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Re: Inertia

At 08:24 AM 11/28/1997 -0500, you wrote:
I have a couuple of questions:

How do we define force?
How do we define mass?

I have often heard physicists define each using Newton's second law, not
realizing their circular argument.


Arnold Aron's book "A Guide to Introductory PHysics Teaching" Wiley, 1990
has a very careful discussion of this issue. He has written another book
very recently, and that too will probably have wise words.




Regards,

Patrick W. Whippey EMail: pwhippey@julian.uwo.ca
Department of Physics & Astronomy Phone: 519-661-2111 x 6431
University of Western Ontario Fax: 519-661-2033
London Ont N6A 3K7