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]

Re: [Phys-l] Types of scalars



This conversation has wandered into much deeper mathematics than I had
ever intended; perhaps it was the use of the word "scalars" which I
was using in the computer science sense of the word; "real numbers"
would have been a much better choice. And I am certainly not going to
get into a discussion of gauge invariance with my freshman classes!

And my goal is not to invent anything new, but rather to point out
similarities between already existing quantities. I already draw
parallels between current and electric flux in my intro EM class; and
when I tell my students that the only potential differences are
physically relevant, not absolute potentials, it could be useful to
make the connection to temperatures in Celsius which have the same
property. (e.g. students tend to think that V=0 has some deep
significance, without any baseline voltage set).

If the conversation I didn't mean to start is more interesting,
however, have at it!

/
:@-) Scott Hill
\