英语翻译
6."Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof.Drop the barometer,timing its fall with a stopwatch.Then,using the formula S = ½at2,calculate the height of the building."
7.At this point,I asked my colleague if he would give up.He conceded,and I gave the student almost full credit.
8.In leaving my colleague's office,I recalled that the student had said he had other answers to the problem,so I asked him what they were."Oh yes," said the student."There are many ways of getting the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer.For example,you could take the barometer out on a sunny day and measure the height of the barometer,the length of its shadow,and the length of the shadow of the building,and by the use of a simple proportion,determine the height of the building."
9."Fine," I said."And the others?"
10."Yes," said the student."There is a very measurement method that you will like.In this method,you take the barometer and begin to walk up the stairs.As you climb the stairs,you mark off the length of the barometer along the wall.You then count the number of marks,and this will give you the height of the building in barometer units.A very direct method.
11."Of course,if you want a more sophisticated method,you can tie the barometer to the end of a string,swing it as a pendulum and determine the value of g at the street level and at the top of the building.From the difference between the two values of g,the height of the building can,in principle,be calculated."
12.Finally he concluded,there are many other ways of solving the problem."Probably the best," he said,"is to take the barometer to the basement and knock on the superintendent's door.When the superintendent answers,you speak to him as follows:'Mr.Superintendent,here I have a fine barometer.If you will tell me the height of this building,I will give you this barometer.' "
13.At this point,I asked the student if he really did not know the conventional answer to this question.He admitted that he did,but said that he was fed up with high school and college instructor trying to teach him how to think,to use the "scientific method," and to explore the deep inner logic of the subject in a pedantic way,as is often done in the new mathematics,rather than teaching him the structure of the subject.With this in mind,he decided to revive scholasticism as an academic lark to challenge the Sputnik panicked classrooms of America.