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However the way these real world things are treated takethe problems way,
way from reality. The momentum of the bowling ball doubles(how?); the
kinetic energy of the ball doubles (how?); the radius ofthe track doubles
(how?); the rain immediately halves theconvey to students the
coefficient of friction (how?); the mass of the car doubles (how?).
All these "hows" are non-trivial. Certainly they all
message that the physics they are being taught and beingexamined about
has little (nothing?) to do with the real world.
I agree that we could word the situations more carefully.
Instead of "the mass of the car doubles" we could say 2 cars,
one with twice the mass of the other, etc. Overall, the
student who is distracted by the "how" questions when we
speak of changes in the setup hasn't learned to discern
what's important and what is not in solving a problem. I was
discussing with a colleague the silliness that is seen on
final exams, and he was lamenting his students trying to find
a "use" for every number given in a problem.