Re: [Phys-L] inertia and the tablecloth demo

[Richard Tarara <rtarara@saintmarys.edu>]

I'm OK with this--even came to my feeble mind earlier today--but inertia 
is part of our language and seemingly ingrained in our physics 
traditions.  That the physics uses of the word inertia resonate to a 
large extent with our common use of the term can be used to advantage 
(or not) with students.   I think one can substitute momentum for 
inertia in most physics contexts even when mass might seem more 
appropriate keeping in mind that a body at rest has zero momentum.  I 
admit to still being confused in the relativistic realm though when 
momentum seemingly can't be separated into mass and velocity, but am 
resigned to the fact that this is the modern approach of most.

Bottom line...I don't think we can erase 'inertia' entirely from the 
curriculum, but could make it an historical reference to mass and or 
momentum.

rwt

On 8/17/2016 3:44 PM, John Denker wrote:
> On 08/17/2016 11:22 AM, stefan jeglinski wrote:
>
> > I think this is largely my objection to the tablecloth experiment.
> > While both this example and the tablecloth can be discussed in the
> > context of inertia, I don't think there's much there for the student
> I have a similar objection.  I might state it even more strongly:
>    I don't have much use for the notion of "inertia".
>    I have no interest in demonstrating "inertia" or even mentioning it.
>    I prefer standard physics concepts such as /mass/ and /momentum/.


--
Richard Tarara
Professor Emeritus
Saint Mary's College

free Physics educational software
http://sites.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html