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SgtLongcoat

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Everything posted by SgtLongcoat

  1. So, today I saw a show in which a circus was being performed, and saw one of my favorite types of acts, the tightrope walker. Though it's one of my favorite acts, as a kid, I always wondered why they carried around the big, funny looking stick. Wouldn't having more weight make it harder to walk the rope? Actually, it's quite the contrary. The weight of the pole, extended over the distance, makes it easier to balance. Without the rope, they'd have to wiggle around like crazy on the rope in order to stay on. With the pole, by making slight changes to the angle of the pole, the torque on the pole makes major corrections to the walker's balance. As such, it creates the illusion of elegance atop the rope.
  2. Actually Nate, it was more like a psuedo-3D. Everything was technically on the same level, but the map was split into several sections which were rendered x pixels higher or lower on the screen to give the illusion of 3D. For example, you couldn't aim the gun up or down, yet if you were standing on level x, you could hit anything "above" or "below" you. There's actually a video on The Game Theorists channel that discusses this in way more depth than I just did, if you want to check it out.
  3. Let it be stated that I am a huge Legend of Zelda fan. I've played a ton of the games, and have even made it a personal goal to seek out a couple of the "older" ones. One of my two favorite games from the franchise is The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, in which the player runs around the land of Termina with a 3 day time limit, trying to prevent the moon from falling and destroying the planet, and using magic to periodically reset time. This game is one of the darkest, yet most emotional in the franchise. However, it doesn't quite handle gravitational physics well. Considering the moon in the game is constantly approaching the earth, the force of gravity should be constantly increasing, and the acceleration of the moon due to gravity should also be constantly increasing. Despite this, the moon appears to fall at a pretty constant velocity, and even seems to slow down in the game over screen, right before it hits the earth. In addition, in the actual ending, the moon's descent isn't stopped until it gets extremely close to the earth. Assuming I'm wrong and the moon is accelerating towards the earth, considering the moon's mass and the relatively great impact velocity, the force required to change its momentum from its initial momentum to 0 would be so great that there would be some form of crater on the earth's surface from where the four giant's who actually stopped the moon from falling were standing.
  4. Give me the vacuum and get me to Fort Knox, I'm gonna be rich!
  5. SgtLongcoat

    Teleportation

    That's definitely awesome, wish I could teleport. But wouldn't that mean I would have to he entangled with another me? Or did I misunderstand your post?
  6. One of the most beautiful, awe inspiring landscapes to explore in a video game is none other than the floating island. Imagine being surrounded by plains, forests, mountains... and blue sky and clouds as far as the eye can see. As beautiful as they are though, just how do they stay in the air? Some games offer a semi-plausible explanation, such as giant fans on the bottom of islands, or simply "It's magic." Other games, however, offer no explanation whatsoever, and the islands simply float. The force of gravity should be pulling them down, and there isn't some giant hand holding it up, so there's no physical force pusing it up against gravity. This leaves two options: 1) A force field, likely caused by magnetism, creates an upward force on the island which counteracts gravity. 2) The island pushes something else (air) down. The impulse of the air over time causes an oppsite force on the island which counteracts gravity. Both of these are semi plausible, until you actually factor in entering and exiting the island, which changes the island's mass, and would cause it to move due to unbalanced forces. In the end, maybe the "It's magic" definition is better.
  7. On top of that, last time I played pong, I'm pretty sure the ball retained velocity in one direction, and just changed it's velocity in the other direction based on the angle it hit the paddle at. Then again, I haven't played pong in about four years, so more likely than not, I am completely wrong.
  8. Something tells me that the junior/senior class trip to Italy might not be happening this year, as Italy has recently been hit by a series of earthquakes, the most recent of which hit cental Italy and was a 6.6 on the Richter scale. According to recent news, approximately 90% of buildings in the area, many of which had significant historical value, were affected or destroyed by the shockwaves, and many were injured (luckily no reported casualties). As the shockwaves radiated from the epicenter, surrounding areas felt aftershocks of around 4.4 on the scale, and aftershocks are estimated to continue for the next week or two. Being forces between two tectonic plates at fault lines are what cause these tremors, it can be assumed that there's been an increase in the amount of tectonic activity underneath Italy. For everyone's sake, I hope these tremors end soon, because if they migrate any further south, there may even be a chance we see Mt. Vesuvius erupt again. I wish the best of luck to the people of Italy in rebuilding and returning to their normal lives. My heart truly goes out to them.
  9. Interesting to know that demolishing a building causes an implosion rather than an explosion. Out of curiosity, what demolition did you go watch?
  10. A couple days ago, I was waiting to be picked up (since I'm a seventeen year old chicken who still doesn't have his license), and I unfortunately almost witnessed a car accident. A child, maybe four or five years old, went to chase after a ball which went across the street, and the driver couldn't see him because there was a parked car in the way. I tense up because I'm about ready to bolt over and help the kid, but luckily the driver stops about a yard away from hitting the kid. He's one lucky kid. The weird thing about this, though, is that the force of friction acting on the car to move it forward before the brake is applied is the force of static friction, which is greater than the force of friction which acts to bring the car to a stop after the brake is applied, that of kinetic friction. This means that, in order for the car to come to a stop, the brake would need to be applied for a longer amount of time than the gas would to bring it up to speed, being kinetic friction has a lower acceleration than static friction. In addition, the impulse the kid would've felt had he been hit would likely be enough to cause serious injury, considering the magnitude of the momentum of the car compared to the child's momentum in the direction of the car's motion (~0 kg m/s), and the fact that the car's velocity wouldn't change much due to the child's relatively small mass compared to the car. I truly am glad the car stopped in time, because human road kill isn't something I ever want to see.
  11. For a camera intended for security photos or important government shots, that might actually be important to have 21 megapixels... For your average Joe who's going to use his phone's camera for selfies and random shots, not so much.
  12. Terraria; one of my favorite games of all time. I've played through it more times than I can count, and have logged more hours into it than I care to admit. The game is a sandbox game full of crazy bosses and easter eggs. Needless to say, it tends to have its own spin on the laws of physics, but almost always these spins are based on real physical laws. One such way the game has fun with physics is with its reference to Valve's Portal series: the Portal Gun. The problem isn't that the gun allows for instant teleportation (the game already has teleportation pads and potions). The problem lies in the affect of holding the gun. When holding the gun, the player's terminal velocity changes from 51 MPH (22.79 m/s) to 179 MPH (80.02 m/s). Assuming that the net force on the object is mg-bv, which should be equal to 0 at terminal velocity, meaning terminal velocity = mg/b, and g and b are constant, this means that the portal gun would be two and a half times the mass of the player. Though this would make the player insanely strong, this isn't entirely unrealistic. However, this assumes that gravity is constant. When holding the gun, the time taken to accelerate to this new terminal velocity is the same as it would be to accelerate to the former, meaning the acceleration due to gravity is what increases 3.5x. As such, it can be safely assumed that the portal gun, as it exists in Terraria, breaks laws of physics. Though, in a video game, which is more fun? Being bound by the laws of physics, or being able to have some fun with laws that we can't change in real life?
  13. The force shouldn't be changing if the velocity is always constant. It would make more sense if a force acted on the blocks over a very short period of time to accelerate the blocks to their final, constant speed.
  14. Undertale… where do I even begin? To describe it simply, it’s a game which shows us that there are consequences to our actions, and attempts to show that there are other solutions in video games than violence. It’s one of the most amazingly funny and heart-wrenchingly emotional experiences you can get out of a 2D game. That being said, mostly for the rule of funny, the game tends to ignore the laws of physics. One of the most blatant examples of this occurs during the game’s pacifist route, where one of the characters, a skeleton named Papyrus, jumps out of a closed window, causing it to shatter. The problem? By jumping out the window, the force Papyrus exerted on the window would have been directed outside the house, meaning the shards of glass would have landed outside. Despite this, when jumping, the ENTIRE window breaks inwards, and lands INSIDE the house. There are several tough bosses in this game which drive people insane, some of which also break the laws of physics… or blatantly ignore them… But the fact that one of the easiest, kindest bosses in the game can so casually break the laws of physics just goes to show how dangerous he may be…
  15. So, I went to RIT for a college visit not too long ago, and they played the above (slightly goofy) video about creating perpetual (never ending) motion by combining two principles derived from urban legends. The first is that a cat, dropped from any height, will always land on its feet, and the second is that a piece of toast with jelly on it will always land jelly-side down. The video goes on to state that, by spreading jelly on a cat's back, the cat will be unable to land both on its legs and jelly-side down, and will spin indefinitely. The video goes on to state that this could be used to power a train system by using the cats as a form of wheels. Unfortunately, there are several things wrong with this videos "theories." First of all, the mass of the jelly is on a much smaller order of magnitude of that of the cat. As such, the mass of the jelly would move the cat's center of mass a noticeable amount, meaning any forces acting on the cat-jelly system should still have the same effect as those acting on an un-jellied cat. Assuming a cat will always land on its feet, this means that even a jellied cat will always land on its feet, and the jelly will not have affect that in the slightest. Second, assuming the cat would enter a state of perpetual motion, using it to move a train would still be impossible. In order to move a train, the cat would have to apply some force to the train, and the train would therefore have to apply some force to the cat. Assuming this is the case, the cat would likely have a normal force acting on it from the train, and therefore, a force of friction. As such, considering the mass, and by extension, weight of the train (which would be part of the normal force), the force of friction (which opposes motion) would likely be of a much greater magnitude than any other forces acting on the cat, and, therefore, the cat would be decelerated until it eventually reached a stop. Therefore, it would be impossible to use a cat to power a train system. Finally, the weight of the train would crush the cat. Why doesn't anyone want cats to live?
  16. Isn't it possible that there are forces other than friction and gravity acting on the glasses when they start to slip? What about the forces of your face muscles, which you tend not to notice as they act subconsciously?
  17. Hey man, glad to see you're taking physics again. I look forward to seeing what sort of physics stuff you post
  18. Hello, and welcome to the World of Physics. Considering this is my first post, I feel it necessary to describe myself a little. First and foremost, I'm a huge fan of gaming, so a majority of my posts will likely discuss their insane simulations of physics. In addition, I'm a Boy Scout, currently working towards my eagle rank. I'm great with technology, and took several classes in programming over the course of my high school career. In the future, I hope to study programming further, as well as game design, and I would ideally like to break my way into the video game industry. For a slightly more realistic career choice, I simply want to be a computer programmer. This is part of the reason I'm taking Physics C this year. Especially in the case of game design, understanding physics allows for the creation of much more realistic animations and events. On the other hand, I also really like learning how a lot of stuff works. This year, I hope to learn much more about physics on the quantum level, as I find the lack of decisive data on the field interesting. Aside from that, I have no idea what to expect from this class, so I guess I'm excited simply to see what it holds. Well, that's the end of that. If you managed to sit through that entire wall of text, you have my utmost respect. Take care, and you'll be hearing from me again soon.
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