When I purchased that old-style, plug-in, analog clock at a thrift store it had no dial face, just the little ring of thin cardstock paper, blank, where numerals would normally be. So I got creative and put mathematical symbols around it.
Well, I just lost 99% of my audience. I said “math”. But that’s o.k. I figure I probably lost about half of potential readers just by putting “physics” in the title. For those of you who are masochistic enough to continue still with me, let’s press on. It’s not going to be as bad as you might be thinking.
The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns.
We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.
Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the phenological patterns that are quietly unwinding around us. To have the Daily Bucket in your Activity Stream, visit Backyard Science’s profile page and click on Follow.
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The natural world has always intrigued me for as far back as I can remember. My approach, however, was not to study it but rather to be a part of it, to play in it and have fun. I was always a below-average student in school; I was much more interested in what was going on outside the classroom windows than anything that was up on the blackboard. I was pitifully inferior at math. I despised homework to the core of my bones. When I graduated high school I did not go on to college. I’d had twelve years of educational stultification and was done with it. Or so I thought.
It all changed when I joined the Navy, seven years after finishing high school. I wound up choosing to study and work in electronics. That involved deep physics and intensive math. To my great astonishment I found I excelled at it. This utterly changed my life and the way I looked at the world.
Before we go on, let’s first consider the physics I suggested in my title photo. The clock represents not only Time, in and of itself (whatever Time may actually be), but electricity and therefore atomic structure and dynamics, Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, time cycles and therefore phenology, light (you can just see the night light glowing inside the clock at the bottom) and therefore photosynthesis and wildlife migration and human sleep patterns. There are lots of little metal gears and electrical wiring in the clock and those can represent a great deal of the Periodical Table of the Elements.
The globe of Earth is astrophysics, plate tectonics, seismology, volcanology, the water cycle, the carbon cycle, the laws of motion and thermodynamics, information theory, chaos theory, and ultimately represents the only known life in the universe. In short, the Earth can stand for physics in general, and physics, translated from the Greek, is literally “knowledge of nature”.
One branch of physics I had to become well acquainted with was aerodynamics, back when I was taking flying lessons. I never did get my Private Pilot’s License but I did solo and I still love flying. But humans taking flight is utterly unnatural. How these experts naturally achieve such wondrous proficiency leaves me in awe:
Hydrodynamics and hydrology are also branches of physics involving fluids; in our case, namely water. We humans need to go to college to become experts in this.
Hydrology is the science that encompasses the study of water on the Earth's surface and beneath the surface of the Earth, the occurrence and movement of water, the physical and chemical properties of water, and its relationship with the living and material components of the environment.
Other experts come by it naturally.
If you’ve made it this far, I thank you for indulging me. (Notice I didn’t get into mathematics? I’m not that cruel.) There is so much more about the physics of the natural world I could talk about but it’s time to turn it over to you. I’ll leave you with a personal practical application of physics.
(So I did sneak in a little math after all.)
You don’t have to love physics to observe, enjoy, and love the natural world. But it helps.
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Now It's Your Turn
What physics of the natural world have you noted happening in your area or travels? As usual post your observations as well as their general location in the comments.
Thank you.