The Tears Of A Clown

During a lesson on "Work", I decided to demonstrate how a force performed during displacement changes something's state of energy.

I placed a thermal camera in front of my computer and recorded our work as we transformed or chemical energy into thermal and kinetic energies while we danced; however, while trying to get my final class to dance, I jumped onto a table to give it all I had. I then began to dance. (Footage of style available on right)

Example Video

Movie on 3-19-18 at 9.18 AM.mov

Proof-of-concept video recorded with "Study Hall Crew" (Isabelle Sanchez, Tim Colon, and Ciarin Lamb) during prep. ***Note that the outline of bodies becomes very blurred as the atmosphere removes thermal byproduct from exercise.

Not actual footage of event with pants issue

A moment later, I noticed that the students were laughing more than they were dancing.

To my horror, I looked down to notice that I had split my pants.

I quickly got down and laughed with my students about it, but I was embarrassed. Luckily all the students were kind, but my lesson had failed, and I had torn a pair of pants to one of my favorite suits.

Tear length = 13cm (About five inches)

While at home, I was ruminating about the event when it dawned on me that my "pants malfunction" was a fantastic demonstration of the very idea that I was trying to show them.

Attention: The part to the right is the actual Physics. You may wish to skip it to avoid ruining narrative structure and flow.

You can return to it later.

I thought to myself, "The purpose of the stitch is to always create an equilibrium to any pulling force. The tension (force) of each crossing stitch can be measured in Newtons. The value of the force that pulls against them will be evenly divided across each stitch. If I apply 500N across 5 stitches, then each stitch will need to be able to support 100N of pull.

If one stitch fails, the forces will become unbalanced and the material will move and rare feeling of embarrassment will arise.

I am concerned there will not be a material strong enough to withstand these dancing legs. I am going to need a lot of stitches per unit area."

My goal for the entire dance party and lecture was to demonstrate how forces interact on our daily lives.

I was not defeated! My next step was to study the physics of stitching.

The science of the strongest stitchSewing connects most of the fabric products in our lives, from spacesuits to seatbelts. A teen scientist set out to find the strongest stitch.

Soon after beginning my research, I stumbled across an article about a student's brilliant-science-fair project that tested this exact topic. Although only 14 years old, her procedure and process were thorough, and I knew I could learn from her data.

To summarize:

-I split my pants trying to teach about forces

-Pushed through "hurdle in plans" and used it to further demonstrate how forces really exist within our lives

-I learned from a 14 year-old's experiment what stitching and pattern offer to the ability of thread to withstand equilibrium

- I made this page documenting a surprise journey

- I taught myself how to do a straight line stitch

Final Notes

I also realized the sweetest irony to the situation; I split my pants dancing to a song entitled "Intro".

The album is entitled, "Tearing at the Seams".

Maybe words really do have "power"? Power=Work/Time=(Force x Displacement)/ Time

You should go back to the Physics part above and make sure you can understand it. Create some questions that go further with what you immediately learn in the scenario. Creating questions is like putting together words in a poem or notes in a song. A string of harmonious questions makes a tune of logic.

Put enough together and we make a conversation with the universe, which then makes a motor, or a light bulb, or the Hagia Sophia, or modern medicine, or working toilets with traps that capture rising gases so houses don't blow up from sewer gases, or...

Thanks for reading,

Mr. D

Report abuse