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On 12/12/2013 06:49 PM, Craig Wiegert wrote:
Oh, come now.
If your goal is to ensure Newton gets credit for his Holy Laws,
then by all means make sure students learn them by number. I know
from experience just how few of them understand which numbered law
corresponds to which physical principle. By contrast, my students
who learn the Matter and Interactions style of "kooky jargon" have
no trouble recognizing and applying the principle, and at the end
of the day can still attribute it to Saint Isaac.
Physician, heal thyself. If your students are attributing
the first law to Saint Isaac, they are doing so incorrectly.
Contrary to what it says on page 6 of your textbook, Newton did
not originate this law. It was clearly set forth by Galileo,
many decades before Newton came on the scene. Sir Isaac was
the first to set it atop a numbered list, but that does not
mean the idea should be attributed to him.
"Imagine any particle projected along a horizontal plane
without friction; then we know, from what has been more
fully explained in the preceding pages, that this particle
will move along this same plane with a motion which is
uniform and perpetual, provided the plane has no limits."
– Galileo Galilei (1638)
tr. Crew & Salvio