When I want to remember how to correctly spell practice or practise (which I do all the time) I remember the sage words of a former colleague who used to say, “Advise is a verb and advice is a noun.” This was good advice and I advise you to heed it when writing the word practice (the thing) or practise (the intention). Of course, if you are American you don’t need to worry about this idiosyncratic glitch. I recently encountered a similar dilemma with similar to and different from – this was not a problem I had even been aware existed. Another friend took two pencils and placed them about 20 cm apart on the table. She then slid them together and said, “Similar to,” before sliding them apart and intoning, “Different from.” As patronising as this was, I have never forgotten it. It was similar to being taught to spell necessary by its closeness to necesse in Latin and quite different from being hit with a baseball bat.
Sorry for the preamble but I have been watching Stewart Lee comedy routines on YouTube.
You probably should revise physics at some point; but where to start! There is plenty that you know without knowing that you know – you will answer instinctively when asked the question, “What causes a ball to fall towards the ground?”, answer, “Gravity.” You see? You knew that but didn’t know you knew it until asked the question.
Other things you might not be so confident with, e.g. “What is the mass of an iron cube, 2 cm in side length, with a density of 7.9 g/cm3 ?” Aha! Now you have to think, or if you are very lucky, you don’t. To refresh your memory on all these boring technical details you might like to check the following posts on this site.
Forces…
My acclaimed series on forces can be found here. It is a gripping six-part serial with action, drama and possibly a joke in the last chapter (courtesy of Mrs Ives).
Density…
How do you calculate density? Well you start by reading this and this.
Of course, you could use DoddleLearn to research these ideas, or Twig prep with videos on forces here and density here.
Questions…
- From a physicists point of view, why is it worse to be prodded with the narrow end of a pencil than the blunt end?
- Which of the two featured pencils is reflecting light with the lower wavelength?
- What word is given to the bending effect you see when light passes from one medium to another?
- What invisible form of light/radiation carries heat from the Sun to Earth?
- What was the name of Cecily Cardew’s governess in Oscar Wilde’s play, “The Importance of Being Earnest”?
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