(The other kind of sentence, an utterance that rings definitely false to someone who knows what’s going on, but which serves to point a beginner in the right direction, is one I don’t have a word for.)
People often refer to this as an “oversimplification”—I think that term is a good one. Unfortunately, all google gives as examples of an “oversimplification” are of an “oversimplified cause fallacy” but I think it’s reasonable to say things like “All objects accelerate towards the ground at 9.8 m/s^2″ is an oversimplification because an expert would have a whole dialogue with that nonetheless-useful-to-students statement, such as:
No, they don’t because air resistance generally affects things and its effects depend on their shape
Well actually they have a 9.8 m/s^2 downward force applied due to gravity but there may be countervailing or reinforcing forces which depend on the characteristics of the object and the situation
Well that only applies on Earth because it’s a specific function of Earths gravity
Well actually even on Earth there are microvariations in the strength of gravitational force
Falling objects are stationary so the proper acceleration is 0. They do not accelerate.
Object on tables etc actually accelerate at 9.8 m/s^2 up (equivalence principle etc, they feel the mediating force where they touch the table)
If you take these naively and don’t know about geodesics etc you would think these claim that an apple on a table would lose contact with the table by levitating away. But with proper (pun intended) definitions that is not at all what they claim.
I do think these do not really fit on the category of “oversimplification”. Rather they are “oversophisticated”.
What I meant was, “All objects accelerate towards the ground at 9.8 m/s^2” is the oversimplification and the bulleted examples were the various reasons that the oversimplification is not technically correct.
I also missed that you were naming and giving examples to the unnamed concept.
The examples are more of edge cases. Having a different definition what is an inertial object makes the old statements false also in their core. Disagreeing 180 degrees on the direction of the force is not a small disagreement or one that can be glossed over by a rounding error.
I thought that the point of the unnamed concept was that it is false. The oversimplification examples seem rather have the attitude to classify the target as confused or muddled, “not even wrong”.
People often refer to this as an “oversimplification”—I think that term is a good one. Unfortunately, all google gives as examples of an “oversimplification” are of an “oversimplified cause fallacy” but I think it’s reasonable to say things like “All objects accelerate towards the ground at 9.8 m/s^2″ is an oversimplification because an expert would have a whole dialogue with that nonetheless-useful-to-students statement, such as:
No, they don’t because air resistance generally affects things and its effects depend on their shape
Well actually they have a 9.8 m/s^2 downward force applied due to gravity but there may be countervailing or reinforcing forces which depend on the characteristics of the object and the situation
Well that only applies on Earth because it’s a specific function of Earths gravity
Well actually even on Earth there are microvariations in the strength of gravitational force
etc
other levels on that are
Falling objects are stationary so the proper acceleration is 0. They do not accelerate.
Object on tables etc actually accelerate at 9.8 m/s^2 up (equivalence principle etc, they feel the mediating force where they touch the table)
If you take these naively and don’t know about geodesics etc you would think these claim that an apple on a table would lose contact with the table by levitating away. But with proper (pun intended) definitions that is not at all what they claim.
I do think these do not really fit on the category of “oversimplification”. Rather they are “oversophisticated”.
What I meant was, “All objects accelerate towards the ground at 9.8 m/s^2” is the oversimplification and the bulleted examples were the various reasons that the oversimplification is not technically correct.
I also missed that you were naming and giving examples to the unnamed concept.
The examples are more of edge cases. Having a different definition what is an inertial object makes the old statements false also in their core. Disagreeing 180 degrees on the direction of the force is not a small disagreement or one that can be glossed over by a rounding error.
I thought that the point of the unnamed concept was that it is false. The oversimplification examples seem rather have the attitude to classify the target as confused or muddled, “not even wrong”.