Natural Science Forum / Physics / General Physics / July 2008

On Jul 30, 12:10 pm, "Spaceman" <space...@yourclockmalfunctioned.duh>
wrote:

You know, you could save yourself a lot of time just by saying
"Ththppppptt!" in a post, rather than straining your wee head to
produce something that sounds coherent. Your wee head isn't up to it,
and you really only want to say "Ththpppppttt!" anyway.

PD

On Jul 30, 1:10 pm, "Spaceman" <space...@yourclockmalfunctioned.duh>
wrote:

James, here you are confusing relative separation velocity with
attained absolute velocity.

The deal here is that for any mass particle, the velocity of light
cannot be achived, since it's relativist mass increase as light
velocities are approached becomes so great that the amount of
propelling energy or force needed to reach light speeds becomes
increasibly  impossible to provide.  Accelerator experiments on simple
particles have demonstrated this over 50 years ago.

So, this is why today the major new accelerators are "super colliders"
that attempt to smash two particle beams traveling in opposite
directions head-on to attain the maximum energy at the point of
collision. Even that has got a small glitch, in that science does not
agree on the energy liberated in the resulting collision.

Now lets turn to automotive analogies. Run to cars together from
opposite directions, each traveling at say 60-mph (88-ft/second).
Each car has a kinetic energy of say X-joules, so when they collide
will the resulting impact be 2X-joules, or larger because their
relative velocities are 176 ft/second, and I believe that if you
combined their individual masses you employed this to computer the
result, you would arrive at a collision impact 4X that of the original
estimate because since the closing velocity has doubled, the energy
liberated would be the square of that ratio, which is not the observed
case when the experiment is conducted by lead projectiles mounted on
rails.

Fortunatly, physics provides us with a very simple solution to this
paradox, which relates to that old concept that "Energy Can Neither Be
Created or Destroyed", not every by a shift in reference frames.  This
a the second most fundamental axiom in physics, the first being
arguably the "Conservation of Momentum".

In the theoretical collision of two cars traveling head on and
colliding, energy will be dissipated in the form of heat during the
collison, but the momentum of the two automibles will be conserved.
You may want to think about how this is accomplished, but I will
assure you that it is.  I doubt that Sam will disagree with this.
(Right Sam?)

James, a hint.  Have you ever watched two masters of the game play
billiards or pool?  When I was an undergraduate at Drexel, I had a
friend who paid for his winnings playing pools near the docks of South
Philiadelphia. He played his game at bars in South Philadelphia that
most of us would fear even entering, yet manages to pay the entirety
of his undergraduate educational expense through his winnings at the
pool table. During the daytime, he was alwo a wizard in classical
mechanics, and realizes at an early age how to trade off the energy of
a queball against it's momentum.  I was amazed that he never had his
fingers broken since he was the consummate hustler, but never did,
because likely he was only 17 at the time, and appeared much younger.
That is, he played with a very tough crowd of longshoreman and
merchant seaman.  He also was a master of game psychology, since none
of the longshoremen would play him, but simply sit back and an laugh
when foreign sefarers did,  I believe that some of the locals admired
his skill, and also wanted to learn.

Guess could say that this kid was your classic huster, and was one of
the best.  Back at Drexel, when we had spare time he would teach me a
liittle about the game, but it was not my thing because I already had
my own methods of paying tuition.  He tought me how to hold back of a
queball shot, when the target ball is sitting right on the edge of the
pocket without having the queball follow it down the hole.  Ok, I'll
share this one tip.  You chalk up the que unually heavil to impart a
friction driven twist on the cue ball, while a that same time you
don't deflect it anouth to deflect it from hitting the target ball at
a minimal angle. When you do this properly and with a few hours of
practice, the target ball will always fall into the hole and the que
ball will be deflected and bounce off the rail. Pulled off at the last
play, when the bets are doubled this move can win most games.  The
other thing that my classmate taught me was how to break, and most
people don't realize that their is a bit of science plus pure luck in
doing this.  That said, my classmate paid all of his college bills on
earning from a pool hall.  He never saw this a gamblind and
didn't...he was a pure pool hustler.

The lesson here is any, is that you should never be suckered in by a
pool hustler who is primarily a student, and an good one at that, in
classical mechanics.

This guy aced both the classical mechanics and theoretical mechanis
physics courses at Drexel, but then the surprise ending, he was
distanced from his family who were Orthox Jews, and moved to another
home without telling him their new aggress...because guess what...he
signed up for Adanced Core Army ROTC, because he desperately wanted to
become an officer in the US Army.  Which I believe he did.

Go figure that one out, although I applaud his decision.  Some family
he had!  I likely would have followed that same course, except by that
time I already had a wonderful wife and 2 children.

James, simply telling you where some of the folks that respond to your
posts come from.

Harry C.

p.s.  Jack's has moved,