Quote:
Originally posted by Carrie@Feb 4 2004, 09:54 AM
As far as I was aware there were only 3 types of matter - gases, solids, and liquids.
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That's the high school version.
Sort of like when you learn an electron is a little particle that travels in a circle around a nucleus. In reality, an electron has both wave and particle properties. It's not REALLY a little pill shaped particle with a minus sign on it. That just helps us to deal with it because in our everyday experience, we don't come across anything like an electron which has these strange dual properties.
The way these things are taught probably has a lot to do with what is called the circular method of teaching. You teach one version of the subject and then as you go deeper into the subject you teach another level. I'm not a big fan of this. I think we should teach 5th graders about quantum mechanics and that what they are learning is outdated and approximate models of the true reality.