Hitchhiker's Guide and Other Physics Exams


© Linda Bond

Exam Time

If I were your science teacher, I'd have to say that I've been pretty easy on you this year. We've had a talking toad, a few book reviews and a couple of tall tales, but that's about it. Now it's time to get SERIOUS.... with the release of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (movie), we're one step closer to knowing how the universe works (or is supposed to work) and that's where your homework comes in. If you want a good grade, listen up!

Anyone who has ever designed a planet, or a species, or an entire galaxy (like Douglas Adams), has to know something about physics. In some cases, they seem to know too much about physics, but that's a different problem.

Homework

Anyway, getting back to the situation at hand, I want you to spend the next month getting familiar with the laws of the universe as they are reported by scientists the world over. (I don't have a clue what the scientists on other worlds have to say about the matter.) Then, I want you to pick something about the universe that you don't like -- something you think could work a whole lot better if it were done differently -- and I want you to come up with a new law (or one that exists) that you think should be added (or replaced). But you have to think it through, because you can't just go around removing laws without having something collapse like a line of dominoes, so BE CAREFUL! But also BE CREATIVE! You want your new law to be interesting, don't you?

Or, Homework II

In the alternative, you can go to see Hitchhiker's Guide and write a review, pointing out some of the odd things that worked or did not work so well in Adams' galaxy.

Or, you can go to the movie, just enjoy it, and THEN start messing around with the universe and leave the movie out of it altogether.

Ideas

What to change? Oh, there are SO many topics available... there's time travel, gravity, conservation of energy (and I don't mean lying around on the couch all day), traveling through a Stargate, watching rain fall up instead of down (hey, it could happen! - let me know if you figure out how), and on, and on, and... well you get the picture.

After you pick your new idea, think it through so you cover all the likely consequences, then jump in on the discussion postings that will be piling up by then (I guarantee it, even if I have to write them myself!!!). You can post your own idea, or comment on someone else's.

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Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: View all related messages

6.   Jun 4, 2005 1:26 PM
Hey, Sonny - where'd you go???

(Just a little joke, Sonny - ha! ha!)

Well, I'm not sure how your girlfriend problems relate to physics, but you didn't really discuss why you thought it did. I'm ...


-- posted by lbondx


5.   Jun 4, 2005 1:24 PM
Hey, Professor!

I think it would be great if we could, like, go invisible whenever we want. That way, when I need to disappear (like if my girlfriend's coming and I don't want to see her) I can jus ...


-- posted by lbondx


4.   Jun 4, 2005 1:18 PM
Hi, Fancy!

Say, we seem to have a theme going here. What's with all the concern about weight, anyway? Maybe we need to think about getting away from the computer once in a while and getting a littl ...


-- posted by lbondx


3.   Jun 4, 2005 1:14 PM
Dear Professor Physics:

I think we should suspend gravity. I'm tired and I think it's gravity's fault. If it were not for gravity, I wouldn't be so heavy... then I wouldn't get so tired carrying al ...


-- posted by lbondx


2.   Jun 4, 2005 1:09 PM
I'll tell you what, Marty. If you can figure out a way that I can eat whatever I want without getting fat, I'll buy you dinner! I think you could benefit from taking a course in body chemistry, though ...

-- posted by lbondx





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