Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Things you can't cheat: work and sleep

Let me speak physics in layman's term. Pressure is defined as the force acting on a unit area of a substance. Work is defined as the force x distance or the force that moves something through a given distance.
So back to pressure. If you apply pressure on fluid, it distributes evenly and each part of the fluid experiences the same about of pressure. That's how hydraulic lifts work. so imagine applying a little amount of force to a piston of a hydraulic lift. it allows you to lift a heavy item on the cylinder barrel which would otherwise be very difficult to lift. Thing is while you apply a smaller force to move the piston a large distance, the cylinder distance moves a smaller distance. You can see a better demonstration at the hyperphysics website.
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html

Fact is, while you use a smaller amount of force, you only move the force through a larger distance. So in the end, the same amount of work is done cuz if you used a smaller force to lift the heavier load on the other side of the cylinder, you'd move the same small distance as using a smaller force but moving that force through a larger distance. So, thing i learned is you can't cheat work.

I think the same can be said for sleep. Your body needs X amount of sleep. it'll get X amount of sleep, doesn't matter when. i went to bed at 5am hoping to get up at 8:30 to go to the clinic. My eyes opened at 10:02. My body got the 5hours of sleep it needed. And i'm sure if it didn't, it'll try to make up during some time during the day. I really feel awful for not showing up at the clinic. I think i need to get a new alarm clock cuz this read one can't be trusted.

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