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Re: force



It seems to me that acceleration is an observable, but you have to be
taught how to observe it, whereas force is unfortunately, a bit of a
figment of our imagination. I go for the observable first.

On Wed, 30 Oct
1996, Roger A. Pruitt wrote:


I can't comment with any personal experience, but I have a colleague who
firmly believes that students don't fully understand when there will be
accelerations and in what direction until they fully understand the net
force acting. Note that I wrote NET force. Too often the book, and we as
teachers, just say "the force acting on the object" when we should
stress that it is the net force acting.

How would you feel about starting with the concept of force? Is there
anything sacrosant about starting with kinematics other than that is the
way beginning textbooks always start.

Roger