[Phys-l] houses built upon sand (was: mass ....)

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 06/28/2009 01:52 PM, Richard Tarara wrote in part:

> Many of those books are for the seriously math 
> challenged students (ones who can't figure the Carnot Efficiency of an ideal 
> heat engine running between 600 and 300 Kelvin or the amount of work that a 
> 1000 J input produces in a 25% efficient engine).  

Well, we agree that teaching physics to such a class is challenging!
As previously discussed, I continue to wonder whether such students 
are well served by any physics class.  I reckon they would be better 
served by some sort of remedial arithmetic class.  I seem to remember 
a story about houses built upon sand......

I would have hoped a higher level of math skills would be a prerequisite
for admission to the physics course.  Indeed I would have thought a
higher level of math skills would be a prerequisite for admission to
the college overall:
  http://www3.saintmarys.edu/requirements

  Sometimes you need to play the hand you're dealt ... but sometimes 
  you need to change the game.  I moved this discussion to a new thread, 
  because a class that can't do high-school algebra is not representative 
  of the typical class that studies relativity, and their needs are not 
  a reliable guide to how relativity should be taught.  EVEN SO, they 
  are almost certainly better off with the spacetime approach than the 
  "contraction / dilation / velocity dependent mass / paradox" approach.


Returning to the previous thought:  Last but not least, I would have
hoped that basic math competence would be a least a _graduation_ requirement
at any so-called institution of higher learning.  To repeat:  if high-school
math skills are not required in high school, not required for admission to
college, and not required in college physics ... who is going to take up the
slack?  All evidence indicates students are graduating in droves without basic 
math skills.

This is a problem.  Just to cite an example from current events, there has 
been a lot of talk about "predatory mortgage lending".  I respectfully suggest
that the students would be better off -- and the world as a whole would be
better off -- if citizens could figure out that a mortgage with a low interest
rate plus a $10,000.00 origination fee is not a good bargain, especially if
they are planning to move again in a couple of years!