I was reading "What Expert Teachers Do" by John Loughran the other day and, like one of the teachers in the book, could not model the synchronous rotation of the moon in my head. It just wouldn't all rotate and revolve like it was supposed to. I had to look it up:
Synchronous Rotation of the Moon
It's very difficult to understand many physical concepts without a simulation. I couldn't wrap my head around the abstract idea of synchronous rotation of the moon until I saw it with my own eyes. (to answer the question "why do we always see the same face of the moon?") Sure, it now seems "so obvious".. once you've crossed the bridge you can't go back, but we need a bridge in the first place!
No comments:
Post a Comment