| Magic Bullet -
08-04-2007, 03:34 PM
It was a mystery for years why a co-axially - clockwise (right-hand) - spinning bullet, fired horizontally, parallel to the surface of a calm body of water, veered off to the left (counter-clockwise) when it skipped across the water...
The enigma was finally resolved when it was realized that the clockwise spin was causing the back end of the bullet to move to the right, steering the front end of the bullet to the left, in the opposite direction of the co-axial spin.
This is an example of of how considerations about spin need be thoroughly thought out before any resolute conclusions may be reached. The issued missile appeared to be acting contrary to logic, whereas upon closer scrutinization, it was behaving as could be expected when all of the involved information was closely scrutinized.
Regards,
- Skipper (I mean, RP)
(George Berkeley, 1710) ... lay the beginning in a distinct explication of what is meant by thing, reality, existence: for in vain shall we dispute concerning the real existence of things, or pretend to any knowledge thereof, so long as we have not fixed the meaning of those words. "All things come out of the one and the one out of all things." - Heraclitus "Reality is an illusion - albeit a persistent one." - Einstein "Particles give me a headache." - Ibid |