re:Flow of energy

[brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>]

At 17:06 8/30/97 -0500, you wrote:

> We certainly still teach outmoded models when it makes pedagogical sense to
> do so--Newtonian Mechanics for one, and most of us talk about friction as
> though we know something about it (we don't). ...  Show that teaching the
> Classical Thermo approach to heat up front works with the broad range of
> intro students and that it works better than the most popular current
> approaches.  If that could be done with relativistic quantum mechanics
> versus Newtonian mechanics, then we might well drop the latter except from
> 'History of Science' courses....
> Rick

Your note reminds me of that most famous of science teacher's comments,
"It was once thought that....but we now know that...."

At the turn of the last century, it was thought that most of  the 
worthwhile physics had been explored.
 Could it be that at the turn of the millennium, most of the worthwhile 
physics really has been explored?
Or do we now know that today's physics models have their flaws 
and are as fleeting as last year's models?

Sincerely

brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK