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lightbulbs and coffee cans



Gang:
The story about the light bulbs reminds me of an incident
that happened to my sister. She was teaching in a small
day-care/nursery-school environment. The statement was
made that the acceleration due to gravity is independent of
the mass. In order to prove the statement it was suggested
by the author of their guidebook that they get two three-lb
coffee cans and fill them with various substances, and
allow them to roll down an incline to see whether they
arrive at the same time. The two most diverse things that
they could think of were water and limestone gravel so one
can was filled with water and the lid sealed on and the
other was packed tight with limestone gravel. To the
amazement of no one on this list the two cans could not be
made to arrive at the bottom of the incline at the same
time.
In defense of the teaching staff and the children they
were not discouraged, and they eventually found out what
was going on. They had to check the literature, find a
consultant who would work free (yours truly), and be
certain about their experimental facts, but they did
eventually figure it out! WBN
Barlow Newbolt
Department of Physics and Engineering
Washington and Lee University
Lexington, VA 24450

Young man if I could remember the names of all of
these particles I would have become a botanist
Enrico Fermi
Telephone and Phone Mail: 540-463-8881
Fax: 540-463-8884
e-mail: NewboltW@madison.acad.wlu.edu