August 25, 2008

Don't let anyone shape your thinking

Devi Dayal Mittal, my friend and an alumnus of The Punjab School of Business Studies, Patiala, my alma mater, though several years younger, sent me this wonderful story today. I feel it needs to be shared with all to show that human genius comes into play when we challenge paradigms.

Sir Ernest Rutherford, President of the Royal Academy, and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics received a call from a colleague. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physics question, while the student claimed a perfect score. The instructor and the student agreed to an impartial arbiter, and Sir Rutherford was selected.

Rutherford read the examination question: "Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer."

The student had answered: "Take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to the street, and then bring it up, measuring the length of the rope. The length of the rope is the height of the building."

The student really had a strong case for full credit since he had really answered the question completely and correctly! On the other hand, if full credit was given, it could well contribute to a high grade in his physics course and certify competence in physics, but the answer did not confirm this. Rutherford suggested that the student have another try. He gave the student six minutes to answer the question with the warning that the answer should show some knowledge of physics.

At the end of five minutes, the student hadn't written anything. Rutherford asked if he wished to give up, but he said he had so many answers to this problem; he was just thinking of the best one. Rutherford apologized for interrupting him and asked him to please go on. In the next minute, the student dashed off his answer, which read: "Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof. Drop the barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch.

Then, using the formula x=0.5*a*t^2, calculate the height of the building."

At this point, Rutherford asked his colleague if he would give up. He conceded, and gave the student almost full credit. While leaving the colleague's office, Rutherford recalled that the student had said that he had other answers to the problem, so Rutherford asked him what they were.

"Well," said the student, "there are many ways of getting the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer. For example, you could take the barometer out on a sunny day and measure the height of the barometer, the length of its shadow, and the length of the shadow of the building, and by the use of simple proportion, determine the height of the building."

"Fine," Rutherford said, "and others?"

"Yes," said the student, "there is a very basic measurement method you will like. In this method, you take the barometer and begin to walk up the stairs. As you climb the stairs, you mark off the length of the barometer along the wall. You then count the number of marks, and his will give you the height of the building in barometer units."

"A very direct method."
"Of course. If you want a more sophisticated method, you can tie the barometer to the end of a string, swing it as a pendulum, and determine the value of g [gravity] at the street level and at the top of the building.
From the difference between the two values of g, the height of the building, in principle, can be calculated."

"On this same tack, you could take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to just above the street, and then swing it as a pendulum. You could then calculate the height of the building by the period of the precession".

"Finally," he concluded, "there are many other ways of solving the problem."

"Probably the best," he said, "is to take the barometer to the basement and knock on the superintendent's door. When the superintendent answers, you speak to him as follows: 'Mr. Superintendent, here is a fine barometer. If you will tell me the height of the building, I will give you this barometer."

At this point, Rutherford asked the student if he really did not know the conventional answer to this question. He admitted that he did, but said that he was fed up with high school and college instructors trying to teach him how to think.

The name of the student was Neil’s Bohr. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics 1922.

1 comment:

s r praveen said...

Your blog reveals to us how our thinking is chained to the conventional patterns, and how out-of-the-box thinking is actually scorned at initially.
Great !