Einstein’s Theory
Albert Einstein’s book on the general and special theory of relativity, Relativity, was targeted towards the layman; it is astounding that Einstein was able to take his revolutionary ideas – even for physicists of the era – and tailor his findings to the average educated person. For the most part, Einstein is successful; however, his descriptions of relativity lack visual representation. This is where it becomes harder to understand Einstein’s concepts; he describes situations makes the readers visualize his hypothetical examples within their heads; they have no drawing or diagram to base their findings off of. This makes Einstein’s concepts harder to understand than they need to be.
Albert Einstein put forward his special theory of relativity in 1905, and he fully formulated his general theory ten years later, in 1915, publishing it in 1916. His account of these theories in his book in 1916 as well. Today, nothing within the macroscopic world has contradicted Einstein’s theory, although some quantum observations can contradict it. Many experiments, however, have proven his theory – Einstein’s equation of time dilation accurately predicted the time dilation of an atomic clock on a plane vs. on the ground (the difference, however, was in billionths of a second).
Some of Einstein’s theories have created what seem like logical paradoxes. For example, “the twin paradox” shows how a twin who leaves on a space ship at a speed of near the speed of light will return home younger than his brother. Time dilation causes a difference in their ages. Another popular paradox from relativity is the ladder paradox. If a ladder moves into a garage just smaller than the width of the ladder, then length contraction of the ladder would seem to allow the ladder to fit in. However, from the point of view of the ladder, the garage is moving, and the length of the garage is contracting, not the ladder. The image below shows both points of view of this situation and the resulting paradox.
Figure 1: A diagram of the two perspectives of the ladder paradox
Technology Student Association: Scientific Visualization Event
The Technology Student Association has had a long history as a club dedicated to technology education. MAST has had a history of being an active chapter with TSA – the school has taken home both regional and national trophies. Below is the history of TSA, as quoted from the official TSA web site. (tsaweb.org)
“The Technology Student Association (TSA), formerly AIASA, is the oldest student organization dedicated exclusively to students enrolled in technology education classes grades K-12. It has a rich history that spans three decades. Three distinct periods may be found in TSA's history. During the period from 1958 to 1978, the American Industrial Arts Student Association (AIASA) was a sponsored activity of the American Industrial Arts Association (AIAA). In 1978, the nonprofit corporation, AIASA, Inc., was formed to oversee AIASA as a separate organization. During the decade that followed, the organization grew in size, strength, structure, and impact on students and secondary school programs. The summer of 1988 closed this third decade as AIASA reached another milestone, a change in the organization's name: the Technology Student Association (TSA).”
Today, it is common to depict scientific concepts with audio/visual representation. Technology Students of America hosts a variety of technology based competitions, one of these focusing on Scientific Visualizations (SciViz). TSA describes Scientific Visualizations as "the graphic representation of complex scientific concepts." The depiction of a complex concept of relativity would be a perfect use of SciViz, and a wonderful topic to enter this contest.
Educational Animation:
Educational animation is a recent phenomenon that is due to the growth of computer graphics. Computer graphics animation allows animation to be created more easily and cheaply than traditional methods. Today’s methods have become easier, and now teachers can create their own animations in order to get points across. Teachers are no longer limited to the use of static graphics.
Educational animation’s function is twofold. It has an affective function, which means that they can more easily engage the learner’s interest and sustain his or her motivation. More importantly however, an educational animation serves as a way to help the learner understand and remember the content they are studying. This function is known as a cognitive function of animation.
The effectiveness of educational animation is debatable. A well designed animation may help a student learn faster and easier, while one that is poorly paced may have a reverse effect on the audience. Our visual perceptions and cognitive systems limit us for processing information. If the pace at which an animation presents its information exceeds the speed at which the learner can process it, learning will be compromised. In order to fix this problem, it is important that the animation is slowed down to a suitable speed, and that audio or text supplements the animation to help the brain understand and remember the information being presented. Another possible solution is to allow the audience to control the pace of the animation in order to be able to learn the information in a manner suitable for them.
