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Using Humourto Engage theStudent
Andrew RobinsonPhysics and Engineering Physics
And make ‘emlaugh!
Humourin the Lecture
•Can be useful to keep the studentsengaged•Break up long or “dry”sections of thelecture•Keep the students thinking “What
is 
theProf going to do next?”
Things Not To Do
•Insult or make fun of any student•Any hint of racist, sexist or any other –ist jokes
Techniques I have found useful
•Self Deprecating Humour•Anecdotes•Amusing Examples of Physical Principles•Physical Comedy•The Absurd Answer•The “How Not To Do Something”strategy
Self Deprecating Humour
•I play the “Eccentric Brit”card shamelessly•Highlight differences in British andCanadian Englishe.g. Thrust SST Supersonic car•I counterbalance the “British”card byalways highlighting “Canadian”achievements
http://www.exn.ca/iss/index.cfm?URL=http://www.exn.ca/iss/hadfield2.cfm
Spacewalk by Chris Hadfieldor Steve Macleanwhen talking about Newton’s Third Law“Action and Reaction are Equal and Opposite”
http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/geomag/nmp/long_mvt_nmp_e.php
The Magnetic North Pole is in Canadian territory (for now)
 
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If I make a mistake on a slide…
•Then in the next lecture I highlight it with apear symbol•“Pear shaped”is a British idiom forsomething going wrong
Anecdotes
•Add some colourto the lecture by tellingstories that happened to you
 –e.g. The radioactive watch story
•Or to someone else
 –e.g. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge
Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster
•Tacoma Narrows Bridge , WashingtonState USA•Suspension Bridge Collapse 1940•Forced vibration of the bridge due to thewind
Tacoma Bridge Link
Millennium Footbridge in London,England
Pedestrians onlyHad to be closed shortlyafter it was openedbecause of violentlateral (sideways)oscillations
Amusing Examples
•Textbook examples are often very tedious•Spice things up with some funny examples
 –A very good source of examples come fromthe Ig-Nobel Prizes
http://www.improb.com/ig.html
 
The PoiseuilleEquation
•This has to do with speed of flow of a viscous fluidin a pipe
A 1.3 m length of horizontal pipe has a radius of 6.4×10
-3
m. Water flows with a volume flow rate 9.0×10
-3
m
3
 /s outof the right hand side of the pipe into the air. What is thepressure at the left hand end if the water is viscous, with
η
= 1.0x10
-3
Pa.s
Typical Problem:
Pretty tedious!
 
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The Penguin Pooproblem
•Ig-Nobel prize winners 2005 in FluidDynamics
Polar Biology paper
Uses the Poiseuilleequation to predict the force ofexpulsion of the penguin poo, and hence how far itis thrown from the nest
 
Other good Ig-Nobel examples:
•World’s slowest dropping liquid experiment(viscosity)•Fatalities cause by coconuts falling fromtrees (kinematics, kinetic energy,conservation of energy, gravitationalpotential energy)•The teenager repelling device (limit ofhuman hearing changes with age)
“Physical”Comedy 1
•Lecture Demonstrations
 –Requires some experience to be able to makethe demonstration amusing and informative(and make sure it works) –Audience Participation is helpful
The Tesla Probe and ElectronStream in a Magnetic Field Demo
•Give the class the essential informationabout the physics•Frame it in an entertaining manner!
“Physical”Comedy 2
•Act out the situation!
 –For example, become a transverse wavepropagating in the lecture theatre
•Make sound effects!
 –For example, the Doppler Effect
http://www.wfu.edu/Academic-departments/Physics/demolabs/demos/3/3b/3B40xx.html
 
Make gentle fun of the absurd
•Is the calculated answer sensible?
 –CD with diameter of 40 metres –Supersonic Police Cars –Trucks with mass 10,000 tons –Road collisions with 50 kTrelease of kineticenergy –Astronaut with a mass of 143 tons –Ion drive spacecraft moving 3 mm in 2 years
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