The physics of Tennis
I was playing tennis the other day when I smashed a shot into my partners chest. After almost falling over from laughing so hard I stopped and thought about the physics of what just happened.
I realized that if I recreated the events timed it, measured the distance, I could determine how long the ball was in the air using my kinematic equations! I'm sure the data will be a little off but the ball followed a parabolic arc and immediately stopped when coming in contact with my friends face...(he was ok about ten minutes later~nothing a good pat on the back can't resolve).
I even began to think of Newton's third law in this case. Every force has an equal and opposite force pushing back. As that ball came to hit his face, his face(mostly his nose) pushed back with the same amount of force.
I truly have to say that I'm astounded that I am able to relate my physics to hurting my friends and get a good grade for it...Thx Mr. Fullerton keep up the good work!
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