Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Let us Physics


I did my schooling in Kendriya Vidyalaya in Karaikudi and I very well remember the first time my Physics teacher showed us a tuning fork and wrote the principles of resonance and harmonics on the black board. It was a matter of a 2 mark question vs a 5 mark question as far as I was concerned. If it were a 10 mark question, I even had a choice to skip as I have to answer only 10 out of 12 questions :)

I want to speak just for myself. I don't think the system in place is conductive to let students explore and learn practically. The whole system in place, in my opinion, is result and rank driven.

The concept of resonance and harmonics could have been better explained so that I wouldn't have to by-heart the damn definition that I potentially forgot by the time I stepped in to the examination hall!! It's a shame that I am learning resonance and harmonics now, but, I feel good to know now than never.

Take a guitar and you notice that strings are tied with a tension to the ends of a wooden block. Now, pluck one of the string and you hear a note. Now, try to take the same string and hold both the ends in the same tension at two ends of the wall and try to pluck it again.

Do you hear the same note? That's the damn resonance that produces the note in former case!! The shape of the guitar wooden box is well designed for a reason to produce resonance and that is what results in the note that you hear. More in next.

1 comment:

Anna G Raman said...

Yes, very true. I'm sure a lot of us hated exams as well, and the need to cram everything in the head.

Remeber the karaoke in the mini-audi? I'm not a great singer but the echo levels were high and I couldn't hear myself well. Physics again - I've done solo singing many times afterwards with reasonable success.

Did you hear the 'Never think' from Twilight? The song uses only a guitar.