Sometimes, the real gems find you.
Earlier this evening, a friend of mine who has no remote interest in hockey (I know, but they really do exist) sent me a clip of some conversation of her brother's (equally anemic in the world of hockey knowledge) in which a kid who decided to share a physics probably that came directly from his text book. Initially she sent it to me because she thought I would appreciate any mention of hockey (probably true), but as it turns out, it was much better than that. It reads as follows:
"A hockey puck, mass 0.115kg, moving at 35 m/s, strikes an octopus thrown onto the ice by a fan. The octopus has a mass of 0.265kg. The puck and octopus slide off together. Find the velocity."My friend was actually disappointed when I explained (this took a while) just why anyone would be discussing octopi being thrown onto ice, and why the existence of this problem was particularly hilarious to me especially (citing that "it made the problem a lot less surreal").
I, on the other hand, love the fact that out there somewhere is a Wings fan making up story problems for a physics book.
12 comments:
Outstanding... did your friend pass along the answer? I'm coming up with 10.59, but it's been about 17 years since my last physics class.
I'm getting 19.25 m/s assuming the octopus is stationary...
my answer:
Why the hell is anyone still moving the puck after the octupi have come out? I know Detroit is insane, but you'd think the players would, y'know, STOP around then.
man that's some fresh octopi.
I'm getting... I hate physics and the combination of a physics word problem (double whammy) and the red wings is making me sick. But I love you though. :)
I certainly haven't got a clue how to figure it out, having never gone through physics - perhaps I can track down the book's answer if it's got one in it.
Mik, our goalie at least seems to prefer to skate up to the octopus, poke it, and then go back to whatever he was doing beforehand. But then again, he's a weird one.
Tracy, what can I say, just stare at my hotness for a while and all the sickness will go away :P
Done.
You know, I really am feeling much better.
Excellent.
And yanno, Mikael, I was thinking the same thing.
As a physicist and Hockey blogger, I am thrilled that I found this, late, via Bethany.
At first I did:
1/2(m1)(v1)^2=1/2(m1+m2)(v2)^2
Solving for v2 gives v2=3.25m/s (Forechecker was almost right, he forgot to take the square root of 10.59)
Haha, great! I'm glad we got an answer, better late than never! Just looking at that equation sort of makes my head spin, so I knew I certainly wasn't going to be finding it :P
LOL!
I think the rival goaltender probably cleared the puck out of his net and that's how it hit the octopus. :P
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