[Phys-L] Re: In the Private Universe

["Spagna Jr., George" <gspagna@RMC.EDU>]

David Marx writes

-----Original Message-----
From: David T. Marx [mailto:marx@PHY.ILSTU.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 10:29 PM
To: PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU
Subject: Re: In the Private Universe

> To me, the source of this mistake is the textbooks.  The Earth is
always
> shown from a side view with a very elongated ellipse and the point is
made
> that the sun is at one of the foci.  What other conclusion do we expect
> students (and often their teachers) to draw from this other than the
mistaken
> explanation for the seasons?

I suspect that the problem is not the textbooks, themselves.  Rather,
the students don't read them, or if they do the reading they don't
understand what they are reading.  Every intro astronomy text that I've
ever used clearly states that seasons are a result of the inclination of
Earth's equator to the plane of the ecliptic ... and the diagrams and
captions show the difference between northern and southern hemisphere
summer, winter, spring, and fall.

Also, as another colleague points out, I also have written proof that
they don't listen, either!

********************************************
 "Eternity is very long,
                 especially toward the end."
                                -  Woody Allen
********************************************

Dr. George Spagna
Chair, Physics Department
Randolph-Macon College
P.O. Box 5005
Ashland, VA 23005-5505

phone: (804) 752-7344
fax: (804) 752-4724
e-mail: gspagna@rmc.edu
http://faculty.rmc.edu/gspagna