Re: A Parents' Day gem

["Michael N. Monce" <mnmon@conncoll.edu>]

On Mon, 27 Oct 1997, John Mallinckrodt wrote:

> Of course, it is worth noting that a bullet fired horizontally will *not*
> generally, take the same time to fall to the ground as one that is dropped
> from the same height and that any mathematical "proof" to the contrary is,
> therefore, simply irrelevant.  This is not to suggest that I side with the
> parent in this dispute, but maybe there is room for both parties to learn
> something about the relationship of models of reality to reality itself. 
>
> John


	As Hugh suggested, the better tatic would have been to simply do
the demo.  However, I really must defend the teacher in this case.  This
person was faced with someone whose "world view" was being challenged, and
they were not happy about it.  It cuts to the core of our struggles to
turn students from Aristotle fans to a Newtonian view.  Sure, Newton as
taught in such a high school conceptual physics class only works well in a
vacuum and where local curvature of the earth can be ignored.  Isn't it
better to get someone to understand the basic concepts *before* we throw
all the caveats in too?

	After all, the parent went screaming "Withcraft!"  This does not
suggest to me someone who appreciates the subtleties of spinning bullets,
lift and drag, and curved (and rotating) coordinate systems.  While the
parent may have been correct, it was for probably all the wrong reasons.


				Mike Monce
				Connecticut College