Semantics in teaching introductory physics

American Journal of Physics

Volumn 67, Issue 8, 1999, Pages 670-680

  Williams, H Thomas ^a  

^a WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0033465734     PISSN: 00029505     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1119/1.19351     Document Type: Article

References (18)

1. James K. Senior, "The Vernacular of the Laboratory," Philos. Sci. 25, 163-168 (1958).
2. Thomas S. Kuhn, International Encyclopedia of Unified Science, Foundations of the Unity of Science, Vol. II, No. 2, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1970), 2nd ed., enlarged.
3. Image and Logic: The Material Culture of Microphysics, edited by Peter Galison (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1997).
4. Stephen W. Hawking, A Brief History of Time (Bantam Books, New York, 1988).
5. The struggles of some similar students are examined by Shelia Tobias in They're Not Dumb, They're Different (Research Corporation, Tuscon, AZ, 1990).
6. A Guide to Introductory Physics Teaching, edited by Arnold B. Arons (Wiley, New York, 1990).
7. Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct (Harper Perennial, New York, 1995).
8. E. Shahn, "On Science Literacy," J. Philosophy of Education Society of Australia 20, 42-52 (1988).
9. See Ref. 6, pp. 123 and 124.
10. Poul Anderson, "Cleftish Unbeholdings," in Of Thoughts and Words, Proceedings of the Nobel Symposium 92, edited by Sture Allen (Imperial College Press, London, 1994), p. 263.
11. Douglas R. Hofstadter, in Ref. 10, p. 217.
12. Dictionary references herein all come from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (Merriam-Webster, Inc., Springfield, MA, 1996), 10th ed.
13. See Ref. 2, p. 47.
14. See Ref. 2, p. 50.
15. Italicized definitions are taken from Ref. 12.
16. In the spring of 1998, as this was being written, the American Physical Society was struggling with definitions. A task group established in 1995 in response to growing concern about public misunderstanding of science, sought a definition of science. A 4000-word definition was generated and published in the October 1997 APS newsletter, Physics and Society. An attempt to shorten the definition has, so far failed, with a 210-word version recently rejected by the governing council of the APS.
17. See, for example, Robert J. Whitaker, "Aristotle is not Dead: Student Understanding of Trajectory Motion," Am. J. Phys. 51 (3), 352-357 (1983).
18. See Ref. 6, p. 74.