Archimedes vs Newton
Archimedes' principle, or the law of upthrust, is: "When a solid body is partially or completely immersed in water, the apparent loss in weight will be equal to the weight of the displaced liquid."
In other words, when a body is partially or completely immersed in a liquid, then it experiences an upward buoyant force which is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the immersed part of the body.
Newton's Laws of Motion:
Briefly stated, the three laws are:
1. An object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by a net force.
2. Force equals mass multiplied by acceleration.
3. To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Semifinal 2
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8 comments:
As they enter the cage, they realize they have no real animosity toward each other. They pass some time bobbing for apples. Yet two laws enter, one laws leaves. Newton starts throwing apples at Archimedes head. Newton is subsequently held under the water with a force which is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by his immersed body.
Archimedes wins.
Ah, the master and the apprentice. For it should be obvious to anyone that has ever taken Statics that Archimedes is merely a special case of Newton. I'll expound on this is needed, as I realize that not everyone has been initiated into the mysteries that are free-body diagrams.
As they enter Archimedes says with a sneer, "Give up now old man, I know all your moves. You taught me everything I know. You can not win against me."
Newton replies with a sad shake of his head, "My poor child, you know only a few of the things I could teach you. I did indeed teach you everything you know. But you are too foolish to realize that I did not teach you everything that I know."
Archimedes attacks and Newton counters every blow. Newton then reaches past Archimedes defenses with deceptive gentleness - and Archimedes dissolves into nothingness.
"Perhaps the next one will prove worthy," Newton says softly as he exits the cage.
Well, kit, I suppose there is only one appropriate response to your comment; and it comes from Bunty on Chicken Run.
"In all my life, I've never heard such a fantastic load of tripe. Oh, face the facts, ducks."
In this case, ducks would be you, kit. Newton is floating belly up, no wait that is fish. Newton is floating face down in a tub of water also holding apples, one of which Archimedes grabbed and ate on his exit from the cage.
The first corollary to Archimedes' Law is that if you're intelligent enough to have a scientific law named after you, you're too ugly to go running around the streets naked after formulating it. He should lose just for putting that image in my brain, but this is a scientific contest, not a political one, so I shall attempt to remain objective.
Thankfully, not many unsightly scientists will be tempted to follow his example, because his law has serious tactical flaws, most notable of which is that the direction of the applied force is limited to the direction "up." All Newton has to do is position himself slightly to the left of "up" and he can stand there all day, taunting Archimedes like a cartoon character taunts a dog at the end of its chain.
Of course, this limitation does not apply when fighting in a bathtub in space, where "up" can be any direction you want. Unfortunately, under these conditions, the magnitude of the force would be zero, which is useless unless you are having a contest to see who can hit the softest (you go first).
Newton wins in a landslide.
"Newton wins in a landslide." -- Kit
Only if gravity is not involved - chew on that for a while...
This brings me to my first point, which is that initially I believed that this match would be a stalemate. If everything these fellows described ends in neutrality or a sum of zero, then either all their actions would end in the death of the other, or they would never damage each other.
Then I realized that Archimedes' observations are contingent upon the situation at hand. In a system unbounded by gravitational field, limited system (crate, dish, barrel, etc.), his water would dissipate to the point of not providing resistance at all.
Newton's laws work in any situation, as they describe the systems in which Archimedes' examples exist. This means (like Kit suggested) that Archimedes is a subset of Newton.
So for the match at hand, I think I'll go with Newton in a cage match. Archimedes comes at Newton with everything he's got, but Newton uses a "supernatural" strike (from Archimedes' point of view), coming at Archimedes from many different angles. Since Archimedes is only able to react in a single direction (whether it be up, down or whatever - it's unidirectional), he cannot deflect Newton's assault.
Easy win for Newton, the master, over Archimedes, the apprentice.
karl, several issues with your comment. First, no one is too ugly to run through the streets naked, scientist or not. Most of the population is too ugly to do it in good taste, again scientist or not. Although that does not really relate to the problem at hand.
You also fail to mention how Newton would go about positioning himself "slightly to the left of up" which leads me to claim shananagans.
So, back to your first paragraph I offer another senario, again with Archimedes winning. After bobbing for apples the floor is wet, Archimedes then slips, hits his head and gets amnesia. Seeing the apples in the water leads him to rediscover his law, again resulting in disrobing. Newton then kills himself to purge the image from his mind.
Archimedes wins by default.
I misattributed that last quote. My apologies to Kit and Karl - both of you take that however you will.
tommyp, if there were no gravity, why would the land slide? -chew on that for a while.
Second, if Newtons laws worked in all situations why do we have non-newtonian fluids and non-newtonian physics? -chew on that for a while.
It ends like I said earlier, Archimedes snacking and Newton sleeping with the fishes, er, apples.
Sometimes your lack of understanding makes me embarrassed to be commenting on the same post as you. That goes for everyone who has, or will vote for Newton this round.
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