Re: [Phys-L] Lenz's law and conservation of energy

[Richard Tarara <rtarara@saintmarys.edu>]

I would caution everyone about taking the discussions on this list as 
the 'last word' on any topic. 'Wrong' can be relative--wrong for the 
theoretical physics community, wrong for Cal-Tech physics majors, wrong 
for high school physics might be different--at least pedagogically 
(after all we DO still teach Newtonian physics).   While we have a few 
_very_ smart people here, we do have disagreements between even them 
such as the discussions that recently went on between Sherwood and 
Denker where I'm not sure a definitive answer was reached.  If you 
really believe a major error exists in a well-established book, you 
might want to give the authors (if still living) a chance to defend 
their position.

As I am apt to repeat often, consider your audience carefully and what 
they will do with your instruction and what they will do next (if 
anything) in the discipline.

rwt (who has changed _some_ things in courses due to discussions here.)

On 4/3/2014 11:14 AM, Philip Keller wrote:
> Once again, I come to the list to see what I have been teaching incorrectly
> for the past decades.  I would guess that a pretty large fraction of what I
> "know" about physics comes from Sears, Zemansky, Young and also Halliday
> and Resnick.  So here goes:

--
Richard Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College

free Physics educational software at
www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html
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