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Re: Swartz letter in AJP (work-energy theorem)



At 06:45 AM 9/1/2004, you wrote:
/// I am reminded
of a somewhat similar confusing item in the high school text,
_Foundations of Physics_,
2nd ed, by Lehrman and Swartz. On p.45 of the _Teacher's Guide_ for that
text, one finds
"The cavalier way in which we treat the difference in definition of
speed and velocity is
very deliberate. It is a reaction to certain situations in our own
experience where knowledge
of the defined difference became the essential feature of motion study
to be tested with
true-false questions."

////

I would have forgotten this, except for the fact that, back in 1970, I
quoted L&S's description of their treatment of velocity and speed as
"cavalier." One of the students, a grandson of a famous person that
everyone on this list would recognize, asked what "cavalier" meant. That
caused me more difficulty than the physics, although I knew what was
meant from the context.

///

Hugh Logan
Retired physics teacher

I can see why the quoted use of "cavalier" led to student difficulty.
It means quite the opposite of the writer's intended value, where
cavalier is "off-hand, curt, supercilious" [COD]



Brian Whatcott Altus OK Eureka!