Lately I find myself thinking about Physics and how it affects us all. The main reason I am delving deeply into the subject is because two of my three kids are now taking the course or have just completed it.
Now, I’ve always loved physics. There were always really cool experiments to do and generally it involved crashing different things together to see what happened. Almost as much fun as blowing things up in Chemistry class. Anyway, I am happy that I can help my kids really understand the fundamentals of the world around us.
To tell the truth, they’ve already been immersed in physics experiments since they were born, they just haven’t been aware of it. Overcoming inertia for example. Try to get kids out of bed at 7:00 am on a school day and see what I mean. The energy output for the parents is huge!
My kids have had a lot of experiential learning over the years, courtesy of Yours Truly. My youngest had a private tutorial one winter day. While taking him to a small sledding hill, I was taking a shortcut between two houses. I told him to wait on the sidewalk until I went down a tiny, one meter slope. All in one shot, he saw examples of friction and frictionless surfaces – my boot on top of the snow on top of ice – and the affects of gravity on a body. Mine.
As I lay there gasping for breath, my youngest took a look at what happened and promptly sat on his behind and slid down the slope, nice and easy. Of course, when one is four years old, some things seem completely obvious and he said calmly “Daddy, you should just go down like this, it’s more fun and safer”. Had I any breath at all I would have agreed with him. At that moment however, I was calculating how a thirty-five pound four-year-old could drag a 200 pound man out to the street across a gravelled parking lot to flag down a passing ambulance so they could inflate my lungs.
All three kids have had first hand experience with the forces of gravity, speed, acceleration and the Doppler Effect. You know how the sound of a siren changes pitch the closer the emergency vehicle gets to you, then changes again as it goes past? Picture three small kids on a toboggan for the first time. Picture Dad at the bottom of the hill with a video camera. See the pictures of the three screaming faces as gravity accelerates the toboggan at an ever increasing velocity. That’s funny! Hear the Doppler Effect as they are hurtling towards Dad and his camera. See the effects of a moving mass (the toboggan) as it connects with a stationary object (Dad) and transfers the kinetic energy between the two. Where is that ambulance?
When the kids get to the higher levels of physics, they’ll be well prepared. A theory called Quantum Entanglement proposes that an electron can be in two places at once. Heck, the kids already believe their mother can be in three places at once! Two places is a piece of cake. The scientists should just go ask their Moms how it’s done. It would save a lot of work.
Hey, I think one of those physicists saw me trying to put more string on the weedwacker I have, hence the name ‘entanglement’. I should get royalties or something…
I guess all I really know about physics is that the Speed of Light has nothing on the Speed of Life. As I turn another calendar year older, I still think I’m too young to have teenage kids and where the heck did the last year go? Now the kids will get a lesson on heat transfer, as they bring out a cake with lots of candles – just avoid the curtains….
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