One thing that's become really clear to me in teaching physics is that dimensions and units are not straightforward concepts for students. I might hazard the assertion that they are 'threshold concepts' - ones where grasping what they are about transforms you way of thinking. Most people at least half-understand the idea of units - if we measure a length, we can't say it's 26.5. It's 26.5 what? nanometres? kilometres? light-years? There's big differences between them. There's also this mathematical conundrum to through out which illustrates the idea of dimensions: "I have a cube. What length does the side of the …
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Comorbidity and costs May 24
Another for the “underlying variables very likely cause both substance abuse AND negative outcomes” file via +Ole Rogeberg . It appears that novelty-seeking and conduct disorder strongly predict future alcohol tobacco and …
Morality, government and fossil fools (Bryan’s back!) May 24
I signed off regular writing for Hot Topic some months ago. But failing eyesight doesn’t mean failing concern and my anger at the way our government heedlessly pursues the expansion …
The value of outreach May 24
I enjoyed the CBC’s radio show The Invisible Hand. Rather than take a Freakonomics-style “wow isn’t this counterintuitive” take they instead simply presented standard economic theory as it is understood …
H7N9 kills and attacks kidneys May 24
27% of patients with H7N9 Influenza A died. This is the finding of a report just released in the New England Journal of Medicine is a study of 111 of …
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