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Re: long and short

At 10:09 AM -0500 12/1/99, Michael Moloney wrote:
In the November Scientific American on p. 28, Thomas Samaras is
referenced as claiming
that a person 20% taller than another, in falling over will hit the
ground with 210% more
kinetic energy than the shorter person.

Samaras is supposed to have calculated this result in a paper
recently published in Acta
Pediatrica.

To get that result, it would have to be quite a bit different than
energy conservation, I
would say.


let's just say that energy conservation IS the culprit and calculate
how the C.M. must vary for these two individuals. I haven't plugged
the numbers yet but my gut feeling is that the tall person would
have to have the C.M. at a higher fraction of his height than does
the shorter person.

clearly all people are not uniform cylinders. Remember this guy
claims to be a technician (pediactric specialty) NOT a physicist.

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