Re: Significant figures - a Modest Proposal

[Stefan Jeglinski <jeglin@4PI.COM>]

> I teach high school physics and chemistry and physics for the local community
> college.  The first chemistry meeting we were reviewing powers of ten and
> scientific notation -- I hadn't gotten to significant figures yet.  One of the
> students who had been in my high school physics class two years earlier was
> very uncomfortable with the work  --  "What  about significant figures!"  She
> was used to doing them and did not like to see a bunch of arbitrary
> digits that weren't justified (at least to her thinking) up there on
> the chalk board.


which brings up the important question, even though I understand the
sentiment of "why bother teaching it to kids who can't or won't get
it":

 what to do about short-changing those kids who *can* get it?

The (admittedly very few) kids who eventually end up with a
successful career in science are likely to be those who weren't
shortchanged in this and other areas early on. The young student
above had insight that we know is important. How would we justify not
being true to her?


Stefan Jeglinski