Re: On 1/4*Pi in Coulomb's law

[Ludwik Kowalski <KowalskiL@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU>]

Robert A Cohen wrote:

> It seems the only reason why students might be confused by the 4*pi
> in Coulomb's law is because there is no 4*pi in the gravitational law.
> Perhaps we should introduce the 4*pi in the gravitational law.  ...

I think it is a very good idea. I would first present the law in the
way we teach it now. At the very end, in the spirit of "it will
benefit us in the future", I would play with G=s/(4*Pi). In doing
this I would say that 4*Pi is the solid angle of our 3*D space and
the area of a unit sphere. Such thing would not lead to dogmatism,
as indicated by Joel. But sticking epsilon_zero into the Coulomb's
law, when it is first introduced, is dogmatic. This great shortcut
is scientifically correct but pedagogically undesirable in the first
course. If it was up to me I would save it for the second course.

What is a meaningful gravitational analogy of epsilon_zero?
Ludwik Kowalski