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> Subject: Re: Subtle telescope details
> 
> I think the problem is with ray diagrams that are not exactly 
> wrong but are so abstract they create a retrograde confusion: 
> they mess up things previously understood. This is not good. 
> Most kids (most people!) have no clue what the arrows 
> represent, something moving but what, photons? Why aren't 
> there more of them?
>
> A better way to go is to give kids some lenses, make some 
> observations and try to come to some conclusions. Then 
> proceed with future inquiries and explanations on the basis 
> of their terms and conceptions, not those of an expert physicist.
> 
> David Savory

Ideally. But we can't fill our museums (particularly this one) with Mark Hopkinses, or even docents, on one end of a log and a empty seat at the other end. And I've been fiddling with lenses and not come to any conclusion that I'm satisfied with. I guess what I've realized is that I never really understood how this works in the first place. I have a mental picture of how it works, but it might not be right.

If you're trying to build an exhibit which lets people know: "the universe is explicable, see? Here's this common phenomenon and how we can explain it" you would like to know that the physical reality behind the phenomenon is. Let me know what the physicist thinks and I'll translate it.

Marc Taylor
Coordinator, Andrus Planetarium
Hudson River Museum
511 Warburton Avenue
Yonkers, NY 10701
914 963 4550 x223
Fax 963 8558
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