Physics for All

Motivation to read my blog:

 

Okay, the truth is…that you don’t need to know physics to be a badass rock climber.

In fact, you could drop out of college, or not have finished high school, and if you are daring enough, strong enough, dare say I venture arrogant enough and maybe a little lucky…you could reach your goals with little to no understanding of the laws of physics you navigate while on the rock. You could be a pro. (You might already be sponsored!!!) Who cares about the coefficient of friction, or net force, or what impulse really means when your taking that sweet ass whipper off the crux that you will spray about later at the campfire to all your friends? Who cares when you’ve sent your latest proj?

The range of climber education is extraordinary, a realm between middle school, high school, some college through full PhDs, postdocs, doctors, or engineers in a slew of different subjects and career paths. All walks of life can be found at the crag, on all pathways with supreme to limited knowledge of physics at all climbing grade levels. All, however, if they reach a self-proclaimed “climber” status have found the hidden gym of psych, and climbing has become an indefinite part of their life. They are psyched to get out, psyched to get strong, psyched to improve, psyched to learn, psyched to talk about climbing, and psyched to climb (not necessarily in that order).

My belief is that strengthening the scientific understanding of the entire climbing community can only improve us. Physics is a fundamental science. The laws and principles of physics dictate how our universe is able to exist, how we are able to move about and function in this world, and are the unofficially sanctioned rules by which us climbers truly play our games. It’s a glaring hole in our education as an athlete when we misconstrue them. These are the laws that determine whether we hold on through the crux, and these are the laws we die by if something unforeseen goes terribly wrong.

Beyond that guilt trip is a simpler ideal, that learning is joyful. Learning is fun, meaningful, worthwhile in itself, and if connected to something that already has great value in your life, will be easier to relate to and understand. My goal is also to make learning physics a little fun, relatable, even directly applicable to what we do sometimes every single day: climb.

This does not mean that learning physics will be without its personal challenges for you, nor exclude me from occasionally screwing up in explaining it….

…but it is worthwhile to improve your understanding of physics…not just as a climber, but also more simply as a human being on this earth with the ability to grow and learn.

“Physics is the only real science. The rest are just stamp collecting.”
— Ernest Rutherford