Dear Professor,

Dear Professor,

I sometimes think that physics professors
don't even live in the real world.
It's like you live
in some hypothetical world.
Do you ever look out of your window
and see a hypotheses?

I love this question because I think it's the reverse. I think most of us non-physicists live in a hypothetical world, or rather a world made up of misconceptions about how things actually work. I suspect that physics professors have to spend a lot of time trying to get their students see what they are actually seeing.

I remember a drawing class in college in which the professor had us draw without looking at the page. He wanted us to learn to look, really look, and trace what we saw, as it is, not as we think it is or should appear.

To quote Einstein:

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."

Einstein also said:

"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."

Dear Professor Comics for Physics Friday

This is the comic I forgot to include in the series below. Flying these days is a little scary. It's especially scary when the stewardesses start doing something like pulling baggage from the cargo hold and placing it overhead in order to make weight. Or moving passengers around to balance the plane. I am told by a pilot that yes, they can feel it when the heavy passengers get up and move to the back of the plane.

Ah well. I am glad I am not flying anywhere for Easter.

And yeah, this plane looks a little odd. Planes aren't my strong suit. Drawing them or flying on them or even thinking about them.

Dear Professor Comics for Physics Friday

Dear Professor,

I was on this very small airplane
from Charlotte to Richmond,
and this XL man sat in the back
until the stewardess made him move
to the middle "to balance the plane."

I was pretty nervous
when he went to the bathroom.
But the stewardess said not to worry . . .
as long as he doesn't stay in there too long.
How long would that be?

Dear Professor,

I was on this plane, waiting for take-off
when the stewardess announced
that the airplane cargo hold was over its legal weight
so they would be taking bags from below
and stuffing them into the overhead compartments
and into the front closet.

Is that safe?

I posted one of these comics before, but I thought I would post a few physics comics on Fridays. And I wanted to post all of the questions about flying together, though I am suddenly remembering one more. Ah well.
These comics come from questions folks ask professors, usually my husband. And I keep wondering about writing an expanded edition of my Dear Professor collection.

Dear Professor,

Dear Professor,

Dear Professor,

This is a fairly common misconception, that the sun, the moon, and the stars take turns getting close to the earth. I had trouble understanding it at first, but I guess that is what it looks like, right? The sun is close during the day, the moon at night. Duh!

Dear Professor,

The first time I heard this, I thought, No way. People don't really
think . . .
But then a high school physics teacher told me that quite a few of her students also think that all rivers flow from north to south . . .

Dear Professor,

I thought I'd start rotating in some physics comics -- based on the emails and comments students give my husband and friends who are professors.

It always amazes me to read student emails . . .