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[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Harry Conover) wrote: >Acme Optics <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>... >> Ahem! >> >> Physics text books should not have pretty illustrations. They should >> have lots of equations. Intermediate steps should always be missing so >> that the professor can have the opportunity to say, "let the >> derivation be an exercise for the student". >> >> Physics should be difficult enough that even the best students will >> need to spend at least 4 hours per problem. Physics and Pain should by >> synonymous, just as they were in the 60's at UCLA. Not all the >> problems should have solutions. This prepares the student for life. >> >> Dr Image Nius >> Professor of Warp Field Studies >> James T. Kirk University >> Titan Colony, Alpha Quadrant > >I can't agree with you that "physics and pain should be synomous", but >I will agree with you that the author of this online text fails to >present the essence of basic physics, if indeed he holds an education >in the subject. > >I will concede that the presentation and visuals are well done, but >this is so very typical of today's Coffee Table Books, that is, all >style and no content. > >Regarding 4 hour problems...I seriously doubt that anyone except other >physicists here will even relate to what you mean. Still, any >physicist here who has gone though a course in classical or >theoretical mecahnics will be familiar with this. Hell, a four hour >problem was one of the easier ones! > >Do you remember the problems that were labeled as being from the >'Oxford' series? Damn, some of them were tough, yet they still >mysteriously re-appeared as at least one problem on a mid-term or >final exam. Separated those who did their homework from those who had >not! > >Do you remember the one about the pocket watch? It concerned a watch >having a case mass of M, and a coaxially located balance wheel with a >mass of m. The problem appeared simple, but was anything but. It was >simple to write the relatinship between the time kept by the watch >when the case was constrained not to move vs. that when it was >unconstrained and free to react. I'm probably a bit dense, but it must >have taken me 12-hours to solve that one. > > > Harry C. I far preferred the one that went like, "Apply Kickoffs's circuit law to a chicken coop" or " In a lab at UCLA one ounce of matter and one ounce of anti matter are separated by one cm. At t=0 the magnetic vacuum bottles holding each fail. The sufficient head start would be: San Diego Mexico City Panama City Calisto Pluto."
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