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Re: understand understanding, simple explanations, etc.



Leigh said on Tue, 10 Feb 1998 15:46:42 -0800:

As Dewey points out, we shouldn't
try to teach quantum mechanics and displacement currents without
mathematics.

Just for clarity, I didn't actually point this out. In the comment from
which this came, I was questioning the logic and reason behind a debate
involving QM and displacement currents in response to a query concerning
making explanations for 11 year olds.

I said in a note on Tue, 10 Feb 1998 08:51:59 -0700:
"The references to quantum mechanics and displacement currents in a
discussion which started with an appeal as to how to explain something to
11 year olds astounds me."

The 11 year olds were left out in the representation of what I said, in
fact they seem to be missing from the whole discussion. Too bad.

This group might be surprised at how often and quickly the original
students are forgotten in the discussions on Phys-L when the discussion
starts in the context of non-physics majors.

Dewey

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr. Phone: (208)385-3105
Professor of Physics Dept: (208)385-3775
Department of Physics/MCF421/418 Fax: (208)385-4330
Boise State University dykstrad@bsumail.idbsu.edu
1910 University Drive Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570 novice piper

"Physical concepts are the free creations of the human mind and
are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external
world."--A. Einstein in The Evolution of Physics with L. Infeld,
1938.
"Every [person's] world picture is and always remains a construct
of [their] mind and cannot be proved to have any other existence."
--E. Schrodinger in Mind and Matter, 1958.
"Don't mistake your watermelon for the universe." --K. Amdahl in
There Are No Electrons, 1991.
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