The solo around the world yacht race and other sailing related items.
Lesson Plan 31
Einstein and Sailing
One of my favorite pictures of Einstein shows him as an old man on a small sailboat. I believe he would have highly recommended sailing as a very practical way to understand some notions that physics and mathematics encompass.
Experimentation, theory and application; sailing is where all these are conjoined for adventure, enlightenment and enjoyment. It would have been great fun to have Einstein sitting in this class with Neal and us, puffing on his old pipe and from time to time stopping to reflect and making comments on our class. Sailing surely teaches you how relative things are to one another.
He might have shown us how to make his impromptu hat for sailing. Take your handkerchief and tie a knot in each corner and put it on your head. Adjust knots as necessary to obtain a good fit. Dip the handkerchief in the water and place it on your head if cooling of the brain is needed.
Maybe, Einstein got some of his best ideas while hoisting a sail. Maybe, sailing will do the same for our students and us.
I reflect on the words of the great physicist, Sir Isaac Newton, shortly before his death. He was summarizing his long and grand scientific life: "I know not what I may seem to the world, but, as to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."
May we all use our new knowledge of sailing given to us by Neal to voyage the oceans of truth with fair winds and following seas!
Lesson plan by Ray Manning First Baptist Church School