238 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OP SCIENCE 



RESEARCH WORK AS A PREPARATION FOR 

 TEACHING HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE 



Fred D. Barber, Illijstois State Normal University, 



Normal 



On Wednesday, January 25, last, while the thermome- 

 ter stood at zero, I received the following letter from the 

 principal and teacher of physics in a high school in west- 

 ern Illinois. 



January 24, 1922. 

 ''Professor Barber, 



Normal, Illinois. 

 Dear Sir: 



Please be so kind as to write me which will freeze the 

 quicker, hot or cold water. I am unable to find anything 

 in reference to this in any of my physics textbooks. 

 Thanldng you, I am Yours truly. 



''P. S. The problem I have in mind is this: If a pan 

 containing boiling water is placed in a room 10 degrees 

 below zero, and another pan containing water at a tem- 

 perature of 40 degrees Fahr. is placed in the same room 

 at the same time, which will freeze the quicker?" 



Some of us are inclined to smile at this inquiry. In 

 reply we are perhaps inclined to suggest that authority 

 might well be dispensed with in seeking an answer to this 

 question, and simple observation substituted. We are 

 even inclined to advise personal experimentation and ob- 

 servation to the application of abstract reasoning based 

 upon the abstract laws and principles of physics which 

 we all studied in our high school days. We are inclined 

 to advise the writer of the letter to fill two similar dishes, 

 one with boiling hot water and the other with cold water, 

 and place these two dishes north of the school house on a 

 cold day and observe results. 



Let us not be too severe in our judgTuent of the atti- 

 tude of this teacher. In thus seeking what he considered 

 a reasonably authoritative statement for the solution of 

 his problem he was undoubtedly but following the path 



