4 ms·

I'm confused by it not being intuitive. I imagine a chid would say the pen would drop as they probably know nothing of 'low gravity' and all that math stuff so

I'm confused by it not being intuitive. I imagine a chid would say the pen would drop as they probably know nothing of 'low gravity' and all that math stuff so they will imagine what would happen on the earth and extrapolate that to the moon. They may even recall seeing people WALK on the moon and thus assume it's just like earth and say the pen drops. This seems to me that years of physics/science teaching has ruined the ability of these students to actually think.

Confusion 17y ago
I imagine a child would say the pen would drop A child that has seen a movie or documentary about astronauts floating around in a spacecraft, may very well guess that the pen would float. "Space" seems to be the common denominator, not "on a large rock". From most perspectives, the earth looks nothing like the moon. This seems to me that years of physics/science teaching has ruined the ability of these students to actually think. The more you know, the more options you have to consider before coming to a conclusion. Considering all the, mutually influential, effects that could play a role, you may simply get overloaded. The problem isn't the capacity to think, it's the ability to easily and swiftly dismiss all irrelevant factors. I believe I could have made this mistake in my first year as a physics student.
- mechanical_fish 17y ago
  The more you know, the more options you have to consider before coming to a conclusion. This was a big problem when I played rapid-fire, Jeopardy-style trivia games in school. One learned to dread questions that were in a field you actually knew. The knowledge slows you down! Trivia questions are generally written by knowledgeable non-experts. But a question which is clearly phrased from the perspective of a knowledgeable non-expert can be imprecise enough to cause an expert to pause, and pauses are deadly in rapid-fire trivia. It's hard to construct a perfect example, but suppose you got a question that boils down to "who first demonstrated radio"? A lot of people will blurt out "Marconi" -- he did, after all, apparently score the first patent for a radio set, and he was a good self-promoter. But the physicist or historian, who might know about Tesla and Oliver Lodge, will object, or at least hesitate for a fatal moment.

Confusion 17y ago

I imagine a child would say the pen would drop A child that has seen a movie or documentary about astronauts floating around in a spacecraft, may very well guess that the pen would float. "Space" seems to be the common denominator, not "on a large rock". From most perspectives, the earth looks nothing like the moon. This seems to me that years of physics/science teaching has ruined the ability of these students to actually think. The more you know, the more options you have to consider before coming to a conclusion. Considering all the, mutually influential, effects that could play a role, you may simply get overloaded. The problem isn't the capacity to think, it's the ability to easily and swiftly dismiss all irrelevant factors. I believe I could have made this mistake in my first year as a physics student.

mechanical_fish 17y ago
The more you know, the more options you have to consider before coming to a conclusion. This was a big problem when I played rapid-fire, Jeopardy-style trivia games in school. One learned to dread questions that were in a field you actually knew. The knowledge slows you down! Trivia questions are generally written by knowledgeable non-experts. But a question which is clearly phrased from the perspective of a knowledgeable non-expert can be imprecise enough to cause an expert to pause, and pauses are deadly in rapid-fire trivia. It's hard to construct a perfect example, but suppose you got a question that boils down to "who first demonstrated radio"? A lot of people will blurt out "Marconi" -- he did, after all, apparently score the first patent for a radio set, and he was a good self-promoter. But the physicist or historian, who might know about Tesla and Oliver Lodge, will object, or at least hesitate for a fatal moment.