Jeff Bigler

I recorded this acceleration profile of a plane taking off using Phyphox. Green is left-right, blue is forward-backward, and yellow is up-down. Overall acceleration is shown in white.

The point where the traces separate, ~45s, is liftoff, when acceleration shufted from forward to up. #ITeachPhysics

My student with the bord she found and has been taking care of. No, she dodn’t ask before bringing it in.

I never know what my students are going to surprise me with. Today one of my high school seniors brought in a baby European starling (now about 5 weeks old) that she has been taking of. Today’s impulse lesson is now about reducing the force of impact when teaching it to fly. #iTeachPhysics #EduSky

I’m really bad about doing this. I’ve at least learned to keep a bottle of vinegar and Q-tips in my stockroom…

Today before I left school, I brought up paper and refilled the copiers. A colleague thanked me. I replied, “I want to work in a place where people just do these things.” She asked, "What if you're the only one?" I said, "At least there will be one of us."

What do people do in your personal utopia?

I teach my students that vectors aren’t inherently positive or negative. We use positive and negative numbers as a convenient shorthand for direction when combining one-dimensional vectors because the math works. However, mathematically -3 < +2, but a velocity of -3 m/s is faster than +2 m/s.

Today’s addendum to my classroom rules: “50¢ fine if you attempt to measure current in parallel insetad of series and blow a fuse in the multimeter.” #ITeachPhysics

I use short lengths of pipe insulation. Push wires into the slit and pull them out the same way.

No, but if I put in just the right amount of water to balance the system, I can raise or lower buckets & table to any height I want. At that point, the normal force is zero. 😁

The “floating table” demo: a table appears to be held up by buckets resting on top of it.

Today I did the “floating table” demo. At one point I asked, “If the table is holding up the buckets and the buckets are holding up the table, does that mean you could pick yourself up by your own pants?”

One student tried it, and gave himself a wedgie in front of the entire class. #ITeachPhysics

Life advice: Half-ass the things that don’t matter. This frees you up to ass-and-a-half the ones that do.

I just felt it in Lynn.

True. It helps that both scales read in newtons, which are relatively unfamiliar units. It also helps (and provides for an interesting discussion) that they can change the readings by leaning forward or backward to shift their center of mass and change the geometry of the system.

Amazon. a.co/d/2bpZmEc

I made an overlay so it reads newtons instead of pounds.

A student hanging from a “human free-body diagram” apparatus while the teacher points to the tension reading on a scale.

Human Free-Body Diagram apparatus: students can become the “dot” in the middle of a free-body diagram, seeing and feeling the effects of tension, the normal force and the gravitational force. #ITeachPhysics

I do the same. I point out that when I start to pull the magnet away, the spikes get shorter, showing how the magnetic field gets weaker with distance.

Before I do this, I model magnetic flux by drawing dots on a balloon with a marker, showing that they get farther apart as I blow up the balloon.

I often say that my political position has not changed appreciably over the past 40 years, but the ground under me has shifted from pale red to dark blue.

Snippets of conversations with some of my students over the course of today: E: OK, so what do you really think I want? Me: I think you need to occasionally be the center of attention. I have no problem with that—it's why I give you a little bit of positive attention during each class. Everyone needs that sometimes. T: Ugh. I don't want to deal with my stepfather right now. He's so critical. Me: [mentions an earlier conversation with this student]. Don't forget that you're not the version of you that exists in his head. It's important to not internalize things that aren't true. (Yes, that's easy for me to say, but hard to do. But it's worth the effort.) W: [discussing the college recommendation that I'm going to write for the student] It's not like I'm any different from any other student. Me: You're in the top ten in your grade. When I ask what sets you apart from other students, I mean the average student, not the other nine of the top ten. Remember that colleges adjust for bragging, not humility. My recommendation is going to say that you're awesome, that you'll be successful in their college, and that I know you well enough that they can trust me when I say so. I just need some details to help me support that last part M: [telling me that they almost had a breakdown about getting their lab report in on time] Me: I think the meta issue is that I'm one of the few adults who unconditionally believes in you, and you're terrified that I'll be disappointed in you if you turn it in a day late. If turning it in late will help your mental health, I'll be proud of you for spending 2 points out of 100 to prioritize your mental health over an artificial deadline. Trust me, there's no way I would be disappointed if you got a 98 instead of a 100. Before you ask, yes I do also find time to teach them physics.

Here are some snippets of conversations with some of my students a couple of days ago.

There’s a popular meme that says “I’m a serial killer. I wrote my confession into the stories in my recipe blog, because I know no one will read them.”

Amazing pictures. May I include some of them (with attribution, of course) in my physics notes? (I share the notes for free with physics teachers around the world.) The physics 2 notes have a section explaining how a combination of refraction and internal reflection produce rainbows.

Feel free to DM me if you want some specifics.

[cont’d] Events can include pencil & paper tests or hands-on activities, and are designed to run in about 40-45 min. or less. Some of the “instant invention” events are probably the kind of thing you’re looking for.

Kind of. The North Shore Science League is an association of schools north of Boston. We have monthly competitions (kind of Science Olympiad style, but homegrown). There are three events at each meet, and students compete in teams of up to 4 from each school. Events can be from any discipline.

I like it. I try to color code everything. I generally use blue & red—two of the defaults on my Smart board. The variable I’m solving for is usually red, and the rest of the equation is blue. For projectile motion, the horizontal equation is blue and the vertical is red, with time in green.

Exactly this. Energy is not a property of chemical bonds.

Bio teachers simplifying the ATP -> ADP +P process by saying that “chemical bonds contain energy” creates a misconception about the nature of chemical bonds to which students cling tenaciously, and refuse to let go of.

I tell my students that if breaking bonds released energy, bonds would break spontaneously and it would be impossible to have chemical compounds.