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Re: kinematics, traditional or not



I wrote:

*You* know why defining v and a are useful. *I* know why
defining them is
useful. Everyone on this list knows why defining them is useful.

My point is that the *students* don't.

to which Bob LaMontagne responded:

I find this puzzling and very much outside my experience with
students.

I should've added "...unless you structure the course so that there is a
perceived need (on the part of the students) beyond just a potential use
sometime later in the course."

It may be that you structure your course in such a way that students see the
need. Doing activities such as...

little
experiments in the
corridor - such as batting a bowling ball steadily with a
rubber bat - so that
they get a visual sense of acceleration.

...seem to be in keeping with the option (1) that I described in my previous
note.

P.S. I agree with what Hugh Haskell wrote in regards to the difficulties
students have with acceleration and that is why I prefer option (2).
However, that is not the point I am making here.
____________________________________________
Robert Cohen; rcohen@po-box.esu.edu; 570-422-3428; http://www.esu.edu/~bbq
Physics, East Stroudsburg Univ., E. Stroudsburg, PA 18301