Laws of physics applied to life at Princeton

In the seventeenth century, Isaac Newton famously formulated his First Law of Motion, stating that in the absence of outside forces, an object at rest will stay at rest, and a body moving at a constant velocity in a straight line continues doing so indefinitely. Also known as the Law of Inertia, it is applicable to more than just motion. In fact, I'd say that it affects all of our day-today activities.

This weekend, for instance, I had tentative plans to visit a friend in Manhattan. Come Saturday evening, the thought of canceling my plans was influencing me and tempting me to stay on campus. I was comfortable, 'at rest,' and staying on campus for another night of beer drinking in the 08544 zip code seemed perfectly acceptable, or at least it seemed more attractive than dragging myself through the seeming rigmarole of New Jersey Transit. I knew deep down, though, that a break from campus would do me good.

Arguing that I would have a good time and would feel better about going once I got onto the train, my friends enjoined me to go. Past experiences going into the city told me they were right: from the comfortable and easy location of campus, the trip to New York always seems too much of a hassle. Gathering all the energy I had, however, I forced myself onto the dinky and, before I knew it, there I was, going uptown on the 2/3 subway line.

Reflecting on the magnified view I'd had of my trip into New York, I realized that I'd been suffering from that pesky force of inertia that Newton had theorized hundreds of years ago. This same force affects us all here at Princeton, however, its most salient manifestation is occurring presently with the senior class. Talking with me about her thesis, a friend of mine was bemoaning that she had yet to start it and was finding any excuse not to do so. (I have suppressed her name to protect the innocent.)

The bigger the project, it seems, the harder it is to start it. This condition coincides exactly with the fact that a large train has much more inertia and is thus much harder to get going than, say, a baby carriage. A short paper might seem difficult to start, but the effort to do so pales in comparison to starting the seeming tomes we write as seniors.

How are we to combat inertia? Well, as Newton said, we need an outside force, someone or something that will get us going. Otherwise, we'll all "stay at rest," running the risk of not graduating. For me, my friends' exhortations to get onto the train were enough to combat my own laziness and get off campus. I don't know if friendly persuasions will be enough to force a thesis out of any of us seniors.

For anything that we do, however, we are going to have to combat inertia: otherwise we'll continue 'at rest' or, at best, going in a straight line. I don't have an answer to this conundrum, but I hope that being a little more aware of our own tendency toward stasis might help us in taking those first steps in starting anything that we know, deep down, that we want or have to do.