Felt like recounting this small and insignificant but slightly amusing anecdote.
Bring Your Child to Work Day was a couple of weeks ago. As has become tradition, we try to create a nice day of fun and educational activities at my workplace. Let me emphasize that all the people who work on it are wonderful, and it's usually a great success, including this year.
This year, the "big activity" was a balloon-powered Lego car contest. Each kid (or team) builds a small Lego car, to be powered by a single inflated latex ballon. The car the travelled the farthest on our lunchroom floor would be the winner. I assisted the kids with this activity.
After the kids had built their cars, we headed for the lunch room, where some other folks had set up the "test track". Just behind the starting line, a 6' table was lying on its side, acting as sort of a wall. It seemed to be in the way and I couldn't figure out why it was there, so I asked. Answer I got: "you need something for the air to push against so the cars can go." I said "yeah, that's not how it works", but absolutely no one else jumped in to support me so the contest went on with the useless table in place.
And so, 50 years after the moon landing, folks still have no clue how a rocket motor works.
Bring Your Child to Work Day was a couple of weeks ago. As has become tradition, we try to create a nice day of fun and educational activities at my workplace. Let me emphasize that all the people who work on it are wonderful, and it's usually a great success, including this year.
This year, the "big activity" was a balloon-powered Lego car contest. Each kid (or team) builds a small Lego car, to be powered by a single inflated latex ballon. The car the travelled the farthest on our lunchroom floor would be the winner. I assisted the kids with this activity.
After the kids had built their cars, we headed for the lunch room, where some other folks had set up the "test track". Just behind the starting line, a 6' table was lying on its side, acting as sort of a wall. It seemed to be in the way and I couldn't figure out why it was there, so I asked. Answer I got: "you need something for the air to push against so the cars can go." I said "yeah, that's not how it works", but absolutely no one else jumped in to support me so the contest went on with the useless table in place.
And so, 50 years after the moon landing, folks still have no clue how a rocket motor works.