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Learning to Think Things Geniuses

's five o'clock in the afternoon. We prepared to take regulatory tea in one of our short breaks. Meetings of the British Royal Society were entertaining but sometimes large. Suddenly there was silence and all turn our attention to the President, Sir Ernest Rutherford, who had begun to tell a story ...

"... Once I was elected as an impartial arbiter between a teacher and a student. The teacher wanted to suspend the student a physical exam and this ensured that his answer was correct. After accepting the responsibility of the office, I reported the events.

The review read: "Please demonstrate how you can determine the height of a building with the aid of a barometer."

(The atmospheric pressure varies with altitude. Using the barometer can measure the pressure difference between two levels and thus determine the height of a building, a mountain or height to flying an airplane).

The student's response was simple and correct: "If we go to the roof of the building and tied a string to the barometer, just pick it up it hits the ground and measure the length of the rope it will give us the height of the building. "

had a serious problem. The student had answered correctly and could not be stopped. On the other side was not showing it had the necessary knowledge of the subject, as approved.

We gave him a second chance to students to solve the problem, but this time warning him that he had to demonstrate their knowledge of physics, because that was what it was assessed. He conceded six minutes to respond.

The student began to think. Tick \u200b\u200btock, tick tock ... After five minutes I asked if he wanted to leave the room. I was surprised by his answer: "I have many solutions to the problem but do not know which to choose ..."

apologize for the interruption
asked him to continue. The student began to explain: "We can throw the barometer from the top of the building and measured with a stopwatch the time it takes to reach the ground. Applying the formula of kinematics that gives us the space, depending on the time and the acceleration of gravity, we can calculate the height from which to launch the barometer, which coincides with the height of the building. "

The student returned to answer correctly and this After demonstrating their knowledge of the subject. The teacher will put the highest and the conflict was resolved. But I was surprised both the student's answer about the many solutions, I approached it funny at the exit of the room to explain them to me. The student very kindly told me that we sit on a bench and began to speak:

"Well, other possible methods to resolve the issue might be to measure the shadow and the height of the barometer. Then measure the shadow of the building and apply a simple ratio between the shadow and the height of the barometer and the building. "

"Another method is quite simple but effective, it would take the barometer and check off the wall height, one after another, until you reach the top of the building. The number of brands, multiplied by the height of the barometer, will give us the height of the building. "

"A more sophisticated method would tie a string to the barometer and pick it from the roof. If we do we will have a pendulum swing. Measuring the acceleration of gravity to lower the barometer in his career as a pendulum, we can calculate the height of the building with the help of trigonometry. "

"Similarly, if in the previous case the barometer hung down to the ground and make it swing like a pendulum again, we obtain the height of the building by simply measuring the length of the pendulum swing."

"In short, there are many other ways to solve the problem, but perhaps the simplest is to take the barometer, hitting him the door of the janitor of the building in question and ask the building height in exchange for a nice barometer. " Displaying

reach the end of our fun conversation, I could not help but wonder if he did not know the answer that their teacher expected from the outset, using the barometer to measure the different pressures on the base and top of the building ... "Of course I know," replied , "but during my studies teachers have tried to teach me to think ..."

...

student who was that Sir Rutherford? Anxiously asked in unison. "Mr. Niels Bohr" answered bluntly.

Niels Bohr, Danish physicist, Nobel Prize in physics in 1922.
innovator

introduced the quantum theory by proposing the first atomic model, which is considered the atom consists of a nucleus of protons and neutrons (positively charged), around which electrons (negatively charged) spin at high speed.