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Re: [Phys-L] Evaluation tests

I THINK I almost subconsciously used the fact that (x - a)/x approaches 1 as x gets larger.

John Mallinckrodt
Cal Poly Pomona

On Dec 17, 2013, at 10:19 AM, LaMontagne, Bob wrote:

I am curious how the people on this list came to the answer - it might help in knowing how we would want our students to come to the answer - i.e., how to think as physicists.

I read BC's approach - I would be thrilled if my non-science majors could think in that fashion. I had a slightly different approach - I never actually thought about the numbers per se. I envisioned a line divided into 27 parts and one divided into 17 parts. I could "see" that 25 parts were closer to the right end of the line than 15 parts - it was all purely visual - no deliberate use of formal logic.

Do we as physicists intuit answers or do we formally apply critical thinking?