I'm listening to Radio Lab on public radio. http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R909051300
Audio Archive Sat, Sep 5, 2009 -- 1:00 PM Radio Lab: Yellow Fluff and Other Curious Encounters One segment is a man recounting his scientific epiphany. When he was 13, his class was assigned to learn to graph an experiment on the period of pendulums of different lengths. He was astonished to see the dots form into a parabola, which he had learned about in algebra. How can a pendulum understand algebra? And then, the next revelation. Is this what people mean by scientific law? Also Oliver Sacks talking about Mendeleev discovering the periodic relations of the chemical elements, and Computer Scientist Erica Carmel talking about an experience at the age of five, when she decided to recreate a Disneyland ride at home with a basket of toy eggs on a rope. Then she swung the basket on the rope, eventually all the way around in a vertical circle, without the eggs falling out. Then she did some experiments to make sure that gravity was still working on the eggs when the basket wasn't moving. Later, at MIT, she witnessed a similar demonstration of centripetal (NOT centrifugal) force with a pail of water, but she loves the fact that she originally discovered this herself. There is more. -- Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation. The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination. http://earthtreasury.org/ _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) [email protected] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
