[Phys-L] Re: First Day Activities or Demos

[kowalskil at MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU (Ludwik Kowalski)]

On Thursday, Aug 11, 2005, at 09:20 America/New_York, Brian Blais wrote:

> A. Marie Pool wrote:
> > I need something to catch my students attention the first day of
> > school.
> > Suggestions?
>
> I have a fun assignment for the first day that I have used to get
> discussion going, and to introduce scientific thinking.  After I go
> through the syllabus, I ask if there are any questions (which there
> never is), and so I say, "Well, I have a question.  I would like to
> know
> how those automatic flushing toilets work.  You know, the ones that you
> go to the bathroom, get up, and *flush*!  It somehow 'knows' when to
> flush.  How do they work?" . . .

And, for the fun of it, you can mention that some pubic toilets in
Japan have  "flushing noise" buttons. They are pressed to generate
artificial flushing  sound to mask "natural sounds," when necessary. I
suppose such buttons can also be eliminated. Somebody probably already
patented a system in which  "natural sounds,"  recognized
automatically, trigger masking sounds and eject perfume.