"What is the definition of work?"
The words still haunt me. Been a long time, but I have not forgotten the countless excuses that I thought of to deflect it. The first one was, "This is not part of the syllabus."
What I really wanted to say was, "If I knew the answer to this, I wouldn't be sitting here facing you with a look of failure, Mr. Engineer Man!" I was taught different though, respect the authority. The stern look told me that BS was not acceptable this time. I had flunked my physics exam and someone was going to pay for this. It was going to be me. "I don't know," I replied, eventually.
"Its Force times Distance," he said.
I sat there, reflecting on the relevance of the answer to my situation and the next sentence drove home the point. "I see you studying, but the achievement is zero. You are pushing against a wall, applying a lot of force but have not moved it a bit. Distance = zero. Force X 0 = 0. Which is what you have."
I resented the humiliation and resented my mother for sending me to the lion's den. Luckily no one was around to see it. It made sense and thought I had found a better excuse. I am just bad at pushing a wall.
6 years later, I had aced every physics exam at the university. I was the curve wrecker a few of times.
I forget to thank my father sometimes for teaching me the value of moving the wall, instead of just pushing at it. That 5 minute lecture has taught me more than any physics professor could have ever taught me.
The words still haunt me. Been a long time, but I have not forgotten the countless excuses that I thought of to deflect it. The first one was, "This is not part of the syllabus."
What I really wanted to say was, "If I knew the answer to this, I wouldn't be sitting here facing you with a look of failure, Mr. Engineer Man!" I was taught different though, respect the authority. The stern look told me that BS was not acceptable this time. I had flunked my physics exam and someone was going to pay for this. It was going to be me. "I don't know," I replied, eventually.
"Its Force times Distance," he said.
I sat there, reflecting on the relevance of the answer to my situation and the next sentence drove home the point. "I see you studying, but the achievement is zero. You are pushing against a wall, applying a lot of force but have not moved it a bit. Distance = zero. Force X 0 = 0. Which is what you have."
I resented the humiliation and resented my mother for sending me to the lion's den. Luckily no one was around to see it. It made sense and thought I had found a better excuse. I am just bad at pushing a wall.
6 years later, I had aced every physics exam at the university. I was the curve wrecker a few of times.
I forget to thank my father sometimes for teaching me the value of moving the wall, instead of just pushing at it. That 5 minute lecture has taught me more than any physics professor could have ever taught me.
