Splat and Splatter

It’s research Tuesday! Yup, today I had to confront my complete lack of science cred when dealing with the WIP. Not only am I dealing with science, but nineteenth century science—and physics to boot, which I never took in school. We got to choose between Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. I picked the first two and did very well, but never dealt with catapults or nerf balls or whatever it was the hard core science guys did.

Ergo, I am confronted with the fact that I know an object dropped from a height goes splat, but am ignorant of the rate of splattage—or, more precisely, how to calculate it. Research to the rescue!

Sir Isaac Newton came up with three physical laws relating to the forces acting on a body and the motion that causes.

First law: The velocity of a body remains constant unless an external force acts on the body (witness a cat sleeping in your chair).

Second law: There is an equation: F = ma. The acceleration (a) of a body is parallel and in proportion to force (F) and inversely proportional to mass (m). This could also be written very loosely as aka splat = mass x speed. And there is probably a reason I shouldn’t write it that way, but that’s how I can get my head around it.

Third law: Action and reaction between two bodies are equal and opposite (smush!)

And that, kiddies, is our lesson for today!