The Pendulum of a Seismograph

I’ve always thought of myself as someone who questions common sense. In one of my professions—computer programming—doubt comes first. A program may appear to work perfectly at first glance, but I constantly remind myself to question it: “What happens in this situation? Could it produce an unexpected bug? What about this case?” I make it a habit to approach everything with skepticism.

By the way, have you ever considered the possibility that a teacher’s answer on a school test might actually be wrong? I experienced this firsthand when I was in the ninth grade. One of the questions on a science test was as follows:

[What principle does the pendulum of a seismograph use?]

Mr. T’s “correct” answer was [a fixed point]. However, I—15 years old at the time—answered [inertia]. It was marked wrong. I couldn’t accept that and insisted to Mr. T that the correct answer should be [inertia]. Still, he stubbornly refused to acknowledge it. So I took the following actions:

◆ I asked another science teacher at the same school. → That teacher answered [inertia].

◆ I asked my older brother (who eventually pursued a science track). → He also said [inertia].

◆ I asked my brother to check with his school’s teacher. → That teacher also answered [inertia].

Clearly, the correct answer was [inertia]. There was no ChatGPT back then, and if Mr. T refused to admit his mistake, that was the end of it. Mr. T often told me, “You’re so stubborn,” but whether my head was hard or soft didn’t matter— the correct answer was [inertia].

Life is all about learning from experience, and from this incident, I learned one important lesson:

“A school teacher is not always correct.”