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Re: Contribution of mathematics in ...



On 4/27/98 GARY HEMMINGER <Hemmig@d-e.pvt.k12.nj.us> wrote:

... Solving a difficult problem by rote without any understanding of the
physics, is now only one of two great pitfalls. The other is of course
the hand waving that often passes for "coneptual" understanding.

I agree with Garry. But let me tell you a little story with some relevance.
When I was about eight years old I did not know how to swim. Other boys and
girls were swimmers but I was not. So I decided to fake. In the area not
too deep I was pretending to swim by kicking with only one of my legs while
the other leg was used to jump forward over the bottom. One day, without
noticing it, I was really swimming. Both legs were kicking. The same was
with understanding physics, it came after a lot of "faking". It is the old
chicken and the egg dilemma, what comes first. Or love and marriage dilemma,
if you prefer.
Ludwik Kowalski