full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Joy Lin: If superpowers were real Super speed
Unscramble the Blue Letters
Some superheros can move faster than the wind. The men in Apollo 10 reached a record-breaking speed of around 25,000 miles per hour when the shuttle re-entered the Earth's atmosphere in 1969. Wouldn't we save a lot of time to be able to move that fast? But what's the cacth? Air is not empty. Elements like oxygen and nitrogen, even countless dust petclairs, make up the air around us. When we move past these things in the air, we're rubbing against them and creating a lot of friction, which results in heat. Just like runbbig your hands together warms them up or rubbing two sticks together makes fire, the fteasr objects rub together, the more heat is generated. So, if we're running at 25,000 miels per hour, the heat from friction would burn our faces off. Even if we somehow withstood the heat, the sand and dirt in the air would still sarcpe us up with millions of tiny cuts all happening at the same time. Ever seen the front bumper or grill of a trcuk? What do you think all the birds and bugs would do to your open eyes or esepoxd skin? Okay, so you'll wear a mask to aivod destroying your face. But what about ppoele in buildings between you and your destination? It takes us approximately one-fifth of a second to react to what we see. By the time we see what is ahead of us and rcaet to it - time times velocity equals distance equals one-fifth of a second times 25,000 miles per hour ealqus 1.4 miles - we would have gone past it or through it by over a mile. We're either going to kill ourselves by crhasing into the nearest wall at super speed or, wosre, if we're indestructible, we've essentially teurnd our bodies into missiles that dsoetry everything in our path. So, long dcnitsae tevarl at 25,000 miles per hour would leave us burning up, coeervd in bugs, and lveeas no time to react. What about short bursts to a location we can see with no osclteabs in between? Okay, let's say a bullet is about to hit a beautiful damsel in distress. So, our hero swoops in at super speed, grabs her, and carries her to safety. That sounds very romantic, but, in rtaeliy, that girl will probably suffer more damage from the hero than the bullet if he moved her at super speed. Newton's First Law of Motion deals with inertia, which is the resistance to a change in its sttae of motion. So, an object will continue moving or staying at the same place unless something changes it. Acceleration is the rate the velocity changes over time. When the girl at rest, velocity equals zero miles per hour, begins accelerating to reach the seepd within seconds, vlitecoy increases rapidly to 25,000 miles per hour, her brain would crash into the side of her slkul. And, when she stops suddenly, velocity decreases rapidly back to zero miles per hour, her brain would crash into the other side of her skull, turning her brian into mush. The brain is too fragile to handle the sudden movement. So is every part of her body, for that matter. rebmmeer, it's not the speed that causes the damage because the astronauts sevruivd Apollo 10, it's the acceleration or sudden stop that causes our irennatl organs to csarh into the front of our bodies the way we move forward in a bus when the driver slams on the brakes. What the hero did to the girl is mathematically the same as running her over with a space shuttle at maximum speed. She probably died instantly at the point of ipmcat. He's going to owe this poor girl's family an apgoloy and a big fat compensation ccehk. Oh, and possibly face jail time. dorocts have to carry liability insurance just in case they make a msaktie and hurt their patnteis. I wonder how much superhero insurance pcloiy would cost. Now, which superpower phciyss lesson will you explore next? Shifting body size and content, speur speed, flight, super strength, immortality, and invisibility.
Open Cloze
Some superheros can move faster than the wind. The men in Apollo 10 reached a record-breaking speed of around 25,000 miles per hour when the shuttle re-entered the Earth's atmosphere in 1969. Wouldn't we save a lot of time to be able to move that fast? But what's the _____? Air is not empty. Elements like oxygen and nitrogen, even countless dust _________, make up the air around us. When we move past these things in the air, we're rubbing against them and creating a lot of friction, which results in heat. Just like _______ your hands together warms them up or rubbing two sticks together makes fire, the ______ objects rub together, the more heat is generated. So, if we're running at 25,000 _____ per hour, the heat from friction would burn our faces off. Even if we somehow withstood the heat, the sand and dirt in the air would still ______ us up with millions of tiny cuts all happening at the same time. Ever seen the front bumper or grill of a _____? What do you think all the birds and bugs would do to your open eyes or _______ skin? Okay, so you'll wear a mask to _____ destroying your face. But what about ______ in buildings between you and your destination? It takes us approximately one-fifth of a second to react to what we see. By the time we see what is ahead of us and _____ to it - time times velocity equals distance equals one-fifth of a second times 25,000 miles per hour ______ 1.4 miles - we would have gone past it or through it by over a mile. We're either going to kill ourselves by ________ into the nearest wall at super speed or, _____, if we're indestructible, we've essentially ______ our bodies into missiles that _______ everything in our path. So, long ________ ______ at 25,000 miles per hour would leave us burning up, _______ in bugs, and ______ no time to react. What about short bursts to a location we can see with no _________ in between? Okay, let's say a bullet is about to hit a beautiful damsel in distress. So, our hero swoops in at super speed, grabs her, and carries her to safety. That sounds very romantic, but, in _______, that girl will probably suffer more damage from the hero than the bullet if he moved her at super speed. Newton's First Law of Motion deals with inertia, which is the resistance to a change in its _____ of motion. So, an object will continue moving or staying at the same place unless something changes it. Acceleration is the rate the velocity changes over time. When the girl at rest, velocity equals zero miles per hour, begins accelerating to reach the _____ within seconds, ________ increases rapidly to 25,000 miles per hour, her brain would crash into the side of her _____. And, when she stops suddenly, velocity decreases rapidly back to zero miles per hour, her brain would crash into the other side of her skull, turning her _____ into mush. The brain is too fragile to handle the sudden movement. So is every part of her body, for that matter. ________, it's not the speed that causes the damage because the astronauts ________ Apollo 10, it's the acceleration or sudden stop that causes our ________ organs to _____ into the front of our bodies the way we move forward in a bus when the driver slams on the brakes. What the hero did to the girl is mathematically the same as running her over with a space shuttle at maximum speed. She probably died instantly at the point of ______. He's going to owe this poor girl's family an _______ and a big fat compensation _____. Oh, and possibly face jail time. _______ have to carry liability insurance just in case they make a _______ and hurt their ________. I wonder how much superhero insurance ______ would cost. Now, which superpower _______ lesson will you explore next? Shifting body size and content, _____ speed, flight, super strength, immortality, and invisibility.
Solution
- policy
- brain
- mistake
- people
- check
- impact
- faster
- patients
- state
- equals
- distance
- covered
- worse
- exposed
- physics
- truck
- internal
- catch
- speed
- velocity
- particles
- rubbing
- remember
- crashing
- survived
- super
- leaves
- miles
- travel
- doctors
- destroy
- react
- turned
- avoid
- reality
- apology
- skull
- obstacles
- crash
- scrape
Original Text
Some superheros can move faster than the wind. The men in Apollo 10 reached a record-breaking speed of around 25,000 miles per hour when the shuttle re-entered the Earth's atmosphere in 1969. Wouldn't we save a lot of time to be able to move that fast? But what's the catch? Air is not empty. Elements like oxygen and nitrogen, even countless dust particles, make up the air around us. When we move past these things in the air, we're rubbing against them and creating a lot of friction, which results in heat. Just like rubbing your hands together warms them up or rubbing two sticks together makes fire, the faster objects rub together, the more heat is generated. So, if we're running at 25,000 miles per hour, the heat from friction would burn our faces off. Even if we somehow withstood the heat, the sand and dirt in the air would still scrape us up with millions of tiny cuts all happening at the same time. Ever seen the front bumper or grill of a truck? What do you think all the birds and bugs would do to your open eyes or exposed skin? Okay, so you'll wear a mask to avoid destroying your face. But what about people in buildings between you and your destination? It takes us approximately one-fifth of a second to react to what we see. By the time we see what is ahead of us and react to it - time times velocity equals distance equals one-fifth of a second times 25,000 miles per hour equals 1.4 miles - we would have gone past it or through it by over a mile. We're either going to kill ourselves by crashing into the nearest wall at super speed or, worse, if we're indestructible, we've essentially turned our bodies into missiles that destroy everything in our path. So, long distance travel at 25,000 miles per hour would leave us burning up, covered in bugs, and leaves no time to react. What about short bursts to a location we can see with no obstacles in between? Okay, let's say a bullet is about to hit a beautiful damsel in distress. So, our hero swoops in at super speed, grabs her, and carries her to safety. That sounds very romantic, but, in reality, that girl will probably suffer more damage from the hero than the bullet if he moved her at super speed. Newton's First Law of Motion deals with inertia, which is the resistance to a change in its state of motion. So, an object will continue moving or staying at the same place unless something changes it. Acceleration is the rate the velocity changes over time. When the girl at rest, velocity equals zero miles per hour, begins accelerating to reach the speed within seconds, velocity increases rapidly to 25,000 miles per hour, her brain would crash into the side of her skull. And, when she stops suddenly, velocity decreases rapidly back to zero miles per hour, her brain would crash into the other side of her skull, turning her brain into mush. The brain is too fragile to handle the sudden movement. So is every part of her body, for that matter. Remember, it's not the speed that causes the damage because the astronauts survived Apollo 10, it's the acceleration or sudden stop that causes our internal organs to crash into the front of our bodies the way we move forward in a bus when the driver slams on the brakes. What the hero did to the girl is mathematically the same as running her over with a space shuttle at maximum speed. She probably died instantly at the point of impact. He's going to owe this poor girl's family an apology and a big fat compensation check. Oh, and possibly face jail time. Doctors have to carry liability insurance just in case they make a mistake and hurt their patients. I wonder how much superhero insurance policy would cost. Now, which superpower physics lesson will you explore next? Shifting body size and content, super speed, flight, super strength, immortality, and invisibility.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
velocity equals |
2 |
super speed |
2 |
Important Words
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