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-----Original Message-----
From: Phys-l [mailto:phys-l-bounces@phys-l.org] On Behalf Of Philip Keller
Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2013 5:07 PM
To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
Subject: Re: [Phys-L] kinematics objectives
JD wrote:
By telling students their ideas are not crazy wrong, just /restricted/, they are
less likely to get defensive.
------
That made me remember something from one of my first years teaching. I
was presenting some of what Aristotle had to say about motion as in
introduction to Newton's laws. I was about 10 minutes in when one of my
students raised his hand to interrupt: "Wait. Are you saying that this stuff is
WRONG?" I said it was...and he said "but this is the first thing you've said all
year that I understand!"
Ever since then, I have made it a point to acknowledge that it is completely
reasonable to believe that the natural state of an object is to be at rest. If
you had to use your personal experience to choose between Galileo and
Aristotle, Aristotle would win.
Similarly, it is just as reasonable to believe that the Sun goes around the Earth
as do the stars. Aristotle was not a dumb guy. Neither were those ancient
Greeks.
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