Tag Archives: reality

Eyes Wide Shut

The idea for this unit, which I think is my most adventurous yet, came to me first thing one morning whilst I was lying in bed desperately trying not to think about work. In the unit, students work in teams to combine hardware and software in the production of a system which allows them to remotely guide a blindfolded peer. Beyond the ICT aims, it provides students with an understanding of the world as experienced by the visually impaired, as well as the ways in which ICT can be used to augment and improve the lives of people with disabilities.

The system is entirely student-assembled and centers around a head-mounted web cam and freely available software. Being a new school, we do not teach Home Economics or Design Technology, so this unit provided our students to work in a hands-on fashion that they do not often experience. In total, the cost of running the unit should be less than HKD$200 (USD$25) per group, assumming you do not need to purchase any laptops. The materials below should guide you through the process of running this unit.

Thanks to Coco, a very artistic student from my school who was kind enough to create a lovely logo for this unit!

Golf Ball Deforming on Impact

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMqM13EUSKw

Each of us has our own understanding of the laws of physics. These beliefs are formed through personal experience (falling out of a tree), classroom education (an apple falls out of a tree) and much more. My own experience has taught me that the way we experience physics everyday is not the whole story, it is simply the way things are under “normal conditions”: change these conditions and everything can change. In relation to this, most people would say that golf balls are solid objects. However, as shown in this brief clip, fire one hard enough at another solid object, and it starts to display some very liquid properties. In real-time this deformation would be too quick to see, giving a truly educational example of the gulf that exists between our perception and reality.

Interestingly, as an avid golfer I have seen photos of golf balls deforming on impact, but the extent of the deformation shown here really took me by surprise. I would guess that the speed of impact is significantly higher than the 160km/h that good golfers can achieve