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Re: Tidal bulge, Bohr atom & other myths

Date: Sun, 30 Jun 96 13:40:18 -0400
From: Bowman_David/tiger_mpc@tiger.gtc.georgetown.ky.us


Some other errors and/or misconceptions propagated by textbooks that irritate
me are the usual explanations of rainbow formation

Could you give a short synopsis (or a long email) about this? I usually try
to do something about the rainbow in our math. phys. class (when I teach it),
going far enough to invoke Airy functions so I'll have a good example for
steepest descent. I also have a 9 year-old son, and I can't explain it to him
that way yet. So I'd certainly like to know what to avoid, especially if it's
egregious.

*************************
Phil Parker Internet: pparker@twsuvm.uc.twsu.edu
Math. Dept., Wichita St. Univ. Bitnet: pparker@twsuvm
[Do not] put too much confidence in experimental results until they have
been confirmed by theory.---Sir Arthur Eddington