Marble Madness

[trustycrowbar]

Who: Gordon and YOU.
What: Physics class
Where: Gordon's teaching lab
When: Mid-Morning
Warnings: Guns! Marbles! Things moving really really fast!

The lab schedule for Gordon's physics class reads "Energy and Power." But those entering the classroom will find their lab tables littered with seemingly random pieces of junk: Pop-guns, little rolling toys, hair-dryers, rulers, springs, spiral ramps, pendulums, scissors, dominoes, ring stands, mailing tubes, clips, balloons, and a dozen other little bits and pieces. Just what in the hell does all this junk have to do with science?

We'll find out!

Comments

Attendance

[trustycrowbar]

“Okay, guys. Thanks to Final Destination City’s Department of Light and Power we’ve got the generator up and running again. This is appropriate because this is exactly what we’ll be studying today. Power, energy, and work. But first, attendance.”

[star_punched]

"Here!"

IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE.

[trustycrowbar]

"Hey Mac. Good job on that last lab report, by the way."

It was a little... disorganized, but the calculations were right every time.

[star_punched]

Heeeeeeeeeee. Just doing his job as your student, broski! Mac just grins and nods, that sure made his day.

"Thanks sir! I worked hard on it. I'll do even better the next time!"

HE WANTS GOOD GRADES.

[testsubject1]

Chell is present, though she doesn't say anything. She just sits there.

[trustycrowbar]

While counting out names, he'll nod her direction. Chell, present.

Attendance

[dachopunk]

The Dachora noticed other students in the class raising their hands, so she did the same, though she looked rather confused about it.

[trustycrowbar]

"Chora! Right, yes..." He glances at the class roster. "You signed up last week, right? Are you part of the alpha, or lambda tier?"

[dachopunk]

"Lambada," she said firmly, "I know a lot about how items work already, but I want to know more."

[trustycrowbar]

"Okay. We'll be infringing on university-level physics by the end of the year for Lambdas, so there'll be plenty to learn."

[fluffsyou]

Hello, people are raising their hands and saying here (unless they are Chell)? Then Maisy shall do both. Hand up in the air, she answers,

"Heeeere!"

[trustycrowbar]

"Thank you, Maisy." He nods, although that fluffy, blonde mane was hard to miss in any case, he's pleased to see her diving into class participation so earnestly. "You signed up for alpha, correct?"

[fluffsyou]

There was a moment where she had to think, and in it she admitted, "Gold helped me siiign up... is alpha good?"

Had she ever heard that word before?

[trustycrowbar]

Ahahahah... probably not. Ho boy. She's going to need some tutoring.

"I think alpha is the best for you for now, yes. I never asked but how well can you do math?"

Arithmatic? Counting? NUMBERS IN GENERAL? Anything's better than nothing.

[fluffsyou]

What are the words??? But oh, Maisy knows that word he just said!

"I've never doone maaath befoore, but it's one of my glaaasses." But ah, Maisy wondered why he was asking. Was it very important?

"I'm going to study haaard," she added, wanting to assure Gordon that he had no reason to have any worries, if he did. "I'll study maaths haaard too!"

[trustycrowbar]

"Good. Math is the language that science is spoken in; and if any of you need help with either one, you're always free to visit me."

Lecture/Student Questions

[trustycrowbar]

“Potential energy is just that. Energy that is stored in multiple different media. The most common is gravitational potential energy, which you experience every time you drop your textbook on your foot. The throbbing pain comes from all the potential energy that had been transferred to kinetic over the course of the book’s fall.”

Scribble scribble, K’s, U’s, E’s, SO MANY EQUATIONS.

“Potential energy can also be stored in chemical reactions, nuclear reactions, and position against other field potentials, like the electrostatic force. Lambda’s, don’t forget to take into account the strength of the field this object is in. Big G is the same everywhere for the most part but little g isn’t always nine-point-eight-meters-per-second...”

Lab Time!

[trustycrowbar]

“This lab is simple. All you have to do is get this marble,” He holds up an innocuous steel ball bearing. “From the starting point on one end of the room, to the finish line at the other.”

“There’s a catch, however. The catch is you have to use as many of the items on your group table as possible. I’m not looking for efficiency, here; I want to see the biggest, weirdest, most elaborate mechanism you can create. This will show me you know how kinetic energy is transferred to potential energy and back again. For your writeup, be sure to list the sources and transfer methods of each object as it hits the other.”

[osusume]

[Hey look, it's the new girl. Today Mukuro was being a dutiful student and attending her classes - something that the real Junko would be less keen on. But today, she's frowning at the setup and totally not getting it. Why wouldn't you want it to be efficient?

The items on her table are many and varied, and she's got her arms crossed as she surveyed the table.]

Seriously? You want us to waste our time making something totally useless and lame?

[Mukuro picked up the ball bearing and held it in between two fingers, the silver glinting in between her red nails.]

[trustycrowbar]

"And why do you think it's useless and lame? Can you do it?"

[osusume]

Yeah, I can. But don't you want something that'll be efficient? If not efficient, then at the very least be impressive? 'Cause if you're doing it just for doing it, that's kinda lame. Duh.

[she'll take this opportunity to sit on the edge of the table now]

[trustycrowbar]

If I wanted efficiency, I would have just asked you to throw it across the room calculate the kinetic energy of that. I don't. I want to know how well you comprehend that in an ideal system, energy is conserved. To do that I want to see just how elaborate of a system you can create and still figure out where the energy goes.

Consider it "points for style."

[osusume]

So a Pythagorean device. The things nerds do in their spare time.

[she makes a peace sign with her fingers as if to say she totally gets it, because really, it looks kinda fun.]

Okay, I'll make a stylish system!

[and off to work mukuro goes, she has a fairly good grasp at this once she starts going.]

[testsubject1]

Chell is actually pretty good at this. While she would prefer efficiency, she can find a use for almost all the items on the table. It doesn't take her too long either to build an elaborate thing to move the steel ball, though there were points where she took a little longer trying to figure out each use.

[trustycrowbar]

Gordon grins behind her, watching the mechanism turn, swing and bounce its way across the room. Impressive. He even breaks into a quiet laugh as a domino vaults, spinning into the air, and lands on a far-off target.

Obsrvers/Lurkers

[trustycrowbar]

Re: Obsrvers/Lurkers

[will_be_god]

Cyrus is watching in the usual lurker spot.

[trustycrowbar]

He'll see the students out of the room after class with the occasional answered question, and in turn approaches his observer after class.

"Hey, sorry about that, the students are more enthusiastic each week..." He offers a hand. "I don't think we've met yet."

[will_be_god]

"We have spoken online," Cyrus tells him, only shaking hands as an afterthought. "My name is Cyrus. We spoke on the subject of the betterment of this world."

[trustycrowbar]

"Oh riiight, that was you. It may have been the middle of the night, but it wasn't like I was asleep at all, and you had some important things to say."

[will_be_god]

"Not everyone views my words as such. Though I speak of something beyond us all, something truly on a universal scale..."

Gordon may notice that Cyrus isn't looking directly at him, but off to the side, focused on something farther away than the classroom would allow.

"Yes, a universal scale..."

[trustycrowbar]

Oh, he notices. Hey, Earth to Cyrus...

"...What do you mean by that, exactly?" He tries to squelch the change in his expression, but whenever he hears phrases like universal betterment of the world, Gordon tends to get a bit wary anymore.

[will_be_god]

Cyrus's fixation point doesn't change. "We as a species, we as a world, are ignorant of the most basic truths. It has become commonplace to turn thought inward, away from the plight of those around us. Because we are content, we believe that the world is acceptable. Yet that is no good to those who suffer. We must keep the world in our sights at all times."

Blink.

"We must be made complete, a true and whole part of a greater whole. Only then, when there is no strife, no fighting, will we truly be worthy of our place in things."

[trustycrowbar]

"I agree with you that higher impulses lead to helping each other, but what exactly do you mean when you say we need to be 'made complete?'"

[will_be_god]

"By that," Cyrus continued in a tone that suggested that he knew exactly what Gordon would ask and had prepared accordingly, "I mean that we must rid ourselves of those base distractions. We must see clearly, unhindered by our own lives for the sake of a bright future."

[trustycrowbar]

"Our own instincts, you mean?"

[will_be_god]

"In a way. It is our instinct to be insular, to consider nothing beyond the borders of personal experience. If we do not see something, we assume it does not exist, regardless of knowledge to the contrary. A disturbingly primitive process..."

[trustycrowbar]

"Perception has its limits... empathy does not, though many are short on that. But it's one thing to preach this. Quite another to put it into practice. You give the students examples to live by that they can pick up?"

[will_be_god]

"I disagree," Cyrus retorted. "Empathy is limited by its very nature. We as a species, and those of similar mental and neurological functions, are rarely moved to aid those in need. Empathy has done nothing to stem the tide of oppression and suffering that marks the history of all worlds represented here. And that all those worlds have been so disturbingly similar only demonstrates the uselessness of such a claim. Empathy has proven to be our downfall more often than not, an excuse we haul out while attempting to convince ourselves that we are morally greater than we truly are."

He paused for a moment to divide the thoughts, but not long enough for Gordon to interject. "I live according to my world ideals. I take in what is necessary for survival, I study all that surrounds me and all that has come before me, and I guide others to do the same. It is...disturbing to consider that there are those who reach this age and know nothing beyond their borders."

[trustycrowbar]

"I did say that empathy was a rare thing. One that will grow as we evolve as a species, I'm sure. Assuming nothing stops it..."

As for his world ideals, he can't glean anything really meaningful out of them. Take in what's necessary for survival? Everyone does that, it's called "homeostasis" and it's all the rage among carbon-based lifeforms. Study all that surrounds him and has come before? Intelligent men do, that's nothing special. He can't see what any of it has to do with cognizance of universal suffering.

[will_be_god]

"We have evolved a million years already, and in other forms before this. Yet...you speak as though something may intervene. We continue unabated, and it seems we grow duller and more unaware."