The Physics of a Fight
Entry posted by Lochs
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Personally, I have never gotten in a fist fight before, but I have always wondered if I would be able to win. In order to win fights, fighters generally have to be strong and generate enough FORCE (aka physics) to hurt their each other. Now, we learned in physics that the force a fist has on someone's face is equal to the force that the face has on the fist, however because the fist has more momentum, the fist does the damage. So in order to be most efficient one must have a high momentum punch, but is it better to have a heavier punch or a faster punch? This is what I researched.
Well, the equation for momentum is p=mv, or momentum equals mass times velocity. Looking at the idea of having a better punch, I took my very athletic friends, Anthony and Jennie and made up an experiment. Since Anthony has stronger muscles, he represented the heavier punch and with Jennie's lightening fast hands, she was the quicker punch.
I made them punch a pad on the wall for a minute each to see who would make the most damage. After 3 trials of this experiment, with Jennie punching quickly for the minute and Anthony punching with a lot of strength for the minute, I found my results. It turned out that both Anthony and Jennie had about the same damage on the white pad after the time period.
Because there is direct relation between momentum and mass as well as momentum and velocity, they both create a lot of momentum. While mass increases, momentum increases as well. While velocity increases, momentum increases as well. The best way to win in a fight is to increase both of variables to create the most momentum to create a great force to beat someone up.
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