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A LIST OF TEXTBOOK MISCONCEPTIONS
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1) The Physics of Flight: It's air-deflection, not wing shape
2) The green house effect: suppression of convection is the main factor.
3) Capacitors in series: the equilibrated charges are not equal in dc
the circuits.
4) Melting of ice under skating blades is due to high pressure.
5) Gravity in space is zero (or very small, e.g. NASA's 'microgravity')
6) Filled and empty balloons directly demonstrate air's weight
7) Friction is caused by surface roughness (interlocking asperites)
8) Infrared light is special, it is "heat"
9) Ben Franklin's kite was struck by lightning
10) Clouds, fog, etc. are made of vapor (rather than droplets)
11) The Earth's "N" pole resides in the northern hemisphere
12) Light from the sun is perfectly parallel
13) Laser coherence is caused by atoms' in-phase emission
14) Sound travels much better through solids and liquids than through gas
15) For every motion there is an equal and opposite motion
16) Reentering spacecraft are heated only by frictino
17) Salt water contains molecules of NaCl
18) Light propagates at c even when in transparant media
(I'm not listing "electricity misconceptions" or "electrostatics
misconceptions" here.)
((((((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) )))))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
billb@eskimo.com www.eskimo.com/~billb
EE/programmer/sci-exhibits science projects, tesla, weird science
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