Humor for the Educator

A Chinese Fable About Two Pots

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck.

One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.

At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After 2 years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream.   "I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."

The old woman smiled, "Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them. For two years I have been able to have beautiful flowers to decorate the table Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."

Each of us has our own unique flaws. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

To all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers...

Three Lessons to Live By

Lesson Number One:

A crow was sitting in a tree, doing nothing all day. A small rabbit saw the crow, and asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?"

The crow answered: "Sure, why not." So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit, and ate it.

Moral of the story is: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

Science in this story: There is a lot more potential energy the higher you are relative to the ground.

Jumping, the fox has a lot of kinetic energy. The momentum of the fox will be the product the square of her velocity multiplied by her mass. The rabbit has neither kinetic energy nor momentum and no potential to draw from. The rabbit does provide some chemical energy to the fox. So you see, it’s all about energy. Others might explain it in terms of ecosystems and the cycle of life.

Lesson Number Two:

A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy."

"Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull. "They're packed with nutrients."

The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that it actually gave him enough strength to reach the first branch of the tree.

The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fortnight, there he was, proudly perched at the top of the tree.

Soon he was spotted by a farmer, who promptly fetched his gun and shot the turkey out of the tree.

Moral of the story: Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

Science in this story: Apparently the bull and the turkey are fairly knowledgeable about energy and nutrition. The turkey might have seen the farmer but obviously he was not aware of the chemical energy in the gunpowder and the force that it would create as the expanding gases conveyed all their energy to the small bullet and created a tremendous amount of momentum. The mv 2 will usually take care of a turkey.

Lesson Number Three:

A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold, the bird froze and fell to the ground in a large field. While it was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on it. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, it began to realize how warm it was. The dung was actually thawing him out!

He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him!

The morals of this story are: 1) Not everyone who drops dudu on you is your enemy. 2) Not everyone who gets you out of dudu is your friend. 3) And when you're in deep dudu, keep your mouth shut.

Science in this story: Dung, especially falling dung, has high potential energy and gathers kinetic energy as it falls. In addition, there is a significant amount of thermal energy in fresh poured dung as experienced by our little feathered friend. One can also say that cows have energy to spare!

Obviously winter came suddenly that year. The bird had not been able to acclimatize and develop his winter plumage. The fact that his plumage was sparse also helped him thaw out as the heat transfer might have been hampered by a thicker plumage. We can say the dung might have been more on the runny side as that would facilitate the heat transfer further.

The cat obviously knew that where there is sound there is energy as he traced the sound energy waves and saw the moving bird, another sign of energy, and ate him in order to get chemical energy. One could also raise a few questions that can be answered by our knowledge of science. Would it have been possible to have a deep snow cover on the ground?

Does sound travel faster and further on a cold day or a hot day? Is the hot dung a mechanism for ridding the cow of excess body heat? Chemistry-wise, is there more bond forming or bond breaking in the latter part of a cow’s intestine?