Physics – Polymath Parent

June 9, 2021June 9, 2021

Static electricity

Fleur was playing on the slide and getting quite the halo of hair from the static electricity. Guess it means we need to do better about getting lotion on this child?

As her clothes slid across the plastic of the slide, her body built up an excess of electrons. These atomic particles lie in wait for a way to get discharged. They are in a state of tension, just waiting for something to allow their release. That build up results in some hairs floating.

Waiting, waiting, waiting.

Now that the kiddo’s hair is getting so long, stuff like this is much easier to see. I would have thought the curliness more resistant to the halo. I was wrong.

Hilariously wrong.

Worth it wrong.

April 14, 2020April 9, 2020

Coefficient of friction

One of the considerations for letting Fleur go slide is the pants she wears. Something I didn’t know before being a parent was different pants have different coefficients of friction.

The force required to move two sliding surfaces over each other, divided by the force holding them together. It is reduced once the motion has started.
theFREEdictionary

And drag.

Every time I let her go with the slicker pants, I chide myself for not having made the better physics choice. She flies down the slide.

It is one of those designs with a bump in the middle. She can go so fast she gets enough air to land just before careening off the end.

With pants providing enough friction, she doesn’t get too much speed. And I don’t feel the need to be too vigilant.

February 28, 2019February 27, 2019

Entropic Infant

Fleur is crawling on the verge of walking. And, being my progeny is… Into. Every. Thing. Too early to diagnose ADHD, but if she hears something, then she “Speed Racer” crawls to investigate.

The triumphant look when she pulls down something makes me think of Godzilla. Often it causes a cackle. Destruction lies in her wake. Always.

Definitely, do not attempt to tidy a room in her presence. She tosses things back on the floor as though saying, “That is where I wanted it.”

Entropy is a law of the universe. Matter tends not to stay ordered unless energy is put towards it. Our civilization exists because of the massive amounts of energy exerted to create and maintain infrastructure and materialism. Forces acting against entropy are responsible for the creation of the Milky Way galaxy, our Solar System, and life. The beauty and miracle of all these processes resisting entropy are why we are special.

And at this stage, my child is bound and determined to bring it down.

P.S. It is ironic that she uses gravity to spread disorder while gravity was used to consolidate matter to create the stars and planets.