Chronology | Current Month | Current Thread | Current Date |
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] | [Date Index] [Thread Index] | [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] | [Date Prev] [Date Next] |
Overall, I find this thread frustrating. There are two different
issues to face. We can argue pedagogy (which is fine and completely
appropriate for this forum) but I'd like to understand the physics
first and then debate how to teach it. Completely regardless of what
approach may or may not improve my students' paradigm...I'd like to
know for myself: is there a well-founded physics notion of where the
potential energy resides? What experiment reveals this?
I don't feel qualified to make pedagogical choices about material
that I do not understand. I think I know what potential energy is
and how to apply conservation of energy to the standard collection of
problems in a 1st year physics class. But if a student asks me "OK,
where IS the potential energy?" I would not see the point of the
question or why it matters to know such a thing. I would say that it
is not a thing -- don't go looking for it. And I would say that it
has no possible affect on reality if you choose to think it is in the
object or in the system. But apparently, others here say I am wrong.
I'm open to that and ready to be educated (and not for the first
time) by the members here. But I am looking for an answer appeals
to physics rather than pedagogy as its authority.