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Steven Bradshaw

Jessica Galbraith-Frew

Conceptual Physics 1010

07/12/2017

Physics Conversation

Conceptual physics is a base line in science and is relatively misunderstood.

Most people think of physics as a math related subject when its more than that.

Physics is all around us from the sight we see to the sounds we hear and even

things we feel. Its the study of the simplest things all the way to the complex

concepts such as gravity, atoms, thermodynamics, electricity, motion and more.

To get a feel for how others understand physics, I decided to have a

conversation with three people at my work about physics. Chad our quality

manager, Kendal the business manager, and Luka our lead technician. On

Wednesday July 12, 2017, we sat down and shared our input for about an hour. I

knew their experience in repairs and their education would bring a strong topic to

discuss.

They were very interested in what I had to say and was very involved. I was

surprised to learn how much they knew. In fact, I learned that sound travels best

through steel rather than any gasses or liquids.

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My plan was to talk about electrical current and electrical circuits, a subject

that what we work with daily. I knew there would be a lot to talk about and it

would be easy to stay on topic.

Eventually the conversation gravitated towards the mechanical elements in

repairs and how they are applied to us. For example, to adjust a solid metal tube,

we must hit one side with a hammer, if you strike the tube in the middle of a table

the tube does not absorb the full impact and does not change. If you place the tube

on the corner where the support beams are directly below the table the impact will

affect the tube more.

Chad use to work at a company that built semiconductors and he explained

how complex they are and how detailed the manufacturing was. He discussed how

important the quality of work can affect semiconductors. They are so complex its

curtail to be precise and careful. His experience forced him to provide quality work

with every job and the result always followed. For example, when you have a

simple circuit like an oven, the flow of electricity travels from the outlet to the

oven through wires that have connectors. If you do not crimp the connectors on

tightly then you have just created a theoretical light bulb/heater on that connection.

When you have high voltage that travels through a thin week connection it creates

heat and will eventually burn the wire off.

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Luka had a few questions but stayed relatively quiet until I brought up

atmospheric pressure. I explained the concept that water will boil at different

temperatures depending on the altitude. At sea level water boils at 100 degrees

Celsius due to atmospheric pressure on the water crushes the water molecules that

create bubbles. When you are higher in elevation there is less atmospheric pressure

which causes water to boil at a lower temperature. In fact, we began to argue on the

subject so, I showed a video of an experiment that takes away the pressure on some

water which leads to the water boiling and eventually freezes.

Towards the end of the conversation I asked them a question that I thought

they all would get right but, they didnt and its a common misconception. That is

electric current is a flow of electric charge or is electric current stored in batteries?

And the answer is electric current is a flow of electric charge. This lead into an

argument. Current and electric charge have specific meanings and its a simple case

of not understanding the question.

We eventually agreed that Voltage is stored in batteries not current and the

voltage will produce a current in a connecting circuit and what happens is the

battery moves electrons already in the wire but not those in the battery.
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Over all the conversation didnt follow my itinerary I wanted to get into

gravity, and Newtons three laws but there was so many different topics they

thought were important to discuss.

They found the conversation was very interesting and well planned however,

they thought I was too brief. They explained that these kinds of discussions are

debatable to an extent but should consider all input.

I was worried the conversation was going to be awkward and boring. But

physics has so many different studies that it was easy relate our knowledge to the

subject. I was surprised that the conversation was so enjoyable.

If I were to do anything different I would have picked a smaller topic such as

vibrations and waves. A topic that I dont know a lot about, so it would be

interesting to learn more about it. I also would plan more questions to ask them as

it was entertaining to see them so confused.

In my opinion, some concepts are simple but broken down into a complex

way of describing it. If you stop and think about the obvious answer usually its

right.
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