THE NOT SO NUTTY PROFESSOR - EXERCISE

David Willey, a lecturer in Physics at the University of Pittsburgh, recently showed a dramatic
video of himself in one of his classes. It was a film in which he walked on hot coals. Why did he
do this? He was demonstrating a law of physics to his first year students in a memorable way.
Willey, chosen as the University's Teacher of the Year' last year, believes there is real value in
starting his lectures with a bang.

G. Sometimes there is a real explosion! To demonstrate the effects of heat, for instance,
Willey has been known to pour liquid nitrogen into a soft drink bottle and cover it with a
plastic rubbish bin. The nitrogen changes into gas, expands and then causes the bottle to
explode.

Other experiments are quieter, though no less dramatic. For a class on energy and pressure,
Willey lay on a bed of nails while others broke a concrete block on his chest. But although all of
Willey's experiments are interesting and demonstrate fun ways to learn physics, none of them
quite captures the students' attention like walking barefoot on red hot coals.
1–

'Just because something is at a high temperature, doesn't mean that it has a lot of heat to give
out,' he explains. 'Firstly, the burning wood does not conduct heat well, and on top of this the
walker's feet are only in contact with the burning material for a short time.'

2–

Although traditionally people have seen fire-walking as proof of the power of mind over matter,
in other words, that people could control pain with their minds, in his article Taylor explained that
that psychology has nothing to do with it. The secret of fire-walking lies in physics.

3–

The very first time I tried to step on them, my foot went to the side of the fire,' Willey says. 'My
body just said "No Dave!" and I panicked. The second time I made a much more conscious
effort, put my foot on the coals, stepped across them and said to myself, "Wow! I'm OK.'"

4–

Willey has repeated it quite a few times on three different occasions, but the University
administration will not allow him to fire-walk on the campus because they are worried about a
possible fire, and insurance.

5–
The other teachers like the idea, but what do Willey's students think of it all? They just think it's
me being crazy as usual. They're fairly used to me doing strange demonstrations.

A. After reading the article, Willey remembered his mother picking up hot wood coals that
had fallen out of the fireplace and throwing them back without burning her hands. He knew
from her example that he would not get burnt fire-walking, but he was still hesitant when it
came to actually stepping onto a pile of hot coals he put down in his back garden.

B. Fire-walking as a ritual has been practised by people from all parts of the world for
thousands of years, according to Willey. The first written reference to it appears in a story
from India dating back to 1200 B.C. Since then, it has been observed and recorded in
numerous cultures and religions

C. He thought that these two facts made fire-walking useful for teaching, and this was
reinforced when he was looking through the March 1989 issue of The Physics Teacher'.
There he came across an article entitled Fire-Walking as a Lesson in Physics by John R.
Taylor.

D. In spite of this, Willey has posted information about his experiments on his webpage for
other physics teachers who would like to use fire-walking or some of his other experiments
in the classroom

E. Having passed his own test on a small pile of hot coals in private, Willey then decided to
try a full fire-walk, and film it. After the first step he again found that his foot was fine. Then
he made his full walk.

F. He feels that this is because the principle is demonstrated so clearly in what looks like a
very dangerous thing to do. He uses his video to demonstrate the difference between
temperature and heat, and backs this up with a simple explanation.

G. Sometimes there is a real explosion! To demonstrate the effects of heat, for instance,
Willey has been known to pour liquid nitrogen into a soft drink bottle and cover it with a
plastic rubbish bin. The nitrogen changes into gas, expands and then causes the bottle to
explode.