I Feel the Need, the Need for Speed
“Run faster! Faster! FASTER!” Whether on a football pitch or on a track field, we have heard something like this being screeched from a coach, parent, or fan. When I hear something like this being bellowed out from a non-competitor, I think to myself, “Dear Lord. If he/she could faster, he/she would.” I really wish people thought deeply about speed.
With some physics, I will demonstrate why such sentiment always falls short. Imagine a car. I gave you the task of making it go faster. 95% of you or more would decide to make the engine produce more horsepower. Make the engine bigger, more powerful. See how this is consistent with the line of thinking above? Setting aside issues like overheating and weight penalties, let’s focus on one thing: wind resistance. As you drive faster, the air fights back. This is called drag. A car going 50 mph needs 10 more hp to overcome drag. The same car going 100 mph needs 80 more hp to do the same thing. The car needs to do 4X extra work. You start driving into a wall of air. So how do you drive faster?
Velocity and air resistance are proportional to the square of the velocity.
Engineers find solutions in other areas: mechanical traction, weight reduction, and aerodynamics. Instead of fighting the air, why not use it? They develop vehicles that manipulate the air around it to:
· Push the car into the ground to increase its grip. Extra grip makes it easier for the engine to move the car forward.
· Cool the engine allowing it to run more efficiently, more sustainably.
· Create less drag thus lowering the amount of the hp needed to go faster.
Now of course these solutions require time and development to take hold. Designers and engineers develop solutions systematically through multiple iterations.
Athletes develop in the same manner. It’s not just about more conditioning, strengthening, and reps. Methods and motions must change. Musculature needs to be guided and modified. Athletes should develop more efficient metabolism, respiration, and other biochemical processes. Their thinking must change.
Students also develop in the same way. What I see at all levels of education upsets me because the system ignores the aforementioned principles. Kids are taught to answer calculation problems more quickly. Parents and educators reward children for answering multiplication table questions hastily with gasps of “Yes!” and “Correct!” They are not rewarded for thinking more deeply, for thinking about the nature and essence of mathematical concepts. Sooner or later, students hit a wall in math and often fail to overcome the hurdle due to a lack of maturing mathematical thinking and rationale.
I attempt the opposite at my tutoring practice, MetaLearning. I teach my students the nature and essence of ideas and mechanics. My hope is that my students don’t smash into a metaphorical or literal wall.
