An interview with Mr. Schroeder
By Brady Winkler
You’re sitting in math class. You open your planner and write in the homework, and look at the door to see Mr. Schroeder walk in. Class just got a lot better than you expected! Everyone loves having him, but did you really know about the fascinating life our popular substitute leads? I sat down with him to learn more about his amazing amount of scientific knowledge, and why he wants us to grow up loving science.
Before coming to Wayland Middle School, did you have any careers in science?
| After graduating from Rutgers University in 1974, I worked as a financial analyst for a company called W.R. Grace in New York City. In 1975, my division, which was involved in oil and gas production, moved to Dallas, Texas. These were exciting years! But I missed my family on the east coast, so in late 1979 I moved back to the east to work for the computer company Hewlett-Packard, again in finance. If you look at the front of your ChromeBooks, you will see the letters “HP”, which stands for Hewlett-Packard! I retired from HP in 2009. Although I worked in finance during my career, I have always loved science. For example, I’m currently trying to learn the math of the field equations of Einstein’s theory of general relativity which explains how gravity works. |
Why do you want middle schoolers to be interested in science?
| I believe that we humans are on the threshold of major breakthroughs in science and technology. One of my main goals at school is to inspire younger generations to get interested in science because I believe they will have the opportunity to participate in these great scientific advances. For example, I believe that the physics community may be on the verge of discovering extra dimensions beyond the four known dimensions of space and time. Current theories suggest we may live in an eleven dimensional universe. If this turns out to be true, there is speculation that one of the extra dimensions may be a large dimension(meaning there are then 5 large dimensions) and that this 5-dimensional space-time is severely warped gravitationally. Should this be the case, then it opens up the possibility that we could travel to other star systems quickly because gravitational warping shrinks space-time. This gravitational warping could be on the order of 10 to the sixteenth power. If we were somehow able to penetrate into these warped extra dimensions with a spacecraft capable of protecting itself from the immense gravitational forces, then the distance to Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to our solar system, shrinks to just a few dozen miles! In normal 4-D space, Alpha Centauri is over 25 trillion miles from our solar system and would take about 75,000 years to travel by the best conventional rocket technology. |
Is there anything special to you about middle schoolers?
| I believe that middle schoolers are more open to new ideas and concepts during their middle school years. This is the best time to get students excited about the potential of scientific advances in many fields. My hope is to inspire students to begin thinking about science as a future career. |
What do you wish middle schoolers knew more about?
| Today a new challenge has arisen. There is a worldwide competition to discover the so-called “God equation.” This relates to the belief that all of the physical world (physics) can be encapsulated into a single equation that is perhaps an inch long. This equation would unite the four fundamental forces of Nature into a single equation. These four forces are gravity, electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force and the strong nuclear force. What is already well understood in modern science is Newton’s laws, Einstein’s theory of relativity, quantum mechanics (the study of the subatomic world), the life sciences, et cetera. This known science is fascinating. But what is often neglected in the study of science is what we do not know. That is where the mystery is. In fact this is the driving force in modern science. Perhaps the school could someday invite the well known physicist, Michio Kaku, to do a talk on the exciting developments and research now underway worldwide that is aimed at unraveling the deepest secrets of Nature. |
[Brady] Thank you so much for sitting down with me. You are such a great person to have at our school.