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Re: what is understanding?




On Wed, 9 Jul 97 13:40:59 EDT LUDWIK KOWALSKI
<kowalskil@alpha.montclair.edu> writes:
Two days before the Mars landing I heard (from the designer of the
spectrometer at ASU) that a DEFINITION of success was established by
NASA. The mission would be successful if three tasks are accomplished:
landing, descending the wehicule and taking one picture of the
surface.
Everything else would be a grave, they said.

I wish a similar definition of success was established for teachers.
Our
success is defined (implicitly ?) as an impossible task (thick book,
only
two semesters, no selection based on prerequisites, etc. etc.) No
wonder
we are never happy obout the results of our hard work.
Ludwik Kowalski

And you must be less than thrilled with the stunning results obtained by
our brilliant space scientists. I already know what the surface of
Mars looks like.

Best of luck in your quixotic task, i.e., teaching physics / Tom Wayburn

P.S. When I was at White Sands as a nineteen-year-old boy in 1952, we
shot beer cans (over a mile) into the air by stuffing them with rocket
fuel (explosives). So, what is new? Brute force continues to be the
*modus operandi*. If I saw a glimpse of scientific subtlety, I would
be slightly impressed. But noooooooo.