Re: where there's heat there's flames

[Chuck Britton <britton@ACADEMIC.NCSSM.EDU>]

At 10:15 AM -0500 1/8/00, Michael N. Monce wrote:


> On Fri, 7 Jan 2000, Jim Green wrote:
>
>  >
>  > Good Grief, John, now we are trying to learn physics from AltaVista?  Is
>  > there a claim here that a population who learns physics from BillNye and
>  > which watches TV  in prime time should understand it correctly.  Do you
>  > realy want to VOTE on physics concepts???  Wow!
>  >
>
>
>         But, isn't that what we really do???  A new idea is introduced. We
> go into the lab, test it. Report results. Everybody votes as to whether we
> did the experiment correctly, whether the results are meaningful vis-a-vis
> the new idea, etc.  Eventually, we all vote as to whether we accept this
> idea as a meaningful part of physics or not.  It seems that we only accept
> a principle when the majority of physicists agree on its validity.  Sure
> sounds like voting to me; although with very well-informed voters. :)


I think that some people would prefer that this topic not be
mentioned unless we present it with the Grand Canonical Ensemble
rigor.

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Chuck Britton                                   Education is what is left when
britton@academic.ncssm.edu                      you have forgotten everything
North Carolina School of Science & Math         you learned in school.
(919) 286-3366  x224                            Albert Einstein,        1936