And Yet Another Piece to our Puzzle..... :)

[00:00:04.29] Derrick: I guess I don't know where we're going

[00:00:10.17] Derrick: Imagine a system like an "elevator"

[00:00:40.08] Derrick: But you're asking me how it gets from this mass to that mass...

[00:00:42.11] Costas: Or the other way around!

[00:00:47.04] Derrick: I don't know if we're going to the point of talking about gravitational fields and electric fields along the line....and how those electric fields get distorted...i feel like that is not where you're going...maybe something similar?

[00:01:09.27] Costas: Whether you guys think that the question "how is the energy transferred?" Is that a....

Derrick: That's an interesting question!

Costas: Is that a relevant question...a valid question?

[00:01:28.11] Derrick: it seems meaningful to me!

[00:01:31.14] John: Just to get an idea out there...it's going through the rope

[00:01:33.25] Costas: so let's think about what the rope is doing!...

what i'm hearing you say is that if the rope was not there then there would be no way of connecting this thing to this thing...

[00:01:47.21] Derrick: Oh, some sort of connection between two parts of the system

[00:01:51.08] Costas: Let's just take one of the two masses...i think it's easier to think of the one that's moving up...if i think about this, and I think about the rope that is connected to the part...what is the role of the rope...what does this mass feel?

[00:02:12.16] John: it's pulling that mass up...

Derrick: well you have balanced force because it's not accelerating; gravitational force is trying to pull it down and the rope is pulling it up

[00:02:24.09] Costas: One strategy that I try in my head to force on myself everytime, and I always find it useful when thinking about physics, is to make sure that I know what system I am thinking about at any one time, and also make sure that I know what terms I am using to analyze the system, so the reason i'm saying this is because those are important principles to me! I think we find it useful to just take a couple of minutes to agree on what we mean by the term force.

So what I heard you say was that...we have the rope connecting, and if i think about this mass, the rope is pulling it, and you said there are balanced forces there because this mass is not accelerating. I am asking two questions: what are the forces that are balancing out? and what do we mean by force?

[00:03:42.11]Derrick: laughing, I can go with what I learn: tension force is balancing out with gravitational force

Costas: and what do we mean by force?

John: well I would say a force is a... push or pull over a distance or something

Derrick and Costas: well it doesn't have to be over a distance...

John: just a push or a pull, you're right

Costas: are we agreed on this ? i like this! a force is a push or a pull...

Here is a clip of Costas interacting with Derrick and John. This clip was from the morning of the Energy 2 class this past Friday (when Stamatis was not in class).

I am still in the process of digesting the flurry of blog posts that were just posted by Amy and Rachel concerning the group interactions involving Stomatis and Leslie, but the idea of "where do the conversations "actually" start and why" has been circulating my train of thought. In this particular clip of Costas' group interaction, I felt like the moment which "sparked" discussion stemmed from Costas asking Derrick and John whether they felt that the question "how is energy transferred?" to be both "relevant" and "valid". I found it particularly interesting that rather than ask Derrick and John to answer the actual question, Costas found it necessary to first ask whether they each valued that question, seeking affirmation that the question was actually a genuine point of interest to the entire group.

I will post more about this clip as soon as more of my thoughts "settle"!