A provisional truth used to preserve mental bandwidth in the educational process. Often, this is done without acknowledging that it is not really the truth. Sometimes, this is because the instructor doesn't know it's a lie. Sometimes, it strategic omission, because inquisitive minds don't want to accept any weak approximations. With more advanced students, it becomes safe to say that this is a partial truth or an engineering approximation, that is appropriate for some contexts, but not others.

Some people, even if very advanced, are quite opposed to the instructional lie. This is probably why they are often delivered undisclaimored.

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