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a student asks for help with the capacitor lab and has inverted the___________________________________________________________________________________
conversion from picofarads to farads.
ME: Is a picofarad larger or smaller than a farad.
Student: Smaller
ME: Okay, so if you are converting picofarads to to farads, do you
expect to get a really big number or a really small number.
Student: Big
ME: Is a penny larger or smaller than a dollar.
Student: Smaller. Are you telling me I did the picofarad thing
backwards?
ME: If you count the pennies in your penny jar and get
three-hundred-forty-two, is that a lot of dollars or not so many
dollars?
Student: I did the picofarad thing backwards didn't I. So if I switch
it around it will come out okay, right?
ME: I'm not going to tell you. You figure it out.
Student: Well if I didn't do it backwards you wouldn't be so stressed
out about it.
Goodness. Not only does he not understand how to think this through, he
doesn't even want to think it through. Apparently that's too painful.