Re: "Charged" capacitor mis-terminology

["Bob Sciamanda" <trebor@velocity.net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Donald E. Simanek <dsimanek@eagle.lhup.edu>
To: phys-l@atlantis.uwf.edu <phys-l@atlantis.uwf.edu>
Cc: PHYS-L <phys-l@atlantis.uwf.edu>
Date: Sunday, February 15, 1998 12:07 AM
Subject: Re: "Charged" capacitor mis-terminology


> Maybe we don't ask the right questions to find out whether students
> mis-interpret. If we just ask them to calculate C given V and Q, or some
> variant of that, they may well get the right answer without relying on any
> conceptual model. What if we ask:
>
> The process of charging a capacitor means that
> a) charge is created within the capacitor.
> b) charge is added to the capacitor from outside.
> d) current is stored in the capacitor.
> e) charge is converted to voltage in the capacitor.
> f) charges within the capacitor are relocated to positions
> of greater energy.
>
> .....................................................................
> Dr. Donald E. Simanek                            Office: 717-893-2079

Your wording of this question "The process of charging a capacitor means
that" . . .
shows that you are concerned with asking for a particular, narrow definition
of a word
(a vocabulary test) rather than a question about the understanding of a
physical phenomenon.

This whole discussion arose because the word charging can have a variety of
accepted meanings.  Perhaps you should ask what does or does not happen when
an EMF is connected to a capacitor, rather than one of many definitions of a
silly word.  Clarify ideas describing phenomena, don't just insist on
certain sounds.

-Bob

Bob Sciamanda   sciamanda@edinboro.edu
Dept of Physics   trebor@velocity.net
Edinboro Univ of PA  http://www.edinboro.edu/~sciamanda/home.html
Edinboro, PA   (814)838-7185

The best material model of a cat is another, or preferably the same, cat.
Philosophy of Science 1945. - Rosenblueth, A. [with Norbert Wiener]