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Sunday, June 29, 2014

A Lesson in Physics in the Vineyard

I have come to realize that energy is quantized, that is it comes in discrete packets. On a certain day, I may have two quanta of energy available to use, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, but after repeated use, there is no more energy in the tank. Not only does my body follow the laws of physics, it also evokes Newtonian motion. For example, the goal when working the vineyard is to do an activity for one entire row which is approximately 800 feet. The activity may be weed wacking, picking rocks, pounding in line posts, you get the picture, and the reward is the picnic bench at the north end of the field which contains the best tasting water in the world.
On a certain day, during the second shift, when I had run out of gas in the wheeled line trimmer, I met my husband at the picnic bench and had a cold one (best tasting water, that is). The sun was slowly setting and the heat of the day had abated.
After a few minutes had passed, my husband said, "Ready to finish up the last little bit?" and I replied, "No, you see, a body at rest tends to stay at rest." I was of course, invoking Newton's first law, which properly stated is: "First law: When viewed in an inertial reference frame, an object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity, unless acted upon by an external force."1 My husband had a laugh and I got out of doing "the last little bit". Laughter in the vineyard is a good thing.
Reference:
1. Wikipedia, Newton's Laws of Motion.

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