Re: 2 pi i = 0

[Chuck Britton <britton@NCSSM.EDU>]

                       YES!!!!

If enough 'believers' write enough texts that become accepted enough.

It's been nearly a full century for the pedagogs to start doing away
with the mass transformation. When did the undergrad texts switch? or
have they?

High schools texts are doing well to even MENTION anything that has
happened within the last 100 years.

Reaching for my 'old geezer's' canonical text - I read that H&R
transform mass for us (to keep the p = m v equality).

But they also use the NOUN 'heat' to represent 'something' that is
transferred between things at differing temperatures.

While in the thermo section - I also that they use the Steam Engine
version of the first law. (Referring to work done BY a system as
being positive.)

Some physics committee somewhere has been won over by the chemists
and is making sure that teaching will switch to W being positive for
work done ON the system.

Bottom line - get those textbooks written and accepted. Only THEN
will substantial change occur. Of course we, as a small minority, can
feel oh so righteous, knowing that WE are the holders of Physically
Correct (PC) answers ;-)


At 5:29 PM -0700 11/23/02, Larry Smith wrote:
> At 10:51 PM -0500 11/22/02, Chuck Britton wrote:
>
> > I see it as being quite similar to the physics community changing
> > their tune about relativistic mass. Every generation gets to define
> > their own ultimate truths?
>
> Does that mean we get to define heat away as a noun?
>
> Or finally decide what g means?

       Is it 'Can of Worms' time again?
       What POSSIBLE meaning could g have except for
        'the weight in newtons that registers on a spring scale
       when a standard kg is hung therefrom'?

       g should always be stated as a newtons / kilogram conversion factor.

       Finding the associated acceleration is an exercise in Newton's #2.

> Larry
>
> This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC,
> NAU or the AAPT.

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.