Eclectic Echoes

Eric’s Physics class just covered Newton’s Laws of Motion. Eric thought of making it real and fun for Johann by doing the elevator experiment. Eric tested our digital scale, but since it didn’t work, we went to Wal-Mart to buy an analog scale. The next evening after dinner, we all got into the elevator with the analog scale. We took Johann’s weight while the elevator was on our floor. Then we began going up and down in the elevator, reading what his weight was at the top and at the bottom. It returned to normal in the middle of the ride. I was the official data recorder.

After going up and down from the first to the fourth floor a few times, Eric suggested we get Stuart, because he knew he would love it. So the next time we got up to the fourth floor again, we got out and knocked on Stuart’s door. He stood there for a moment, slightly bemused, and then said count me in, but give me about 10 minutes. So we went back to our apartment to wait for him. Once he came, we started going up and down in the elevator again, with all of us taking a turn on the scale. Even me, although I was quick to point out that I still had my shoes on, keys in my pockets, and that I had just eaten chocolate, so the reading would be higher than it should be, as if that would make a difference or really mattered all that much! I figured out, though, that what we really need to do is not to worry about dieting so much, but find a way that we could always be in the state of decelerating like at the top of an up elevator ride or accelerating like at the beginning of a down elevator ride, where you always end up weighing less according to the scale.

Part way through our elevator rides with Stuart, our neighbor from 305 came home and was on his way up in the elevator. When he saw all of us in there with the scale he was wondering what in the world we were doing and thought we were nuts when we explained our experiment. After we left him on the third floor to continue our elevator rides, we couldn’t help but begin laughing histerically. You should have seen the look he gave us when he got off the elevator.
After a certain point I was starting to feel motion sick, so we all got out and sat and talked for a while, until Stuart had to go back upstairs and explain to Pamela what we were doing.

Two days later Johann and I wrote up our science report. We spent two days on it. I made tables for Johann to fill in the raw data. I reviewed the steps of the scientific process and the three Laws of Motion with him. I helped him formulate his answers through discussion the first day. The second day he wrote one or two sentences for each step of the scientific process as it applied to our elevator experiment. Johann understood why the scale showed he weighed more at the beginning of the up elevator ride and at the end of the down elevator ride. We talked about F= ma and what that meant. Without getting too much into the complicated math, he could see how changes in acceleration would change the force. Thinking about all of this was a little bit of a stretch for him, but not by much.

In order for Eric and I to calculate what a actually was, without worrying about apparent weight versus real weight, Eric confirmed our method with his Physics professor, which later led me and Eric into calculations and discussion that lasted at least an hour. But for our own sanity, we had to know the answer! I didn’t feel as badly when Eric wasn’t completely sure of the answer at first either, although I still cursed my high school Physics teacher for never being in class to teach. He was burned out and retiring at the end of the my senior year. He decided to just write what the assignment was on the board and then left for nearly every class period. I only remember him actually trying to teach the class twice during the whole year. The administration decided not to bother doing anything about it because he was leaving anyway. He showed up for tests and that was about it. He never taught anything and although I got an A, what good did it do me? All I did was memorize the stuff and spit it back out on the tests. I never understood any of it until now.

Given my experience and the fact that very few of Eric’s Calculus and Physics classmates actually know who Newton was, one of them even asked if he was the guy who invented Fig Newtons, I was determined to find answers to my own questions, so that I could better explain it to Johann. In my online search for answers before Eric asked his professor, I found a series of science books on Physics, Biology, and Chemistry written at the fourth and fifth grade level. We ordered the Physics one right away and if it proves to be as good as we think, we’ll add the others to our ever growing library.

We watched the HBO movie on Newton again prior to the experiment and made a point of showing Johann where they show Newton thinking of his Laws of Motion in the movie. It may not be historically accurate, but the movie makers illustrated the Laws of Motion very well. Johann will always remember that and our evening in the elevator. We all learned a lot from the elevator experiment, plus we are maintaining our status as the House of Fun!