Overall I agree with John Denker's recent post on this thread. There is
one place at which I take exception, and that why I got excited about
something that John did not get excited about.
John said, "Wow, a dictionary entry is not exaaactly right! Film at
11!"
I know he was being sarcastic, but I disagree with the statement. I
think the dictionary definition of displacement is correct. It is clear
my colleagues also were thinking exactly what the usual dictionary
definition is. And I don't think this is a case of the dictionary
getting the science wrong because I don't think the scientists invented
the word. This is a case where the scientists used the wrong word.
John said, "Wow, a textbook passage is not exaaactly right! Let's call
a meeting of the General Assembly!"
I did call a meeting of the general assembly... at least the general
assembly of the Science Department at Bluffton University. Why, because
I realized I have had the wrong idea about Archimedes Principle for
perhaps 40 years. And when the "general assembly" gathered here we
discovered that we all had the wrong idea. We all said a 15-gram object
cannot float in 10 grams of water, until I showed it to them. And then
we stood around drinking coffee and discussing it for about 45 minutes.
The person who teaches general-education science was downright depressed
for a while because he felt stupid for not realizing this, which in his
case has been for about 50 years.
John said, "But really, quite a bit of science, including some very
important and creative science, consists of figuring out which bits of
what we "know" are in need of refinement."
I totally agree with this statement. And that's what happened to me and
my colleagues. We had not figured out, in the past several decades,
that what we "knew" about Archimeded Principle was not totally correct."
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics and Chemistry
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu