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: [Phys-l] [tap-l] amazing instruments



In all honesty, the video was sent to me as a webmovie attachment, and
then I forwarded it. It was only later that I saw it on YouTube and read
the viewer comments below it.

Forum for Physics Educators <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu> writes:
I would be a little careful in judging pictures by imperfections. We now
have technology to make old photos nearly defect free, and to make new
photos look like old ones.

I for one think there is a place for making old photos look good, and for
exposing the detail that has been accidentally fuzzed. I suspect that the
PBS documentaries which show old photos that really look old may turn off
younger viewers. It is possible to take an old photo and restore it to
what
was intended, rather than what you have now. I do this in a loving
fashion,
having restored an old playbill featuring a family member and a yearbook,
both of which are on the web. The older generation filtered out the
imperfections and ignored them, but that talent has been mainly lost
today.

I took an old homemade 78rpm recording of a friend's grandfather singing a
song he wrote and playing guitar. It sounded horrible with a faint voice
covered by layers of hiss. But using good technology I was able to remove
the crackle and reduce the hiss so you could actually hear the voice
clearly. Probably some voice quality was changed, but even more was
revealed. The friend, a musician, really appreciated this and it brought
back many good memories for her.

I will agree that the video looks artificial. But all one needed to do is
look down and see that it was an animation. The big problem is that we
now
have technology that can produce realistic visuals and audio that never
could have been produced "naturally". We also have medical technology
which
can change your appearance enough so that Down's syndrome children look
perfectly normal, and when you do that it helps them fit in. But yes, it
does not look real, and people should net be deceived by it.

There is a place for both skepticism and dreaming. The animations are
wonderful dreams. But the claims about them being real are cynical
successful attempts to deceive the gullible. But from the view of
physics I
agree with BC that we need to be skeptical, but also need to face up to
strong evidence. The traditional educational system has lectured at
students facts that they didn't really believe. As a result they have
often
lost the ability to distinguish between verifiable things and fantasy
creations. This type of teaching has also hardened the students'
paradigms
so that they are less willing to change their fixed concepts.

The examples of Einstein, Boltzmann... are certainly cogent, but
eventually
their ideas gained currency. Read some of the work of Feuerstein. He
changes the students' ability to reason by removing cognitive blocks. But
he is careful to balance between the two poles of free thinking and
rigidly
formal thinking. Incidentally Einstein was trapped in later years by his
paradigm which opposed QM, so he wasn't always "right".

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


I would not be too harsh on people who thought the "musical
instrument" was real. Also, in case we physicists might tend to be
overly
skeptical about things that seem far out, remember the initial
skepticism
aimed at people like Boltzmann, Einstein, de Broglie, etc.

I would and still do. Not the trajectories, but the appearance of the
video -- it's patently artificial. Are not silver gelatin prints from
negs. still distinguishable from even HD electronic detectors obvious?
That video is so obvious; no dust, imperfections, weld joins etc.
Perhaps
the current generation hasn't seen any old 'photos? I think not and old
is only what, fifteen years.?


_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l