Of nuclear reactors and relearning true perspective

It's been quite some time since I last posted on the Physics is fun blog but the passion and love for Physics stays. Recently during my trip to the States, we were on the ferry to Kelleys Island - one of the many islands on Lake Erie in Ohio.

In front of Kelleys Island school

We cycled all around Kelleys Island.

During the ferry ride on Lake Erie to Kelleys Island 

Lake  Erie  is  one  of  the 5 great lakes in North America and my geography teacher Mrs Ong made sure I could draw the map of North America free hand and place and name the 5 great lakes. Using the pneumonic HOMES, we name the lakes as Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior.

Can you see the distant nuclear reactor and cooling plant?

Whilst on the ferry ride and while cycling around the  island,    Frank pointed out the nuclear reactor   with   its  cooling plant  nearby  the  lake  to  me.  It  make sense to build the nuclear reactor  close  to  the  lake. The cold glacial waters   would   greatly  helped  to  cool  down  the cooling plant. The reactor looks very small  but I tried to make it clearer by using the red box to highlight it.

The reactor and the cooling plant looks
clearer in this enlarged picture.

What  I  was  amazed  was  that  the  dimensions  of  the nuclear reactor was much smaller compared  to  the size of the cooling plant. Either that or the cooling plant is way nearer to Lake Erie to  make  the  cooling  process  more  efficient.  I  also  noted  there was a sizable distance between the reactor and the cooling plant as seen from the  above  picture. These 2 realizations posed a dilemma to my mind.

For years I had successfully taught my Science and Physics students to draw the fairly complicated labelled diagram of the nuclear reactor and cooling plant as below.

They would first draw the egg shaped reactor  and the vertical fuel and control rods spaced in between. Then they would draw the horizontal graphite in the core and showed how the heat flowed out at the top as hot gas to the heat exchanger or cooling plant. The cold water  would come in at the bottom as  from the cold glacial waters of Lake Erie. Horrors! Now only do I realize I had taught it wrongly for so many years by blindly following the textbook diagrams.

My aha moment in learning and teaching  the reactor came from the dimensions of size and distance! The textbook picture I had taught my students to draw for years were not accurate in dimensions with a wrong perspective on size and distance. In reality, the reactor egg is way smaller as perceived from my photo in contrast to the textbook diagram which made the reactor look bigger than reality. Another truth that shocked me was the reactor was actually situated pretty far away from the cooling plant and not next to each other as I was led to wrongly believe from the textbook diagram.

So travel and first hand experience teaches better perspective and feeds a better grasp of reality compared to textbook diagrams. So maybe the textbook need to label the reactor  diagram as not to scale and put a footnote to indicate the reactor is way smaller than the cooling plant and the distance between them can be several kilometers away. We also need to learn, unlearn and relearn as part of our journey in education and life.

I also had the good fortune to visit Thomas Alva Edison's birthplace and birth home in Milan, Ohio, courtesy Frank's decision to detour to Milan before heading home to Lodi.

Thomas A Edison was born in Milan, Ohio near Lake Erie in 1847.

Thomas Edison's house was very near (about 700 feet )  to  the  Milan Canal.  The Canal  saw big schooners  and  international  sailors  come  inland  via the rivers and Lake Erie. Edison's innovative  spirit  could  have been sparked off by the daily exposure to brave sailors from all over the world who  were  willing  to  risk  their  lives  to  fulfill  heir dreams of travelling and seeing the world, even though if it was by schooners.

Behind Thomas Edison's house.

The map showed international sailors reached
Milan daily via the Milan canal.

The Milan Canal closed up after the invention of the
locomotive made land travel more viable than sea travel.

Edison's early childhood exposure to these brave  sailors daily could have shaped his thinking to be radical rather than conventional. This attitude probably was one reason behind his many inventions. Edison held the record with 2332 patents for inventions for many years. His record was only recently surpassed  in 2003 by Yamazaki. So students and teachers, don't always look  to textbooks as the gospel truth. Travel and actual experience can be better teachers. Exercise your brain via HOTS and really think rather than memorize. Learn to  adjust your perspective on sizes and distances and priorities in life.

Learn, unlearn and relearn when you need to. Learn the real truth and do not be afraid to change the way you think and hopefully then we may become as creative as Edison.