The only thing I remembered from many failed attempts to get O level physics was an experiment with a brick and a piece of elastic on a table. You pulled for ages and nothing happened – and then ‘ping’ – all of a sudden the brick is in your lap.
Yup, too dim to grasp the idea of friction.
A cock that doesn’t understand friction… there’s a first.
A brick in one’s lap? That sounds, er…
Ow!
According to WKPD “Neal Lawson (born 1963)”, so the dumbing down of O-levels was already underway when he sat them.
Without wishing to be overly pedantic, Tim, I believe the experiment described is meant ot demonstrate the principle of inertia, not friction, although it’s obviously involved.
Brick, elastic, lap…..
Is he sure this wasn’t an experiment in Darwinian selection for the biology ‘O’?
Or is he still able to reproduce?
I thought this was an experiment to find the coefficient of static and sliding friction
We used weights rather than elastic.
This was about 1948 .
There was very little real scientific equipment for us to use back then in GB.
Why is there so little stigma attached to statements of the form, “when it comes to science, I am a complete mong,” but no similar allowance given for people being illiterate, or ignorant of history? Why should we listen to someone so evidently and self-confessedly stupid?
And yes, the experiment is designed to show the difference between static and dynamic coefficients of friction, the main take-away point being that typically the latter is smaller than the former.