Re: work done by friction

[Richard Tarara <rtarara@SAINTMARYS.EDU>]

I'd be very careful about using any non-standard curriculum (no work,
non-standard weight, no centripetal anything, 'real' centrifugal forces,
'heat' as a forbidden noun, etc.) especially in the high-school setting.
While there may well be advantages to some of these (maybe ;-), if your
students are going to be taking College physics courses where work is used
as typically defined in texts, where weight is mg, where centripetal
accelerations and (alas) forces abound, where almost all centrifugal forces
are fictitious, etc., then such non-standard approaches could well do more
harm than good.  You also need to deal with the disparities between your
instruction and the text book (if used).  In other words, be damn sure the
pedagogical gain is worth both the extra effort on your part and the
potential confusion that the students may experience later.  {Same for intro
college courses that feed students to other physics courses--but probably
not as serious a concern.)

Rick

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Richard W. Tarara
Department of Chemistry & Physics
Notre Dame, IN 46556
219-284-4664
rtarara@saintmarys.edu

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----- Original Message -----
From: Ludwik Kowalski <KowalskiL@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Monday, October 25, 1999 11:29 AM
Subject: Re: work done by friction


> That is great. Please try to make you "teaching aid" accessible
> to high school teachers. As a veteran of the Arizona modeling
> workshop you certainly know that audience.
>
> Bob Sciamanda wrote:
>
> > Let me take this occasion to note that the I am re-writing (and
expanding)
> > the essay which I posted at this thread's earlier incarnation ("Without
> > Work") as a stand-alone teaching aid, and will put it on my web page.
> > Will let you know when it happens.