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This has been an interesting and thread. I have enjoyed having my own views
of the world challenged and discovering new ways of organizing my
understanding. The idea of acceleration fields may be a very useful way of
thinking about F=ma. I'll enjoy kicking that around in my head a little
longer. Now a question. What should we do with this causation discussion
in our classrooms? It seems to me that many times it is necessary to bring
our students thinking along by providing models that we know are incorrect
but useful, so that they will be ready to consider models that are more
correct but less user friendly further on down the road? I am not yet
convinced that we are doing more harm than good when we encourage
introductory physics students to think of force as the cause of an objects
acceleration. Those who go further with their studies can and should be
challenged to consider that cause and effect relationship in more detail?
Even if F=ma does not actually represent a cause and effect relationship I
am not sure that my high school students would be capable of or even benefit
from thinking about it any other way. What do others think?
Cliff Parker