At 02:59 PM 2/27/03 -0800, sam crowell wrote:
....
He has commented several times that in another class, someone may be two or
two-and-a-half years into study. They suddenly realize how or why something
works, they find themselves *understanding*. Often the student will ask,
"Why didn't you tell us how this worked, its so simple". Our instructor
will often good naturedly replies, "Well, I did tell you that, probably
every session you've attended in the past two years, it was just that you
were not ready to hear it until now. And it is only simple once you know it,
if it is so simple, why didn't you figure this out right when you started".
.....
Sam
I love those kind of revelations. The most powerful one I ever had was
sitting in a Physics class in college, sitting there seething at this
instructor that was a complete jerk. He was talking about gravity and
orbital motion. All at once, and despite my distraction, I realized what
he was talking about. All my life I had marveled that orbiting bodies were
in _perfect_ balance, their circular momentum exactly cancelling out the
force of gravity. But besides the awe, I was also bothered. There are a
_lot_ of these things. How can there be so many in perfect balance. Even
though I wasn't particularly listening to this guy, the answer can through
and hit me in the face like a wet towel. These are _falling bodies_. Now to
most of you this is probably obvious, but somehow I had made it that far
into life without realizing the beauty and truth of orbital mechanics.
Orbiting bodies have no other choice but to follow their eliptical paths
once captured by the larger body. If we had a lower gravity and stronger
arms, we could create orbiting bodies by throwing objects at the escape
velocity at some upward angle from horizontal. If we could throw hard
enough, the object would still fall, but would no longer fall to earth, it
would fall off the edge and into orbit. It would still be a falling body,
but would no longer land.
I can still feel that moment of enlightenment, the power of understanding.
But I still think that guy was a total jerk.
Brent in Northern California
Evergreen Gardenworks USDA Zone 8 Sunset Zone 14
http://www.EvergreenGardenworks.com
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