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