Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: classroom analysis of disasters



-----Original Message-----
From: Hugh Haskell
Subject: Re: classroom analysis of disasters

At 10:04 -0700 9/18/01, Larry Woolf wrote:

Would you analyze the motion of JFK's assassination as an example of
momentum conservation?

From: Hugh Haskell In principle, this was done in the investigation that
followed his
assassination. I might not go into all the gory details, but isn't it
important that students understand that *everything* is subject tot
he laws of physics? I don't want them going away from my course with
the idea that certain things cannot be analyzed because they are not
subject to the laws of physics.
--------------------------------------
In forensics, you analyze disasters or accidents to determine causes or
reconstruct events.

Such was the case for the JFK assassination - trying to determine how many
bullets, from where, etc. I suspect these analyses were not done by
grief-stricken students in their physics classes following the
assassination. They were most likely done by police and FBI in the days and
weeks following the assassination. And the police and FBI had a good reason
for wanting to analyze the data.

Why do the analysis of a nationally traumatic event so close in time to the
trauma when there is no compelling need? You are not trying to determine a
root cause. You know the root cause.
Why not analyze an airplane flying if you want to determine air speeds?
Why not analyze a controlled demolition if you want to understand the
toppling of buildings.

Would you analyze the motion of people who fell to their deaths as an
example of acceleration due to gravity?

From: Hugh Haskell People fall all the time, and we do those analyses all
the time. It
is not inappropriate for students to understand that if you are
unfortunate enought to fall from the wrong height, or onto the wrong
surface, the results can be devastating.
-----------------------------------------------

I think that most students know that if you fall from a 100 story building,
you will die.

I didn't know that in school we analyze falls that lead to death all of the
time.

Why not analyze a sky diver free falling? What will you gain from analyzing
the motion of someone leaping to their death?

One can discuss why the buildings failed. But to depersonalize it by
looking at the airplane hitting the building frame by frame, or looking at
someone falling frame by frame, or looking at the building collapsing frame
by frame seems ludicrous, insensitive, and morbid at this point in time.