Exercise Thirty-Four

    Analyzing the physics of dance can add fundamentally to a dancer's skill. Although dancers seldom see themselves totally in physical terms — as body mass moving through space under the influence of well-known forces and obeying physical laws — neither can they afford to ignore the physics of movement. For example, no matter how much a dancer wishes to leap off the floor and then start turning, the law of conservation of angular momentum absolutely prevents such a movement. Some movements involving primarily vertical or horizontal motions of the body as a whole, in which rotations can be ignored, can be studied using simple equations of linear motion in three dimensions.

    However, rotational motions require more complex approaches that involve analyses of the way the body's mass is distributed, the axes of rotation involved in different types of movement, and the sources of the forces that produce the rotational movement.

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to

   (A) initiate a debate over two approaches to analyzing a field of study

   (B) describe how one field of knowledge can be applied to another field

   (C) point out the contradictions between two distinct theories

   (D) Define and elaborate on an accepted scientific principle

   (E) discuss the application of a new theory within a new setting

2. The author mentions all of the following as contributing to an understanding of the physics of dance EXCEPT

   (A) the law of conservation of angular momentum

   (B) analyses of the way in which the body's mass is distributed

   (C) equations of linear motion in three dimensions

   (D) analyses of the sources that produce rotational motions

   (E) the technical terms for movements such as leaps and turns

3. The author implies that dancers can become more skilled by doing which of the following?

   (A) Ignoring rotational movements

   (B) Understanding the forces that permit various movements

   (C) Solving simple linear equations

   (D) Learning the technical terms utilized by choreographers

   (E) Circumventing the law of conservation of angular momentum

4. Analysis of which of the following would require the kind of complex approach described in lines 18 - 24?

   (A) A long leap across space

   (B) A short jump upward with a return to the same place

   (C) A sustained and controlled turn in place

   (D) Short, rapid steps forward and then backward without turning

   (E) Quick sidesteps in a diagonal line

    Human relations have commanded people's attention from early times. The ways of people have been recorded in innumerable myths, folktales, novels, poems, plays, and popular or philosophical essays. Although the full significance of a human relationship may not be directly evident, the complexity of feelings and actions that can be understood at a glance is surprisingly great. For this reason psychology holds a unique position among the sciences. "Intuitive" knowledge may be remarkably penetrating and can significantly help us understand human behavior, whereas in the physical sciences such commonsense knowledge is relatively primitive. If we erased all knowledge of scientific physics from our modem word, not only would we not have cars and television sets, we might even find that the ordinary person was unable to cope with the fundamental mechanical problems of pulleys and levers. On the other hand if we removed all knowledge of scientific psychology from our world, problems in interpersonal relations might easily be coped with and solved much as before. We would still "know" how to avoid doing something asked of us and how to get someone to agree with us; we would still "know" when someone was angry and when someone was pleased. One could even offer sensible explanations for the "whys" of much of the self's behavior and feelings. In other words, the ordinary person has a great and profound understanding of the self and of other people which, though unformulated of only vaguely conceived, enables one to interact with others in more or less adaptive ways. Kohler in referring to the lack of great discoveries in psychology as compared with physics, accounts for this by saying that "people were acquainted with practically all territories of mental life a long time before the founding of scientific psychology."