Category: 05 Work Energy Power

Pendurian of Death

It seems that any physics lecturer worth his/her salt must perform this demonstration

Walter Lewin did it.

Paul Hewitt did it

How can we not join in?

The following one is quite scary to much if you know your physics…

Dennis the Menace’s Blocks

The principle of conservation of energy is actually a very abstract concept. So it is amazing that we teach it to primary school kids. As a kid, I was taught that sound, light and electricity are all different forms of something called energy, which has this ability to morph from one form to another like a shape changer. It is also able to glide out of one body and slip into another, invisibly, like a ghost or spirit. I guess, as a kid, I didn’t have any problem accepting such a magical construct. Now that I am an adult, I realize that energy is a pretty bizarre idea. No one explains this better than Richard Feynman, in Section 4-1 What is Energy of the Feynman Lecture Series.

https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_04.html

toyblocks

Spoiler: At the end of the analogy, Feynman dropped the profound punch line: “There are no blocks.” The idea that energy is never an actual thing really blew my mind.