By G11 Sheldon Li, Translated by G11 Stella Lu
The laws of physics penetrate every aspect of people’s lives. It’s as big as aerospace engineering, and as small as angle measurement. As the saying goes, “If a horse doesn’t take off his saddle, a man won’t take off his armor.” The same is true in physics. If you don’t give it thorough consideration, you will never be able to get the answer. So, to stimulate students’ interest in learning physics, our principal, Mr. O ‘Ryan, arranged a special physics experiment for students in the new semester’s physics class. Mr. O ‘Ryan asked the students to use his nose and shoot it from different angles and heights with a water pistol, and to calculate the average accuracy. This is our first activity since the beginning of grade 11: “Shoot the Teacher”.
In the twilight of the morning, the 11th grade students gathered at the door of the teaching building. They were eager to record the data with pens, paper and measuring tools. Mr. O ‘Ryan, our protagonist, walked to the classroom with a water gun, arranged the order of each group of tests in an orderly way, and then stood in front of the door of the teaching building. The experiment soon began. It was the shooters’ turn to discuss with each other with water guns and measuring tools, while the other students stood in a circle, whispering, and watching the performance of the group. Most of the students in the group chose the simplest method, which was to measure the height and launching angle of the shooter with a long ruler and protractor. Some students moved a table and put the muzzle on a stable table to improve the stability and accuracy. Some students used desks and chairs to set up water guns high and shoot them flat in the hope of getting more accurate measurement results. Everyone was looking forward to the result, waiting for the students to finish shooting. After several rounds of fierce competition, one could see clearly that the accuracy of the students was poor because there was no target center. According to the machine, there was too little strength, and the nozzle angle was too big or too small; some shots had the deviation of a few dozen centimeters. It could be said that it is completely unrelated to the target, but the result has caused the other classmates to burst into laughter. The air was gradually enriched by the cheerful atmosphere, and the physics experiment finally came to an end with the laughter of the students.
Physics is a thought-provoking subject. In this experiment, we first assumed a good value range, worked out the final data through a series of experiments, and then sorted out the obtained data and drew a conclusion. Moreover, some intelligent students used the knowledge and experience they had learned to set up a water gun with two tiers of tables to make a flat shooting motion, used a reinforced table to enhance stability, and even measured the accuracy of the maximum possibility through calculation. However, the results after the experiment were often unsatisfactory. The students were also happy to figure out the problem patiently. Perhaps something was not aligned, perhaps it was the influence of air resistance, or perhaps the calculation of the parabola was off. After repeated study and research, students are more and more interested in physics.
After the experiment, some Grade 11 students said: “We benefited a lot from this experiment and found that our original, boring ideas about physics has a very interesting side to it.” In the following physics study, the class conducted a study on pendulum movement and a test on the elasticity of rubber bands. Mr. O ‘Ryan’s little physics experiments not only taught us that real knowledge comes from practice, but also taught us that the joy of life depends on the exploration and discovery of new things.