by Carlhole » Mon 11 Jun 2007, 16:21:20
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'I')t's clear that you still don't understand that simple fact. Don't worry...most Americans are scientifically illiterate when it comes to math and physics.
Since you can't intuitively grasp how gravitational acceleration interacts with mass to create incredily large forces, and you have no knowledge of math or Newtonian physics, I suggested a simple experiment to bring the point home. In your case, you will probably have to repeat the falling head experiment over and over again from increasingly greater heights in order to understand the physics involved.
Here is an experiment for you, Plant:
Stand in front of a table and smash you face down onto it as hard as you possibly can.
What did you observe?
You observed that the table absorbed all the energy of momentum of your head, didn't it?
That's because the table (1) acted as mass absorbing some of the energy of your head as it smashed down, and (2) had significant structural integrity that your smashing down head could not overcome.
Now, we can continue this experiment with your head being smashed down onto the table at greater and greater speeds and forces, however, the table will always absorb some of the energy of your head due to the Law of Conservation fo Momentum. And the table will always absorb another quantity of energy due to its structural features.
Now let's suppose that you have 100 tables on top of one another and all firmly joined together. Moreover, extremely heavy, strong tables are on the bottom, and the tables get lighter and less strong as the column gets higher.
Then, you smash your head down on the topmost table very hard , so hard that you bite your tongue off and spit it out overboard.
According to the Law of Conservation of Momentum, and due to the energy necessary to overcome all the increasingly dense and strong tables on the way down, it is impossible for your head to hit the ground at the same time as your tongue, which is falling through air.
It's no complicated matter that things fall through air faster than they fall through structural steel.
The acceleration of the falling mass (your head plus any broken and falling tables) is necessarily slowed very significantly by the inertia of the table stack as well as it's structural strength.
In any case, why would your head and any broken tables simply not fall off to the side, following the path of least resistance?