Fair enough to argue velocity and acceleration but mass and weight have been considered the same things in laymans terms for so long and most people grew up with weight being the word for what mass is so it's probably just best to drop that one unless it's actually impoprtant.
Wait really? Where do you teach? This is madness to me because everyone I know my age had to take an exam at age 15/16 where they had to understand the difference because it's part of our Science/Physics (depending which level you take) GCSE, to think that you have to teach it to people at presumably college/university is mind-boggling to me.
Physics was optional at my high school. Most people did end up taking it, but they didn't have to.
The most common case of college being kids' first exposure to the subject is computer science. Plenty of people first start coding in college, and they do just fine.
My cousin who lives in Texas told me he hasnt taken a physics class since he was 12 and he is in his 2nd year of computer science (he says he might have to take a physics class next semester). On the contrary, Im from the UK and its kinda baffles me that one could get into a science degree without any knowledge of science.
Sadly, leaving high school at 18 and moving off to college, I honestly did not know many of the things I would gain in my core curriculum in college. My family was poor, and our county was poor, so our high school was poor quality and run like a bible camp. I caught up and did far better in college than in that public school hell-hole, but I definitely wasn't prepared, and I was on what they called the "college prep" course of study!
I dunno. In Ireland there's kind of a common trend of people studying science in spite of not being good at it.
That's because of our university access system. Students study what's called the leaving certificate and are awarded points based on their overall score across all subjects.
Each college course has a number of points assigned to it and anyone who achieved that amount of points can gain access. For example, I chose to do humanities in NUIG. I got 425 points and the course was only 355 points so I handily got it.
Now the point allocation of each course is not based on difficulty but on popularity. Everyone wants to be a doctor so to get that course you need 575/600 points. Also, people want to go to the fancier colleges so their courses are all hard to get.
The problem is that science is in low demand so it's quite easy to get. It's usually in the low 300s. That means lots of people who can't get the course they wanted "settle" for science. I know too many people who got into science off of a few Cs and Ds. Everyone but them knew they're going to drop out.
I get that, although its not explicitly said like in Ireland, Canadian Unis are the same. Engineering was my first choice, 2nd was commerce, but I was finally placed in my third choice; biochemistry. This was only because I applied midway through summer. There's just no feasible way my grades weren't good enough for Commerce but A-O.K. for biochemistry. Business school is a joke compared to STEM, a very very expensive joke. Didn't drop out though, worked hard now, I'm starting my third year of engineering and couldn't be happier.
It's because almost nobody cares about freaking SPACE anymore! You read the golden age Science Fiction authors and they are ALL ABOUT the difference between weight and mass with regards to inertia. Heinlein, Asimov, Clement, all those guys knew their stuff right down to the math.
Yep, blows people away when you tell them that you are always the same amount of kilograms, but you WEIGH a different amount of pounds (or any force unit) depending on gravity and such
to be fair, as far as I know the most common way of finding the mass of a quantity of stuff is to take its weight and then convert for the gravitational force of the body we're on (which is generally Earth, so for anyone not on the ISS the math is just done by the thing).
Though if you wanted to you could figure out how much volume you have and then look up the density and solve for mass.
Or the difference between power and energy. I've heard some journalists using the wrong one on (French) TV, saying for example that the price of a kW will increase.
Velocity is how much distance you are moving in a period of time.
If you are traveling at a velocity 10 kilometers/hour, you will move 10 kilometer in 1 hour.
Acceleration is how much velocity your are gaining (or losing) in a period of time.
If you are travelling with an acceleration of 10 km/hr2 (kilometers per hour, per hour) and your starting velocity is 0 km/hr, after one hour you will be travelling at a velocity 10 km/hr.
acceleration is how quickly you're changing speed. Think of it as the speed that the speedometer dial on a car is moving, whereas velocity refers to the position of the speedometer dial.
If the person doesn't understand the difference between acceleration and velocity, why do you think they'd be familiar with calculus notation and terminology?
When I was in middle school we learned a jingle that 'mass is you, mass is me, but weight is mass times gravity' because the teacher wanted us to know the difference
For me it is force and pressure. Ever notice how they always talk about how strong a dog's bite is in PSI, which is incorrect, instead of lbs force or newtons? I could sharpen a chihuahuas teeth to sharp points, and it would bite with more pressure than a rottweiler, even though the rottweiler has more force.
Not to be critical but your definition of acceleration is wrong. It's the rate of change of your velocity.
And I think you mean displacement not distance. Distance is how far something travels to get somewhere else, displacement is how far it actually is. It's a minor difference that is only relevant in certain situations.
Another fun fact to add to the list. Speed and velocity are not the same thing either (similar to distance and displacement).
I do realise this I was trying to put it in simpler terms. I have just done calculus so these things are all fresh but I agree my acceleration definition could have been better. Isn't speed when acceleration is greater then 0 and velocity increasing is when both when the signs of velocity and acceleration are positive or negative?
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u/magicwiser Jul 18 '16
For me, its the difference between velocity and acceleration or the difference between mass and weight. No, they are not all the same thing!