Talk:High School Physics/Projectile motion

From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection

Please only put things highschoolers would likely understand.

Why don't you think highschoolers will understand this? Is the issue derivatives and calculus? Trig identities and quadratic formulas should be fine. (If you want to contact me directly, see my Wikipedia account w:User:Samw) Samw 00:20, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

To the author of this article: I am not familiar with Wiki Books in general, but I also believe that this would be a difficult resource for high school students to use. I am looking for texts right now that would be suitable for high school physics students, and I am most likely not going to use this one. Honestly there was something I was confused about by the second sentence. The first problem I have with this is that the author makes reference to more complicated situations before the simple ones have been thoroughly conveyed. For example, clarifying that you are referring to flat ground isn't preferable when first introducing the physics of flat ground projectile motion. Only when readers are comfortable with flat ground situations will they want/need a distinction between flat and non-flat situations to be made. Another example is how in the derivation section polar coordinates are used. Students trying to understand projectile motion for the first time will often not be familiar with polar coordinates or at least will not be comfortable enough to utilize them while learning a new topic. Also, all of the derivations are highly mathematical with little physical interpretation. The way this system is mathematically modeled is confusing to a reader who doesn't already understand projectile motion. Someone who is good at math can read this article, be able to reproduce all of its results mathematically, yet still fail to understand how this relates to the real world uniform gravitational field that that we essentially live in. The title "High School Physics / Projectile Motion" implies that this article is written to be a resource for high school students learning projectile motion. If the goal of this article is to help students understand projectile motion, then it is not accomplishing that. May I ask what your credentials are as an educator of physics? (I ask this not in an attempt to discredit the article or your work, but because I find many well educated people have misconceptions about how students learn and thus need to have this pointed out to them). This article, as it is written, is probably fine if it's targeted at readers who already understand projectile motion physically (to some extent), and simply want to expand or reinforce on the mathematical background. I'll discuss this with you at a later date if you wish. --129.2.239.111 05:21, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

I don't claim any expertise in education. I think this is useful material. However, if there is a better location for this in Wikibooks (e.g. an undergrad textbook), go ahead and move it there. (Maybe my age is showing, but when I went to high school, we did polar coordinates and calculus.) By all means feel free to add physical descriptions or otherwise improve the article. Samw 01:25, 13 December 2006 (UTC)