Re: What is understanding?

[Uri Ganiel <ntganiel@WEIZMANN.WEIZMANN.AC.IL>]

At 11:36 -0500 12/07/99, brian whatcott wrote:
> At 12:11 7/12/99 -0400, Cary Busby wrote:
> > > ... Feynman (advice to himself on his last blackboard) was
> > > "What I cannot create, I do not understand." (Phys Today 10 years ago)
> > Does it follow that one understands whatever he/she can create?
> >
> > Cary
>
>
> There is a name for:
> If not A then not B
> THEREFORE
> if A then B
>
> But I can't call it back. Anyone?
>
> Example:
> (If no oxygen, then not alive, therefore: if oxygen, then alive)

Do I miss something here? Clearly this statement is wrong: given "If not A
then not B"
does not lead to: "if A then B", since "not B" does not promise anything
about A...

Uri Ganiel
Prof. Uri Ganiel
Head, Department of Science Teaching
The Weizmann Institute of Science
Rehovot 76100, ISRAEL

Phone: 972-8-9343894
FAX:    972-8-9344115

E-mail:  NTGANIEL@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il