Re: COLLISION 2

[Jim Green <JMGreen@SISNA.COM>]

Brian, David is postulating an appropriately constructed  "giant spring"
which is strong enough to stop moving freight cars!!!   This "giant spring"
could not be ideal as its internal energy must increase by ~half the KE of
the freight cars, which it could do by being flexed, which it clearly
reasonable because it is constructed of flubonium.  I have such a spring in
my collection of demo toys.  Such a spring is not available at CENCO
because flubonium is very rare.

This is not an exact analogy of course but surely good enough for David's
intro class members.  It has the benefit of not lying to the class when it
is introduced appropriately -- a benefit not shared by many of the
explanations and language heard elsewhere on this list. (:-)

Jim

At 07:14 PM 28-11-99 -0600, you wrote:
> At 15:25 11/28/99 -0700, Jim Green wrote:
>
> [David]
> >>I have tried thinking of the deformation as a giant spring between the
> >>two cars.///
>
> >David, this seems OK -- but I would add that the spring would be very hot
> ///
> >Jim Green
>
> What can have heated the spring 'very hot'?
>  Did we not work an example case of a spring as heavily loaded as it
> could be - yet the temperature rise in degrees could be counted on
> the fingers of one hand? David was postulating only one compression
> stroke or one compression and one relaxation stroke, respectively.
>
>
>
> brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
> Altus OK

Jim Green
mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen