GTKY? A true story nontheless
There are some equations you just can't forget.
Groupwork is something you would probably rather not deal with in college, but it's a necessary evil when incoming freshmen are forced to take one natural science course and the lab space doesn't allow people to work alone. (The one common thread to unite lower and higher education systems is that you have to deal with people that you dislike on a fairly regular basis.)
When I was one of said incoming freshmen, on the second week of class we were doing a lab assignment to approximate the gravitational constant, g, by rolling a baseball-sized smooth rubber ball down a ramp angled at 45 degrees.
By slightly manipulating the kinematics equations for a vector, one could approximate the constant.
"..or, we could just write down 9.8 m/sec^2 and be done with it," added
unproductive lab partner number one. "I'm a
philosophy major," he added
helpfully, stretching out the word
philosophy as long as possible, as if the additional length of the word gave
his choice of major more
credibility.
"Physics is pretty cool, though, man," my other lab partner said. His bony,
pale fingers curled around the ball as he gripped it on the
flameproof tabletop. His gaze was
pensive and vaguely threatening, as if the
fate of the world rested upon his ability to roll the
lime green ball to its full extent.
I didn't
care enough to intervene, so instead I opted to focus my energy on
looking busy by reading the
prelab.
"Seriously though - this is
bullshit.
Physics is bullshit."
"I wasn't aware all philosophy majors were so insightful." (with
obligatory mocking emphasis on the word philosophy, of course)
"..kinematics is bullshit," he continued.
Through the corner of my eye, I saw the ball float through the air and interrupt his rant by impacting with his forehead and
bouncing unceremoniously under a stool. There was an
awkward pause as he was
cut off mid-sentence, and the two freshmen looked at each other for a brief moment. The first
looked on incredulously as the second knelt down to
retrieve the ball, before standing back up and stating, "
V equals V-O plus A-T.
..so can we roll the damn ball now?"
..
and we did.