Over the past several years, we have contributed articles to TPT that focus on a forensics-style reexamination of significant historical events. The purpose of these articles is to afford students the opportunity to apply basic principles of physics to unsolved mysteries and potentially settle the historical debate. We assembled the lessons learned and best practices of our activities into a formalized pedagogy for teaching topics in physics, engineering, problem solving, critical thinking, and ethics.
References
1.
G. A.
DiLisi
and R. A.
Rarick
, “Monday night football: Physics decides controversial call
,” Phys. Teach.
41
, 454
–459
(Nov.
2003
).2.
G. A.
DiLisi
and R. A.
Rarick
, “Modeling the 2004 tsunami for introductory physics courses
,” Phys. Teach.
44
, 585
–588
(Dec.
2006
).3.
G. A.
DiLisi
and R. A.
Rarick
, “Bouncing back from ‘Deflategate
,’” Phys. Teach.
53
, 341
–346
(Sept.
2015
).4.
G. A.
DiLisi
and R. A.
Rarick
, “Remembering the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald,
” Phys. Teach.
53
, 521
–525
(Dec.
2015
).5.
G. A.
DiLisi
, “The Hindenburg disaster: Combining physics and history in the laboratory
,” Phys. Teach.
55
, 268
–273
(May
2017
).6.
G. A.
DiLisi
and S.
McLean
, “The Apollo 1 fire: A case study in the flammability of fabrics
,” Phys. Teach.
57
, 236
–239
(April
2019
).7.
G. A.
DiLisi
, A.
Chaney
, S.
McLean
, and R. A.
Rarick
, “A case studies approach to teaching introductory physics
,” Phys. Teach.
58
, 156
–159
(March
2020
).8.
D. E.
McClendon
, The Lady Be Good: Mystery Bomber of World War II
(Aero Publishers, Inc.
, Fallbrook, CA
, 1962
).9.
Readers can view the appendix at TPT Online, http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/10.0003657, under the Supplemental tab.
10.
R. A.
Leskovec
, The HANDI-Finder® Experimenter’s Kit
(RALTEC® Electronics, Highland Heights
, Ohio
, 2017
).11.
12.
13.
Another popular model is
“The Searcher”
(available from Rainbowkits for $44.95). Visit https://www.rainbowkits.com/kits/sdf-1p.html.14.
Popular choices among students were Compass (version 4.9.6) from PixelProse SARL and Compass (version 2.1.2) from gabenative.
15.
Information on the atan2 function can be found at functions.wolfram.com, http://functions.wolfram.com/PDF/ArcTan2.pdf, accessed on Feb. 4, 2020.
16.
Note that Microsoft Excel reverses the arguments of its atan2 function.
17.
R.
Johnson
, Spherical Trigonometry
(West Hills Institute of Mathematics
), https://www.math.ucla.edu/∼robjohn/math/spheretrig.pdf, accessed on Feb. 4, 2020.20.
21.
M.
Martinez
, Lady’s Men: The Story of World War II’s Mystery Bomber and Her Crew
(The U.S. Naval Institute Press
, Annapolis, MD
, 1994
).22.
Diary of Robert Toner, http://www.ladybegood.net/diaries/, accessed on July 27, 2018.
23.
Author Mario Martinez claims that the fate of the LBG is shared by another radio operator at nearby Benghazi who failed to respond to Hatton’s plea for a position report, believing the airplane to be German. See Ref. 21.
24.
For an excellent analysis of the LBD’s final voyage, see the show “Ghost bomber: The Lady Be Good,” YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9W5P3-mxwY, accessed on July 27, 2018.
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2021
American Association of Physics Teachers
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