[Phys-L] intuitive versus counter-intuitive

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 02/11/2015 01:26 PM, Paul Nord wrote:
> I blame the demos.  We design too many physics demos to be very
> clever and give counter-intuitive results.

I agree ... and it's not just the demos.  In many textbooks,
the section on relativity seems to revel in making it seem
as unfamiliar, weird, and counter-intuitive as possible ... 
even though the vast majority of what relativity predicts 
is perfectly familiar and non-weird.
  https://www.av8n.com/physics/spacetime-welcome.htm

This is what I might call David Copperfield mode:  
   "Hey, pay me money and I'll show you this amazing and 
   unbelievable thing."
That makes for entertainment, but it doesn't make for 
good pedagogy.

On the other hand ... this is not a clear-cut black-and-white
issue.  There are arguments both ways:
  a) Students who have never seen the ordinary case need
   to see that and become reasonably familiar with it 
   before moving on to the extraordinary case.
  b) Step (a) must not be taken too far, because students
   have a tendency to over-generalize.  They leap to the
   conclusion that the ordinary case is the universal case.
   There is even a word that covers this:  sophomoric.

In this department, as in so many others, teaching is more
of an art than a science.