I personally believe that the ageless, instinctive, intrinsic appeal of
Tom-and-Jerry-type animated cartoons mainly consists in visual physics
jokes. Just think about it. A pursuing cat rebounds elastically from any
solid obstacle. A heavy, falling weight flattens a cat, paper-thin, without
killing it. A falling cat makes a spreadeagled-cat-shaped hole in the
ground. A fleeing mouse first spins its back legs like wheels before
gaining traction and accelerating with a twanging sound (gerbils actually
do something similar on a shiny surface, which is all the funnier because
of the cartoons!) You will think of many other examples.
As a science centre interactivity specialist I know that any unexpected,
counter-intuitive phenomenon is most likely to enhance "engagement" with
science. And everyone knows that children somehow find these things more
irresistible than adults do.
Kittens are genetically programmed to extend their physics-knowledge by
"playing" with balls of wool etc. (Newtons laws of mousing?) Kittens know
more than some science centre critics about the one-ness of learning and
play. Throughout prehistory, extending one's "phenomenological vocabulary"
also had real survival value for juvenile humans, though they never called
it physics. And a flattened Stone-Age cat stayed flattened.
Very seriously, maybe there's excellent potential for tapping into the
universal, instinctive appeal of non-verbal, visual, physics jokes...
Keep smiling, psci-com.
That's all folks...
Ian Russell * [log in to unmask]
* Hands-on, minds-on, + hearts-on. *
* Exploratory, explanatory, emotive. *
** http://www.interactives.co.uk **
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