Fizzicks: a question inspired by the TT

Cursitor Doom · 2017-06-03T21:32:34+00:00

Some Newtonian law states that "a body proceeding on a course, blah blah, provided a force doesn't act on it, blah blah doesn't change and carries on its own sweet way unmolested." I think that's how it goes anyway. Now, as we all know, Force = Mass x Acceleration which implies that if I get hit by something, no matter how heavy, provided it's not changing its speed, I'll be fine. So if I cross the race track at the TT and in the process get hit by some bike racer doing 190mph for example (which is not at all unknown) I'll be totally unharmed. This seems kind of counter- intuitive to me, at first sight, anyway, so.... where have I gone wrong here?

Jun 03, 2017 23 Replies

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whisky-dave 9 years ago

So...... When two things collide the energy can be transformed into heat.

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The Natural Philosopher 9 years ago

No., The heat already IS kinetic energy.

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Tim Streater 9 years ago

But that is random kinetic energy of molecules within the body. It's the kinetic energy of motion that gets converted into heat. If you doubt that, I invite you to stand anywhere within a small number of miles of the ground-zero impact point of the next 10-mile sized asteroid to hit the Earth. Which is likely to be doing 40,000mph when it strikes.

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whisky-dave 9 years ago

but it's not heat, it's kinetic energy, did you not know.

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