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Re: [Phys-l] not our majors now!



On 10/5/06, jbellina <jbellina@saintmarys.edu> wrote:

I have it in my head that someone said that the solution manuals are
available on ebay. That being the case, your point is well taken, we
can't assume they don't have them.


Even worse. I went to Google, typed in physics homework solutions. Third
hit:

http://www.solutionarchive.org/

There are commercial services that trawl (troll?) the web looking for
solutions that teachers have provided for students. (reminds me that I
should take my solutions off-line!)

I feel that this must always have been a problem. Fraternities are the most
common example, but plenty of student groups have solution files of
homeworks and exams. Younger students are friends with older students.
Many PUBLISHERS (this really ticks me off!) offer solutions manuals (our
latest intro textbook offers a solutions manual with solutions not only to
every "odd" problem, but even some of the "even" problems. It's much easier
now to access solutions, so maybe that has increased the order of magnitude
of the problem. Don't students who copy solutions rather than engage the
material on their own do poorly on exams and in class participation (i.e.
doesn't the problem self-correct)?


--
regards
-Krishna

Krishna Chowdary
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Bucknell University