Re: Energy, etc (fwd)

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@SFU.CA>]

At 01:49 -0700 8/10/99, Darwin Z. Palima wrote:

> Can we allow for misconception of "you cannot subract larger nos. from
> smaller ones"-type in teaching physics, or do we put in the "imaginary
> nos."  right away?
>
> Is there any study on this two approaches to teaching elementary physics?
>
> I hope the list can help me with some answers.

What a marvelous leading question! I am a big fan of the geometric
calculus. The idea of this unified mathematical language is that one
learns the basics very early in one's development and then the need
never arises to introduce imaginaries, Dirac algebras, quaternions,
etc. *ad hoc*. You can start down the road to learning about
geometric calculus (a new name for Clifford algebra) by visiting
David Hestenes at http://modelingnts.la.asu.edu/GC_R&D.html

Leigh