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Re: [Phys-l] irresistible force v. immovable object



On 02/23/2011 12:28 PM, Mike Viotti wrote:

I totally agree that situations like these present teachable moments, but
they're not physics. By definition they can't be! We can't have an
unstoppable force.

I think you're taking the question too literally.

The student is asking a question about infinity. The fact
that he guessed wrong about the answer should not disqualify
him from asking the question.

Students virtually never ask the exactly-right question.

Indeed, in the real world, when your boss asks you a question,
or your customer asks you a question, it is virtually never
the exactly-right question.

The rule in all these situations is to figure out what the
question should have been, and answer that instead.

It is usually good to give the customer what they wanted
... but it is better to give them what they /actually/
wanted, not literally what they said they wanted.

Doing this properly requires skill and judgment, and sometimes
requires a bit of courage ... but it is the right thing to do.
For more on this, see
http://www.av8n.com/physics/ill-posed.htm