Struggle of Applied physics with Education system
–Gyanu Agrahari
Physics! What does come to your mind when you hear this word? If you’re a student, you might have started feeling headache. Don’t worry! You’re not the only one.
When I ask my friends, “Do you love physics?” Everyone replies me in similar fashion: Physics and love can never stay together. I wonder why people hate such an amazing subject. One of the -Gyanu Agraharireasons can be that they don’t realize how they use physics in their daily routine.
Imagine that you’re about to cross a road and a vehicle is heading towards you. Do you have any idea about how many calculations you are going to do now?
What’s the speed of that vehicle?
What is the distance between it and me?
What is the width of the road?
How fast can I walk across the road?
Is there any another vehicle on the other side? If yes, what is its speed and how far is it?
You perform all these calculations within few seconds subconsciously. You don’t need to proud of yourself, since many animals effectuate them not only faster than you do but also more precisely than you do. Every day, you execute hundreds of such computations; however, they trouble you in your tests. The only problem is very few of you homogenize physics learnt in school and that applied in reality.
Remember the moments of your childhood when your mom shouted at you, “Take off your wet clothes; otherwise, you’ll suffer from coldness.” You must have had argued with your mom about the logic behind her statement, but your mom couldn’t have given you a clear answer.
This very incident shows that everyone knows the conclusion; everyone knows that the water boils at 100 degree Celsius; but the big question is that why the water boils at that temperature. The focus is more on the facts and figures than on the phenomena that cause them.
This case is not just with physics. Many of us feel difficulty in every subject we study because we don’t visualize what we learn. Human minds are designed to store images rather than statistics. Though, resources that can store huge amount of data are available today, our education system still compels us to recite unnecessary details. Conventionality of our schooling structure has undoubtedly hindered originality in students.
Physics is the law of nature, so you can never understand it just by reading bulky textbooks. You must start observing things around you and try to analyze why they occur in the way they are. Similarly, you should have a skeptical view on the theories your teacher teaches you in the classroom; if you have any question in mind, never hesitate to raise it.
To make a long story short, you need to play with physics to rejoice in it. Make equations your companions, principles your weapons, and get ready to enter the battlefield of infinite imagination.