Dangerous games
Budding engineers benefit from physically challenging games.
By Howard Johnson, PhD -- EDN, April 9, 2009
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Playground Lessons |
I hope you fell off your bike when you were a kid. Maybe you broke your arm. I say this not because I’m a mean person, but because that early experience portends one of two things: either a lifetime devoted to the study of physical processes and their limitations or a fear of bicycles. If you are reading this magazine, I’ll bet it’s the lifetime of study.
You were the kid popping wheelies, probing the limits of unstable equilibrium. On the playground swing set, you swung the highest because you understood resonance. Every time you jumped from that swing, you tested your knowledge of gravity, the nature of inelastic collisions, and bruised ankles. Such doings shape the mind of a budding engineer. I mean that in a serious way.
Any kid who really rides a bicycle, and I mean slides, skids, hops over curbs, sails off ramps on one wheel—always pushing the envelope—can become a terrific hardware designer. The visceral connection between your hands on the bars and the movement of the bike is probably more important to your understanding of dynamic systems than a graduate degree in differential equations. Of course, mastery of mathematical syntax helps quantify your work, but the fundamental principles behind most electrical circuits are as simple as riding a bike.
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The connection between your direct physical knowledge and electrical-circuit operation shows up plainly in everyday engineering terminology. A power supply, for example, is “stiff” if you can “pull” a lot of current without “moving” its output. A large capacitor forms a “heavy” load. An electron “falls” into a potential well. These mechanical analogies depend upon shared cultural experiences from childhood. The experiences provide a rich tapestry of knowledge from which you can extract nuggets of wisdom later in life.
I asked my friend Bill Paseman what it takes to raise a great software engineer. He says that, under ideal conditions, the child would grow up in a house with large yellow footprints painted on the floor between the bed, bath, and kitchen. As long as the child keeps both feet centered on the footprints, all is well. If he steps off the path even once, the parents administer an electric shock sufficient to induce total blackout. The child then wakes up in bed, unable to recall what happened.
Bill says that this system, although obviously inhumane, would produce the greatest software engineer the world has ever seen. He’s probably right, but it sounds brutal.
I’d rather break my arm.
I recently visited a modern “kid-safe” playground. Gone is the old metal merry-go-round. The monkey bars now stand amid a spongy, rubber-filled pit. The swings have seat belts. Those changes have so watered down the playground experience that a child could hardly hurt himself there if he tried. How, then, can he learn anything important?
Lawyers and politically correct parents made all these changes. Resist them. Healthy children deserve the pleasure of laughing on the merry-go-round as they desperately claw their way toward the center, making the wheel spin faster and faster until the centrifugal force hurls the weakest child off into the dust. That’s part of how we, as a species, learn.
People who spend their formative years huddled in the library searching for loopholes in the physical-education requirements for junior-high graduation should not design playgrounds.
| Playground Lessons |
 I recently visited a modern “kid-safe” playground. Gone is the old metal merry-go-round. The monkey bars now stand amid a spongy, rubber-filled pit. The swings have seat belts. Those changes have so watered down the playground experience that a child could hardly hurt himself there if he tried. How, then, can he learn anything important?Lawyers and politically correct parents made all these changes. Resist them. Healthy children deserve the pleasure of laughing on the merry-go-round as they desperately claw their way toward the center, making the wheel spin faster and faster until the centrifugal force hurls the weakest child off into the dust. That’s part of how we, as a species, learn. People who spend their formative years huddled in the library searching for loopholes in the physical-education requirements for junior-high graduation should not design playgrounds. |
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The hurt-proof playground is another example of the liberal mindset that an individual is not responsible for the result of their actions, and should therefore bear no consequences from such actions. This is part of the "dumbing of society", which unfortunately is also a source of wealth for those in the litigation profession. It is really tragic to see our country, and our world, going this way. Closely related are those folks who go through life constantly paralyzed by fear. They get in the way of everything, both physically and through the laws and rules that they allow to be made. The worst part will be the final outcome, which will be when they cause us all to be enslaved by the powers that claim they will provide protection. That is why engineers most be a lot more vocal about demanding that people think! A small start, but that is where it will beging, is with people thinking and assuming responsibility. All of that then needs to be done with personal integrity, of course.
William Ketel - 2009-2-6 09:11:00 PDT -
In the 60''s my high school science club built a Tesla Coil and displayed it at a science fair. There were a couple other Tesla Coil displays in the same area, what a wonderful smell of ozone!
In the 90''s I helped my son build a Tesla Coil for a school project. The school authorities would not allow it to be turned on at the science fair. They were frightened by high voltage and ozone in a public place. Why build a science fair project that cannot be operated?
Do high school kids build Tesla Coils anymore these days?
Glen Chenier - 2009-18-4 17:55:00 PDT -
I love it. We are a society of laws that protect the stupid from themselves. Let kids play, skin a knee or two... then perhaps we'll see more people actually look before walking in front of a moving vehicle instead of putting the onus on the driver.
In the 60s there was a Federal ad campaign about defensive driving, even when one has the right of way... the catch phrase was "you can be right... you can be dead right."
Teach people early the cost of mistakes so they know how to properly assess risks & rewards.
Jeff LaCoss - 2009-15-4 12:39:00 PDT -
So what are we saying about ''good software engineers''? are we actually talking about those atrocious ''industry best practices''?
I suspect there is part of the software community that will know what you mean and hope that one day they will be able to do ''real engineering'' in these ''best practices'' industries!
Philip Oakley - 2009-10-4 10:27:00 PDT -
When I was in 7th grade I rode a bicycle over some foothills to a junior high school in Glendora, California. At one point the handlebars came loose, and then eventually they fell off entirely, so I was riding through suburban-mall main street traffic with no meaningful steering. From about fourth grade on, I used to destroy bicycles from overuse, as well as a ride-on lawnmower and a few other yard implements. I broke my arm once too, but not from the bicycle. I never hurt myself very seriously from bikes.
Meredith Poor - 2009-9-4 12:35:00 PDT
