Re: Education (Was Re: Techwriting After the Boom)

["Richard G. Combs" <richard -dot- combs -at- voyanttech -dot- com>]

John Posada wrote:

> But you don't need to know the reality to know what the formula
represents.
> It happens to represent a whole bunch of e because c is such a big number.

I've been reading TECHWR-L via news, so I didn't immediately realize that
John's earlier response to me was also posted to the list. My reply to him
is relevant to the above statement as well:

<<Wrong. You can tell someone how to solve an equation that way (but only if
they understand the necessary predecessor concepts, such as what it means to
square something). But solving the equation isn't the same as understanding
the concept.
For someone to grasp the concept, they must first grasp the concept of mass,
not just think in terms of some value arbitrarily called m. In fact, they
need a _whole lot_ of predecessor knowledge in order to understand the
meaning and implications of that formula.

I'm not saying that you have to _be able_ to convert matter to energy in
order to understand the theory. I'm saying you have to _understand the
concepts_ of matter and energy (and a bunch of simpler concepts that help
you to understand those). >>

_Of course_ you have to know what the formula represents, John! At least,
you do in order to gain any useful conceptual knowledge from learning it.

Using your premises, the only concept one learns is "if you multiply a
number by a real big number, the result is real big." That's good to know,
but it ain't physics.

You might as well tell people that energy is the product of Moon Pies and
caffeine squared. ;-)

Richard



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