You're looking for common sense which unfortunately most people don't have.
Physics is a hard class because it relies so much on Math and a lot of people hate doing math, so adding another Math class would certainly make people hate it.
Most of the time people know the dangers of what they're doing but feel the risk is very low so they go through with it anyway.
Couldn't agree more with this. You would be surprised by how many people don't have any idea on basic physics concepts that surround us everyday. And they just keep living without thinking about it for even a second: riding on the train, using an elevator, accelerating/braking their cars…
Zero interest, zero curiosity… frustrating. ¡Oh! ¡But don't tell them about TikTok! They surely know EVERY bit of it.
I don't think physics is gonna convince people to wear seatbelts or do other reckless things. Without physics everyone knows what gravity is yet people still jump/fall from high places KNOWING they're gonna go downwards. Why do you think people should know physics over basic philosophy?
if seatbelts is what you care about why not make a seatbelt class mandatory. every one has an innate sense of how inertia works, people don't not wear seatbelts bc they don't know the mathematics behind it.
Depends on what you define as basic. Of course people should know stuff about how energy works and how it transfers, but most of the calculations are just unnecessary.
People should know they could fly out the windshield, when they dont use their seatbelt, but they dont need to be able to calculate the velocity they have when they hit the ground.
People need to know how to behave around electricity and open wires, they dont need to calculate with how much, simply saying, electricity they get a ticket to the next hospital or morgue.
Tell that to all the idiots who ask, even here, "why do we learn math and science in school? I don't even use Pythagoras theorem in my life. We should learn only about filing taxes and filling forms hurr durr".
What would the basics be tho? I remember when I was in school, the basic was calcuating how much you weigh on mars or what force you need to use to break wood.
I would say it would be better to learn usefull physics.
I don't think understanding why seatbelts work is a matter of physics. The evidence as to why you should wear one is all over the place and people still ignore it. People who didn't pay attention in physics probably can understand why crashing and not wearing one results in you flying out the windshield. Some philosophy type course should be the most important. I'm not saying 16 year olds need to read Plato and Kant, rather get the basics for assessing knowledge, bias and ethics. Why something is true or false, good or bad and why you should care. At least prompting people to think a little deeper about things. I've found most people don't.
If someone is to stupid to wear a seatbelt based on the commonly available information they are going to be way to stupid to learn even the most basic physics.
Physicist here. In my opinion people should learn how to think, pose questions, search for sources. Physics would come after.
Philosophy, economics, life skills and communication should be better taught at school and be the focus of the first years of learning after basic English, another language and math. Life skills are things like emergency responses (what to do in case of a deep cut etc), cooking and self care.
Physics, math, chemistry, English should come after and be the focus later on when students are more mature.
Unpopular, not sure what you quite mean by basic, but in year 10 science (It's a general class here, sciences only split off in year 11) when I went to school we were learning v=s/t and were only really beginning to learn about forces. Not going to help many people get a feel for the universe. If you mean anything more than that, good luck.
First off I disagree that it should be the "most important" one, but secondly - even if it was, so what?
Just because something it seen as important it doesn't mean people will acknowledge it, understand it, learn about it and actually follow through with things. If your friends didn't understand it even though you lost many by it, I'm not sure if changing the importance in school would have sn impact on it.
I'd just scrap it and go to something like test apptitude and desire. Send them to a trade school for 12 years and make them a fkin 18 yro expert than a general education of nothing.
Knowing the numerical value of the force exerted on your body after traveling a certain speed and coming to an abrupt halt was not going to save your friends. Physics is used to create the seat belt in the first place, knowing how much strength the material needs to be able to withstand before reaching its breaking point. Simply wearing the seat beat is just common sense and IS taught to anyone that wants to drive a car and is the responsibility of the driver to enforce when others are in the car. In fact, it is an enforced law.
Absolutely agree. It wasn't even taught as a formal required class at my high school. We had to elect to take it and it is so critically important!
Though, as someone who studied physics in college, there are arguments to be made regarding seatbelts once you know the physics involved. At low speed, seatbelts absolutely reduce injuries. At high speed, they can also be the reason you died in the crash as the car crushed you. Sometimes, momentum is your friend and you would be better off going through the windshield than being in the crushed tin can.
I think teaching the foundations of logic would be the most sensible thing to teach, and they don't even touch it in public schools. It's disconcerting to see how many people don't seem to be able to tell an invalid logical argument from a valid one.
Teaching the laws of the federal & state level that you can be arrested by doing in multiple grades instead of a general crash course of us gov senior yr in HS when no one cares is much more important imo.
I've got it; We have a normal physics class and another one named "Dark Physics" where it shows physics in real-world crash scenarios and other things that are horrifying.
Knowing high school's mentality, it would be treated like a joke at first from the name until more kids actually take the class and become shocked to learn it.
The basic assumption is that if people are taught something, they learn and apply the knowledge. This isn't true. We were all taught, and all know, fast food isn't good for us. Most people still eat fast food. I took physics, but I wore a seatbelt long before that.
Yep, it's pretty absurd that kids graduate without knowing how to do their taxes, manage money, or even how our basic economic system functions. We'd save a lot of grief in our society if this was mandatory in school. Of course a conspiracy theorist would say the reason it isn't taught is because too many people people would start asking too many questions in regards to how the government manages and spends their tax dollars.
It is insane that physics is taught so late, if at all, in public education. In my school is was taught only after competing geology and chemistry. I'm guessing it's because of our societies cultural fear of math.
I also feel the same about statistics. Even very smart, very educated people that I know don't understand how people use numbers to mislead or even lie to them, leading to troubling opinions not backed up by data in any meaningful way. It's extra frustrating because the math for basic statistics is pre-algrebra level.
I am a physics major and I disagree. Of the sciences I would say chemistry is far more important for the general population in understanding how the universe works
I don't need to use the kinematic equations to know what happens if I crash without a seat belt. The people that don't wear them figure they'll never be in a crash.
Force = Mass * Acceleration, this means that when i run into a wall i deccelerate by however fast i was running (decceleration and acceleration is basically the same thing) so in order to pass your mothers force when rolling into a wall id have to run like 60km/h
I was (well, 90s actually), but that is besides the point as I know a lot of people to this day who just treat a seatbelt as something you put on if you see a cop.
Basic physics tells us that our meatbags do not respond well to sudden acceleration or deceleration.
Physics isnt going to teach them about the damage deceleration will do to ther human body. Took physics and AP physics and nothing we learned would help make people put seatbelts on.
Physics class wouldn't fix this, many who don't want to wear a seat belt can tell some story about someone who would've died if they had worn a seat belt, completely ignoring that in most cases you'd be worse off without a seat belt.
Spatial awareness and basic physics is super key in any construction, factory, driving jobs. Things above you can fall straight down, something extended over half way over the ledge will fall, dont accel or brake too fast, you'll skid, lean your body against the slope when working on a roof, always have good grip when working at heights; watch for material!
I'm against making anything a law, including seatbelts and mandatory physics. That said, I wear my seatbelt and loved physics class.
No personal finance is more important, they should've learned the seatbelt stuff when getting their license
You're looking for common sense which unfortunately most people don't have.
Physics is a hard class because it relies so much on Math and a lot of people hate doing math, so adding another Math class would certainly make people hate it.
Most of the time people know the dangers of what they're doing but feel the risk is very low so they go through with it anyway.
Plot twist:
The most important class in school isn't even there...it's finance.
I agree with this also basic logic where you're taught common logical pitfalls like the gambles fallacy, bias, etc
Couldn't agree more with this. You would be surprised by how many people don't have any idea on basic physics concepts that surround us everyday. And they just keep living without thinking about it for even a second: riding on the train, using an elevator, accelerating/braking their cars…
Zero interest, zero curiosity… frustrating. ¡Oh! ¡But don't tell them about TikTok! They surely know EVERY bit of it.
The G.O.A.T. (Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test) would be great if most high schools adopted it. It's not like we live in a wasteland
Make Americans learn geography and history. Its sad to watch people struggle to name 5 countries
We do. People aren't paying attention, there's a difference.
While it's definitely depressing that's not really the useful part of geography.
Sure it ranges from basic general knowledge to a cool party trick depending on how many you can name but it's all very surface.
It's much more important to learn about the economic and social effects of geography. Why is Sudan poor but France rich?
Same with history, it's much more important to be able to apply trends and analyse sources than wrote memorisation.
I don't think physics is gonna convince people to wear seatbelts or do other reckless things. Without physics everyone knows what gravity is yet people still jump/fall from high places KNOWING they're gonna go downwards. Why do you think people should know physics over basic philosophy?
I would say in that case logic and probability would help more lmao
Math is the most important one. Not physics.
This is just amazing to me. I'm in my 40s and I can only think of two people I've known who died in a car crash, and one of them was driving drunk.
To understand physics you need to understand maths
Ethics
Your friends lacked basic common sense, mentally challenged children know to wear a seatbelt without being told.
if seatbelts is what you care about why not make a seatbelt class mandatory. every one has an innate sense of how inertia works, people don't not wear seatbelts bc they don't know the mathematics behind it.
Math, above all else
Depends on what you define as basic. Of course people should know stuff about how energy works and how it transfers, but most of the calculations are just unnecessary.
People should know they could fly out the windshield, when they dont use their seatbelt, but they dont need to be able to calculate the velocity they have when they hit the ground.
People need to know how to behave around electricity and open wires, they dont need to calculate with how much, simply saying, electricity they get a ticket to the next hospital or morgue.
Why would you go against natural selection?
Good point, but they can cause collateral damage when doing basic things like driving a car.
Tell that to all the idiots who ask, even here, "why do we learn math and science in school? I don't even use Pythagoras theorem in my life. We should learn only about filing taxes and filling forms hurr durr".
Most people only use basic math in their lives if any and you can do it all on your phone's calculator. So, they aren't wrong
Most people actually have a basic understanding of physics. They just don't understand why things work and react the way they do.
What would the basics be tho? I remember when I was in school, the basic was calcuating how much you weigh on mars or what force you need to use to break wood.
I would say it would be better to learn usefull physics.
I don't think understanding why seatbelts work is a matter of physics. The evidence as to why you should wear one is all over the place and people still ignore it. People who didn't pay attention in physics probably can understand why crashing and not wearing one results in you flying out the windshield. Some philosophy type course should be the most important. I'm not saying 16 year olds need to read Plato and Kant, rather get the basics for assessing knowledge, bias and ethics. Why something is true or false, good or bad and why you should care. At least prompting people to think a little deeper about things. I've found most people don't.
If someone is to stupid to wear a seatbelt based on the commonly available information they are going to be way to stupid to learn even the most basic physics.
Physicist here. In my opinion people should learn how to think, pose questions, search for sources. Physics would come after.
Philosophy, economics, life skills and communication should be better taught at school and be the focus of the first years of learning after basic English, another language and math. Life skills are things like emergency responses (what to do in case of a deep cut etc), cooking and self care.
Physics, math, chemistry, English should come after and be the focus later on when students are more mature.
Sounds like what you really want is a "common sense" class.
It's amazing how many people lack common sense. It's kinda scary.
Unpopular, not sure what you quite mean by basic, but in year 10 science (It's a general class here, sciences only split off in year 11) when I went to school we were learning v=s/t and were only really beginning to learn about forces. Not going to help many people get a feel for the universe. If you mean anything more than that, good luck.
First off I disagree that it should be the "most important" one, but secondly - even if it was, so what?
Just because something it seen as important it doesn't mean people will acknowledge it, understand it, learn about it and actually follow through with things. If your friends didn't understand it even though you lost many by it, I'm not sure if changing the importance in school would have sn impact on it.
Physics was always my favourite class.
It amazes me, how amazed people are when you make observations based on school physics. It's not rocket science! I guess it's a start though.
I'd just scrap it and go to something like test apptitude and desire. Send them to a trade school for 12 years and make them a fkin 18 yro expert than a general education of nothing.
NO basic English and Maths is the abs priority.
I'd go with philosophy. Most people seem to have no clue on how to form a valid argument, or dismiss obvious fallacies.
Knowing the numerical value of the force exerted on your body after traveling a certain speed and coming to an abrupt halt was not going to save your friends. Physics is used to create the seat belt in the first place, knowing how much strength the material needs to be able to withstand before reaching its breaking point. Simply wearing the seat beat is just common sense and IS taught to anyone that wants to drive a car and is the responsibility of the driver to enforce when others are in the car. In fact, it is an enforced law.
Absolutely agree. It wasn't even taught as a formal required class at my high school. We had to elect to take it and it is so critically important!
Though, as someone who studied physics in college, there are arguments to be made regarding seatbelts once you know the physics involved. At low speed, seatbelts absolutely reduce injuries. At high speed, they can also be the reason you died in the crash as the car crushed you. Sometimes, momentum is your friend and you would be better off going through the windshield than being in the crushed tin can.
I barely passed basic algebra. If they did that, I'd still be in school 50 years later.
I think teaching the foundations of logic would be the most sensible thing to teach, and they don't even touch it in public schools. It's disconcerting to see how many people don't seem to be able to tell an invalid logical argument from a valid one.
they should have a class called common sense and street knowledge
Teaching the laws of the federal & state level that you can be arrested by doing in multiple grades instead of a general crash course of us gov senior yr in HS when no one cares is much more important imo.
Personally I i believe we should yeet every 10 year old off a 20 story building to really get them to understand terminal velocity. That'll teach em!
I've got it; We have a normal physics class and another one named "Dark Physics" where it shows physics in real-world crash scenarios and other things that are horrifying.
Knowing high school's mentality, it would be treated like a joke at first from the name until more kids actually take the class and become shocked to learn it.
English should.
The basic assumption is that if people are taught something, they learn and apply the knowledge. This isn't true. We were all taught, and all know, fast food isn't good for us. Most people still eat fast food. I took physics, but I wore a seatbelt long before that.
Used to be a physics major : I disagree. While physics is great, if we HAD to pick a single class to make children take? Financial literacy
That + economics
Yep, it's pretty absurd that kids graduate without knowing how to do their taxes, manage money, or even how our basic economic system functions. We'd save a lot of grief in our society if this was mandatory in school. Of course a conspiracy theorist would say the reason it isn't taught is because too many people people would start asking too many questions in regards to how the government manages and spends their tax dollars.
"To call econ a dismal science adherents exaggerate; the dismal's fine, it's 'science' that they patently prevaricate."
What the hell is even that
I graduated with a computer science degree in 2003, never took any physics course ever and I always wear my seat belt
It is insane that physics is taught so late, if at all, in public education. In my school is was taught only after competing geology and chemistry. I'm guessing it's because of our societies cultural fear of math.
I also feel the same about statistics. Even very smart, very educated people that I know don't understand how people use numbers to mislead or even lie to them, leading to troubling opinions not backed up by data in any meaningful way. It's extra frustrating because the math for basic statistics is pre-algrebra level.
Our school systems hate applied math.
People are somehow so surprised when physics does the physics thing
Philosophy
I am a physics major and I disagree. Of the sciences I would say chemistry is far more important for the general population in understanding how the universe works
If they didn't get the seatbelt thing, what makes you think would get physics?
I don't need to use the kinematic equations to know what happens if I crash without a seat belt. The people that don't wear them figure they'll never be in a crash.
Your friends didn't understand that if they weren't seat belted they'd fly through the windshield?
F=ma would have fixed that.
Actually the flying is conservation of momentum.
F=ma explains the ouch at the other end.
An object in motion tends to stay in motion.
Who
Force = Mass * Acceleration, this means that when i run into a wall i deccelerate by however fast i was running (decceleration and acceleration is basically the same thing) so in order to pass your mothers force when rolling into a wall id have to run like 60km/h
Do you normally run into walls at such a fast pace?
yes
Ouch
I don't know how having sex with their mothers would have fixed that situation, but I'm in.
I think OP was driving back in the 80s where there were actually a lot of people not using seatbelts :D
I was (well, 90s actually), but that is besides the point as I know a lot of people to this day who just treat a seatbelt as something you put on if you see a cop.
Basic physics tells us that our meatbags do not respond well to sudden acceleration or deceleration.
That's not a problem of lack of science knowledge, that's a problem of stupidity.
stupidity can often be mitigated by education
Doesmt have to be physics tho
Physics isnt going to teach them about the damage deceleration will do to ther human body. Took physics and AP physics and nothing we learned would help make people put seatbelts on.
Yup, I took AP Physics B and C, and I was going to make the same point.
OTOH, it did reinforce to me the importance of tread on your tires so that friction could maintain centripetal acceleration.
Physics class wouldn't fix this, many who don't want to wear a seat belt can tell some story about someone who would've died if they had worn a seat belt, completely ignoring that in most cases you'd be worse off without a seat belt.
Spatial awareness and basic physics is super key in any construction, factory, driving jobs. Things above you can fall straight down, something extended over half way over the ledge will fall, dont accel or brake too fast, you'll skid, lean your body against the slope when working on a roof, always have good grip when working at heights; watch for material!
Sad
My senior year about 1/3 of the kids in my English class could hardly read the only language they know.
And a significant percentage of those people will look down on anyone who doesn't speak English well.
I think your friends were just not very smart
Personal finance and personal health over physics
the brain is needed
This would just ruin failarmy....