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I was trying to answer a kid's question about the moon's gravity and my explanation was totally wrong
This was in my classroom last Tuesday, and a student asked why the moon doesn't just fall into Earth. I gave a quick answer about orbits being a balance of forces (which is sort of right) but then I said gravity gets weaker the closer you get (which is completely backwards). I realized my mistake as soon as the words left my mouth, stopped the whole class, and we looked up the real inverse-square law together on the projector. Has anyone else had a moment where you had to publicly correct a major factual error you just made?
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nathanh4421d ago
Honestly, the real lesson there is how you handled it. How many teachers would actually stop and look it up with the class? Most would just brush past it and hope nobody noticed. That kid will remember the correction way more than the mistake.
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sage52821d ago
Actually, the inverse-square law means it gets stronger closer in. The force weakens as you move away, not toward.
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