NHK’s “Pitagora-Switch” on Japanese public TV
WTF is a “Pitagora-Switch”?
In Japanese pitagorasuichi (ピタゴラスイッチ) is how say in engrish Pythagoras Switch. Despite that mouthful of a name, this educational television show on NHK is a quite fun science program for kids (like me). Watch the Google-Video of the “beautiful mechanism” program segment in which the “Pitagora device” goes into action.
So what is the “Pitagora device” all about? The show targets four to six year old children to help foster and develop their powers of of thinking. Here’s my loose translation of the mission statement the “Pythagoras Switch” children’s show….
NHK’s “Pitagora-Switch”
Within our daily lives, which we go about without thinking much about the many mysteries, archetypes, themes and more varied ways of thought. For example, have you ever thought why waffles are always the same shape? Behind it all is concept of “having a shape.” There all sorts of these archetypes/shapes: in print, in mass-produced goods and whatnot. Understanding these these “shapes” let’s you grasp how these things work.
“Pythagoras Switch” wants to help kids have that moment of A-HA! We want to raise thinking about thinking, to flip that epiphany switch in every child.
Read a machine-translated version of the official website of NHK’s Pythagoras Switch at:
Translated version of http://www.nhk.or.jp/youho/pitagora.html
Mo’ betta than Teletubbies or sold-their-soul-to-Satan-long-ago Sesame Street!
PS: Be sure to check out this other gr-r-r-eat Rube Goldberg device!
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April 16th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
I like the Pythagorean maxim “abstain from beans” which is much better than the ARUGORIZUMU taisou (”algorithm march” ) on thePitagoraswitch TV show.
Pythagoreans also believed that the earth itself was in motion and that the laws of nature could be derived from pure mathematics. They may have coined the term cosmos, a term implying a universe with orderly movements and events like the “beautiful pitagorasuichi mechanism.” Now what the the connection is to Pitagoraswitch is beyond me. I need to watch the show to expand my mind.
April 17th, 2006 at 10:38 am
First it is the pitagora, in a few years itll be the pachinko for these kids. This is beyond sad.
May 20th, 2006 at 10:43 am
Over on Vertical-inc.com John said, “I never knew what the name [Pitagora-Switch] meant.”
Hey me too, and I speak the language. Pitagora-Switchi = Pythagoras Switch. D’oh!
September 16th, 2006 at 8:25 am
YouTube - Schadaraparr video: “Disco System”
Via Pink Tentacle
The Japanese group, Schadaraparr, has a music video for their new single “Disco System” featuring themselves as a ‘Pitagora-Switchi.’