encounter with vectors was in my senior year HS physics course, and this was at a highly respected College-Prep HS.  The fact that there was a Calculus class offered was unusual for the day.
>
> Not sure when vectors show up (if at all) today, but I would suspect that most math teachers working with them might opt to concentrate on the component method.  For my Algebra based courses I used to do a mapping lab (using local maps) with a series of directions (throwing in some simple kinematics) to find one's way around to some 'clever' destination from campus.  Three methods were used--constructing vectors right on the maps, constructing scale vectors on graph paper and then laying out only the resultant on the map, and breaking each step into East/West and North/South components to construct the final resultant vector. Then, as was my preference, we dealt with most multi-dimensional problems by breaking them down into one-dimensional problems through deconstruction and then possibly reconstruction of the 2 or 3 dimensional vectors involved.  Again, my guess is this would be the approach of most HS math/physics teachers.
>
> rwt
>
> On 10/3/2015 3:21 PM, John Clement wrote:
> > Actually I did not encounter vectors until HS, so the editoral you probably
> > does not apply to most people on this list.
> >
> > John M. Clement
> > Houston, TX
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________ Forum for Physics Educators Phys-l@www.phys-l.org http://www.phys-l.org/mailman/listinfo/phys-l 
>
>
> -- 
> Richard Tarara
> Professor Emeritus
> Saint Mary's College
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