ZikZak

YA's policy on homework questions is that it's fine to post homework verbatim from your homework set in the (usually correct) hopes that someone else will do it all for you. YA claims in the forums that it is "OK to ask for help on homework." That is not what I am talking about. I am not talking about asking for help. I am talking about cutting and pasting entire homework sets, which is (amongst other things) a copyright violation.

Additionally, telling a student who has posted 20 homework questions in 20 seconds (clearly not having actually bothered to attempt them) to do it themselves is the best way to get violated.

This system is academically dishonest and exceedingly unethical. I'm not talking about the students who do it (but them too); I'm talking about a policy that encourages and supports that behavior. As a professional scientist and educator, I cannot in good conscience continue to contribute.

So... so long all and thanks for all the fish. It's been a slice.

The Moon Illusion is one of the oldest known astronomical phenomena, but no one really knows what causes it, and the theories attempting to explain it are all self-contradictory. I've decided to do some experiments to examine the phenomenon. Take this survey and thus help design that experiment to find out more!

1. When on the horizon, does the Moon *appear* bigger to you than when high in the sky? (Does it look like it takes up more visual space in your field of view?) By how much?

2. Does it appear *actually larger*? (Does your brain tell you that it's a physically bigger object?) How much?

3. Does it appear further, at the same distance, or closer than when overhead?

4. You might visualize the starry night sky as a dome surrounding your head, with the stars attached to it. Does the horizon moon appear in back of, exactly on, or in front of the starry dome? What about when it is high above the horizon?

Thanks, and remember: this is for science. :)

An interesting phenomenon around here... LOTS of people answering relativity questions referring to the increase of mass as speed approaches c.

This is an obsolete interpretation. In modern physics literature, the word "mass" always refers to rest mass. The variable M always refers to mass, which always refers to rest mass.

It's obsolete for very good reasons: you can't correctly calculate effects of gravity using "relativistic mass;" relativistic mass is not invarient, but rest mass is. Even if you're using it to illustrate changes of inertia, it's different in different directions: you'd have to give a particle a different mass for each of x,y, and z motions. Scalar, invarient mass becomes a noninvarient vector. Messy.

When you explain that bodies cannot travel at c by explaining that they get more and more massive, it easily misleads the asker into thinking that if they were to travel at c they would become fatter and fatter in their own reference frame, which is clearly untrue.

Now that the school year is here, I have noticed that Yahoo Answers is most definitely less fun. Every question in the Physics section is *verbatim* off of a homework set. It's not as if these kids are even thinking about what they're asking even a little bit before posting it here. Just take a look at their question histories. Every single one has about 150 verbatim homework questions in physics asked.

They're not asking for help. They're asking YOU to do their entire homework for them so that they need not perform any complex functions (like learning) for themselves.

So why would you answer their questions? I am totally cool with giving them hints or a push in the right direction, but why on Earth would you give the complete answer with all steps, etc., all good and ready to be plagiarized? It's cheating, and I would kick both of you out of my class.

Giving complete answers to homeworks doesn't help them learn, or even pass the exam. It doesn't benefit *you* in ANY way. So why???

Good god! How many moon landing hoax questions can there be? Sheesh! Moon Hoax crazies, creationist crazies, Pi-is-rational crazies, and even "Einstein was WrOnG@!@!!!" crazies all seem to be staunchly American.

I wonder if there was a segment of the ancient Chinese population that who went around talking about how the Great Wall was all a fake government consipiracy...

...or ancient Romans who insisted that the aqueducts never existed.

...or medieval Christians who believed that the Gothic cathedrals were just too damn big and beautiful to have been built by men.

Or is it purely a modern American phenomenon?