Re: your mail

[William Beaty <billb@ESKIMO.COM>]

On Sat, 11 Sep 1999, Leigh Palmer wrote:

> The idea of making multiple timings of the sound of a beaten can
> over the length of a football field is so inelegant that I suggest
> you assign it as an ancillary part of the speed of sound exercise.
> It will give your students an idea of what clever things physicists
> can do when they are thinking hard.


Fill the football field with several hundred students.  Instruct them to
hold their arms outwards, but to suddenly drop their arms when they hear
the crack of the starter pistol.  Stand in the end zone of the field, and
fire the pistol.  An overhead observer will see a circular green wave
radiate from the pistol at the speed of sound.  The "wave" is composed of
students' arms which suddenly turn vertical and so expose the green grass
beneath.  (I've never tried this.  No teaching job, no students.)



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William J. Beaty                                  SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
billb@eskimo.com                                  http://www.amasci.com
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