Dear Editor of the New York Times,
I am writing in response to the article Crunch! Oof! Well, That’s Physics, dated November 16, 2004. I am currently a college junior and I am taking my first physics course ever. Surprisingly, after only 5 weeks of class I am able to understand and comprehend not only the scientific terms but the concepts of what the article is actually trying to say. I like how the article relates physics to football, it made me realize that physics can be applied to any sport or any activity of life for that matter. I think every sports team should have a physicist on the sideline, that way the team can adjust and use every move to its fullest potential to rain over the others who just have all the muscle. It gives a whole new meaning to the choice between muscles or brains.
I am proud to say that I fully understand about 95% of the article without having to refer to my physics book. The 5% that I didn’t completely understand was the part about momentum but that is only because we have not yet covered this in class. On the other hand, I am partly able to understand it just from prior experience. That is the great thing about physics, you might not be able to explain the motion in physics terms but everybody is familiar with motion and can explain it in common people terms (people who have never taken a physics course before). And the author gives the definition of momentum in the article so I was able build off of that and apply it to what I already learned in class so know I have a good idea of what momentum is and I still did not have to open my book.
If you were just doing the basic calculations of two large men colliding with each other you would think that somebody would have to at least break some kind of bone. First you would figure out the velocity, and considering both men weigh about the same and are able to run at the same speed you are able to conclude that they will have the same velocity. After figuring out their velocity, you are then able to figure out their acceleration and the force that went into the collision. Dr. Gray figured out that the acceleration was 9 times the force of gravity (9.8 meters/second) and the force that the players encountered was 1,800 pounds. Dr. Gray then goes on to explain that indeed these forces are bone breaking, I mean just look at the numbers they are pretty big, but since that players only encountered the forces for a split-second, they are able to walk away unharmed. That just amazes me how a force that is bone crunching if expressed over a period of time can be harmless if only encountered for a second.
At first I was a little confused when they spoke of a three body collision. I had to go back and read to make sure that three players of the same team did not run into each other. I mean come on, it is one thing if two player on the same team run into each other but three! I think that one would have to go down in sports history. I then was able to realize that the third body was the football itself. Good thing that ball was involved in the collision because it takes up some of the momentum, taking some of the momentum off of the players. This helped differ some of the force so there was not as much being put on each player. This could have been a partial cause as to why the players were able to walk away without any injuries. The coolest part of the whole collision is that three bodied collisions are what Dr. Gray does in the lab. I just think it is cool how you can do something on the microscopic level with electrons and then reenact the same basic principles on a life size level of football players.
When they talked about the trajectory of the ball I was really excited because I was able to apply what I had learned in class to this section. It makes perfect sense that a tight spiral ball will go further than a ball that was poorly thrown and all wobbly. The wobbly ball won’t travel as far because it will experience more air resistance causing more drag. The spiral ball initially requires to be thrown faster and therefore is will be more stable and have a tight spiral which forces it to go farther than the poorly thrown ball.
As much as I do not like football I can say that I overall enjoyed reading this article. It made me realize that what I am learning in class is not a waste of my time because physics can be applied to all factors of life. At the beginning, I thought, why would I need physics in my future career as a physical therapist? But everyday that I go to class I see more and more that motion is all around us and with every motion you can apply physics to that motion. Physical therapy mainly deals with motion. Being able to get motion back, for example being able to bend your knee again after an injury that left you unable to move your joint. Understanding the force that initially caused the injury can be a major help when trying to heal an injury. All of this force and motion can be explained with physics that is all around us rather we want to think of it that way or not.
Sincerely, Katie
