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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us December 8, 2004 On a swing and some air By Chris Honor� Tidings Correspondent Part of every young person's life is time spent on a swing. Who can forget those moments, holding on, pushing back, searching for momentum, for air, legs outstretched, struggling to increase the arc of the swing? It's a magical feeling as you drop down from the apex and begin the sweep upward, the wind brushing your face, the ground dropping away. Denise Baratta | Ashland Daily Tidings Emily Anderson, 3, of Ashland, reacts as she soars above her mother's head during an afternoon of swinging at Lithia Park. Peter Wu, professor of Physics Department at Southern Oregon University, describes swinging in the following way: "When children swing they are in periodic motion, similar to the pendulum on a grandfather's clock. The physical principle that describes this motion is conservation of energy." Swinging, Wu goes on to say, involves kinetic energy (KE), potential energy (PE), acceleration, gravity and height, as well as other forces such as friction, air resistance and, he points out, "pesky brothers" getting in the way. The best means to add energy to the system is to have a hardworking parent pushing. Absent someone pushing, the child can, Wu states, "swing her legs in synchronization with the periodic motion. She can add a little more KE every cycle. This addition of energy can sustain her motion and even increase her height." But then, you only have to watch a group of children on swings to know that the physics of swinging is something they intuit - they know instinctively when to lean back, and when to kick forward, and with every fiber of their being understand that the sheer joy of this fluid sense of motion takes precedence over everything else. To swing is to feel alive. So pause for a moment and picture a swing. It is strikingly simple and even elegant in design. Two chains attached to a crossbar, a hammocked seat of pliable rubber, and nothing else. And yet this most amazing fixture of playgrounds and schools, of backyards and frontyards, has endured for generations. Consider that there are 18 parks in our town of Ashland (remarkable for a town of less than 22,000). Of those 18, nine have playgrounds with swings. There are also swings at Walker, Bellview, Lincoln, and Helman elementary schools and at the recently closed Briscoe Elementary (now closed but still a popular playground for children). All of the swings are maintained by Ashland's Parks and Recreation Department. All of them are kid magnets. Stop in at any one of the parks or schools, at Hunter Park or Bellview Elementary, and watch the children as they swing - exhilarated, going higher, ever higher, one or two leaning their heads back, their bodies almost horizontal with the ground, faces looking skyward as they pause for the briefest of moments at the apex of the swing, the chains going slack, then dropping down in a satisfying rush of wind. And then one early morning, on a Saturday, say, stop off at North Mountain Park and look at the swings. The park is empty, the day too new yet, the swings hanging motionless, almost mournfully still. Waiting. Swings are for motion, as professor Wu points out, they are filled with the promise of gravity defying kinetic energy. They long to move and when absent of those small gremlins who tirelessly slip into their saddles, exhorting someone to push, harder, higher, leaning into it, they can only stir when nudged by the wind. If you have children - if you are a Mom or Dad, grandparent, aunt or uncle - take the youngsters to wherever there are swings. Let them slide up onto the seat, gripping the chains tightly in their hands, give them a push, and stand back. Everything else will take care of itself. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Women's Slippers men's slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc libor rate Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weight Loss Programs Memory Foam Mattress college loans alternative student loans Matchmaking & Dating Scripts Adventure Travel Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation trillion cut diamonds Currancy Exchange Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams