Collisions in Physics and Life

[Applause]

hi everyone my name is mr erickson

burdon

i think it’s fair to say that i’m

already used in standing in front of

students

inside the classroom however with all

the spotlights on

it’s quite intimidating right

right when i heard that the tedx theme

was about collision

i got excited because i know that

collection

can be associated with physics but also

i know that it can be associated with my

life

collection is one of the topics that i

know

i can just wake up one day and i can

just teach it

because i know it by heart

i have been teaching it for quite some

years now

i know that it’s quite a long time

and that experience taught me to master

the subject

here are some random pictures that i

have towards my journey

i started teaching at the age of 20

years old and just recently just

yesterday i celebrated my birthday my

30th birthday

so here are some pictures that i can

share with you and

i think that experience

made me a better teacher but then again

i realized also

that it’s quite fascinating that i

am in this field of teaching physics for

quite some time now

physics is just beautiful i understand

now that

physics has so many laws

and one law

that i know is the law of conservation

of energy

it say it states that energy cannot be

created nor destroyed

it just changes from one form to another

wow that’s neat so that means that it’s

just being converted

let’s look at this sample for example i

have a coaster in here

it has the maximum height that means

that i have

the maximum potential energy while it is

going down

then that means that it is decreasing

its height and that means that it’s

gaining its speed

and gaining its kinetic energy

in conclusion we can say that the

potential energy was just transferred

into kinetic energy

that means that the total energy was

just the same and constant all

throughout

it’s just being transferred from one

form to another

since our theme for this year is

coalition let me just go through it

in physics there are three kinds of

collisions in physics

one we have the elastic collision

in the last collision we have

kinetic energy is conserved

that means that if i have two vehicles

here hitting on each other

before and after collision of their

energies

will be the same for instance i have 2

thousand joes here

then i am expected to have 2 thousand

joes after

when i am reflecting of this particular

concept in my life as a teacher

this is my goal when i was starting i

want to make sure that if i give my 100

percent

in presenting my lessons and making sure

that they can get the best possible

grade

i want them i want the after collection

and after giving the

um the topics to them i want them to get

a possible grade

i was so idealistic when i was starting

because i thought

that the grades that i have the best

grades that students have

is a validation for me to become a

successful teacher

but there is another two kinds of

collection we have

inelastic and perfectly inelastic

collision

so for instance here we can say that the

kinetic energy was not conserved

that after colliding with each other

the sum of their energies after

collision

is less than 1 000

and when i am reflecting my life as a

teacher

this is the reality that even if i give

100

i am not really getting what i give that

100

energy in preparing for my lessons

managing

and forgiving all my strategies the

efficiency there

was just slow so i was thinking to

myself

is my energy really wasted is my effort

really wasted

let me tell you a story look at this

picture

this picture quite is quite odd i got it

like a couple of years ago

if you’re going to look at it you might

simply think that we’re friends

however they’re not my friends they were

my students

and they look like i am their friend

i started teaching when i was 20 years

old

and i was teaching physics in fourth

year high school and those students are

roughly 16 to 18 years old so this the

age gap was just so little i met georgia

georgia was funny talented creative

intelligent

and i pushed her because i saw potential

in her

i pushed her to be one of the best in

fact

when she graduated high school she

ranked second

and even continued in her university to

be one of the best

i was just proud of her but what made me

proud

is that after graduating i found that

that recently

she was chosen to be a teacher in japan

it’s not easy to be a teacher in that

area because she’s young i called her up

hey georgia i’m so proud of you

i never thought that you will become a

teacher also

you know what she replied mr verdona

it was because of you your passion and

energy while you were teaching me those

activities

in science and physics have propelled me

to become who i was right now who i am

right now

and that exact energy and passion is

what i

am using to my students

these are her pictures that she sent me

and it was true the law of conservation

energy was true that the same energy

that i was using before

was that energy that she’s using right

now

it’s just being transferred from one

form to another

i was just a tool and she is becoming a

tool

for that purpose it was quite

fascinating for me to realize that

i was wrong when i was starting

that grades although it’s important

does not define who you are it does not

define your purpose

grades are not enough for you to

validate yourself

i know it’s going to be a long road

i know it’s going to be a long road

we had collection in the past that

collection

i knew very well that there was a

transfer of

energy i will never get credit of what

she has done

because it was her achievement but i was

proud to say

that i was part of her journey

that journey i was also part of

every student’s journey of my students

journey

i know very well that

that particular time in that particular

place

is a collision it’s not a coincidence

it’s in chinese you and finn it’s

destiny

and it was destiny that i meet that

person

and collided with that person

that collection gave me that opportunity

to give and share what i have

because for anything we are who we are

right now it’s because of that multiple

collisions that we had on people

we just have to thank everyone may it be

little energy

may it be small energy transfer to us

they are part of our lives

so it’s just up to you

because sooner or later everyone will

die

we will die that’s the process of nature

but the most important thing is that how

can we be remembered

with the kind of energy that we are

giving to other people

ask yourself in your next collection

how are you going to use that kinetic

energy

thank you very much