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Re: what is understanding?



I think understanding of physics is never attained. One can always
see deeper into a subject even after one feels one understands it
satisfactorily. Understanding admits of various degrees. Even the
simplest of concepts can be deeper than an expert on the concept
realizes. I have seen the understanding of the entire physics
community deepen beyond the previous understanding of even the
acknowledged world expert too many times to accept the
pronouncements of authority as final.

Leigh

It seems to me that Leigh has put his finger on an important aspect of
understanding that has not come up in this thread (at least I haven't
noticed it). We keep thinking of understanding as a binary quantity-either
you have it or you don't. This is clearly not true. Understanding is a
continuum ranging from little or none to truly profound. Most physics
teachers are somewhere in the middle and the question we need to address is
what level of understanding is appropriate for students at various levels,
and should it be evenly spread across the spectrum of topics we deal with
or is is acceptable if the depth varies from topic to topic, and if so,
which topics are the most important to put our effort into to make sure
that the understanding has passed beyond the little or none stage?

I've seen a dozen different definitions of understanding in this thread,
some better than others, but none that satisfy me. Unfortunately, I haven't
got any improvements to offer. It begins to seem to me that understanding
may be one of those words like art-we may not be able to define it but we
usually know it when we see it.


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Hugh Haskell

<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

The box said "Requires Windows 95 or better." So I bought a Macintosh.
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