NP Comic Tuesday February 8, 2022

[Darth Fluffy 338]

NP Comic Tuesday February 8, 2022

It was a powerful spike, but does knocking yourself out really count as a win?

Less power, more control would be better. A spike that powerful is a safety hazard.

FWIW, I'm guessing the ball would have survived if this happened in real life. The impact areas are broad, exactly what the ball can handle best.

[mlooney 3,594]

The Mythbusters showed that during a 4 way bounce that you lose a lot of energy with each bounce.  Granted they were bouncing lead bullets off of steel plates, but the theory is the same.  To have enough energy to KO some one after 4 bounces means that a huge amount of energy went into the "muzzle velocity".  Enough so that having the ball explode on contact should be a very real possibility.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,619]

Grace's antennae were extended, if relaxed

If that is sufficient, she may have been giving the ball a telekinetic boost with each bounce

But this also demonstrates that her combat training has not yet included ranged attacks.  If she had any practice with projectiles, she would not be likely to hit herself with the recoil

 . . . 

Unless she deliberately guided the ball back to herself as a way to cut this competition off . . . 

[mlooney 3,594]

3 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Grace's antennae were extended, if relaxed

I don't think so.  She has forelocks all the time, but her antennae come from the center of her hair line, and don't seem to be in view either today or yesterday.

[Amiable Dorsai 70]

A Pyrrhic victory if ever there was one.

[ChronosCat 158]

3 hours ago, Amiable Dorsai said:

A Pyrrhic victory if ever there was one.

Fun fact: Until I learned the real origin of the term, I used to think it had something to do with fire (given the similarity of the term to "pyre" as in "funeral pyre").

[Darth Fluffy 338]

23 hours ago, mlooney said:

The Mythbusters showed that during a 4 way bounce that you lose a lot of energy with each bounce.  Granted they were bouncing lead bullets off of steel plates, but the theory is the same.  To have enough energy to KO some one after 4 bounces means that a huge amount of energy went into the "muzzle velocity".  Enough so that having the ball explode on contact should be a very real possibility.

Lead is very inelastic and will absorb significant kinetic energy by permanently deforming. Steel on steel would be a good test, would probably require a sabot covering to not tear up the gun, or use a smooth bore.

You could do a static test on a ball, press it between two plates, on on the ground and one with successively higher weight, that should get you into the ballpark of how much dynamic deformation it can handle. Clearly, at some point it's going to give out, but they are built to take abuse. Tires are kind of similar, and only four of them support the weight of your car and passengers.

Short of blowout, the energy dissipation mechanism of a bouncing air filled ball should be heating the enclosed air. Again, analogy to tires, yes, that happens.

Hmm, evidence of the final hit, it hit Grace hard, maybe knocked her out, but did no other obvious damage. A speed that would damage the ball would probably damage biologic tissue. Grace could be an exception. I guess we'll know tomorrow.

Ooo, another factor that occurred to me as I initially read the comic, but I had forgotten, the bounces are illustrated as more or less equivalent, against a rigid material. I could not swear to this, but it seems to me that our gym ceiling in high school was some lighter material, and would have had it's own energy absorbing deformation. Unless you were planning to have kids bounce balls off the ceiling, I don't think you'd opt for a heavy, hard ceiling material. Do they even do that in handball courts?  Lol, I've been in one, but it was decades ago. 

[Darth Fluffy 338]

1 hour ago, ChronosCat said:

Fun fact: Until I learned the real origin of the term, I used to think it had something to do with fire (given the similarity of the term to "pyre" as in "funeral pyre").

So if you took a cache of fools gold using fire to fight the defenders, but at great cost, it would be a triply Pyrrhic victory?

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,619]

Someday we will find a use for pyrite that will make it more valuable than gold

My retirement depends on it

[mlooney 3,594]

1 hour ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Someday we will find a use for pyrite that will make it more valuable than gold

My retirement depends on it

Well, it's used to start fires, it's a semiconductor and it's used in making sulfuric acid.  The semiconductor option is the most likely thing that could make it valuable.  Or it could be the mineral that you need for FTL drives.  While not pyrite, Traveller jump drives use Lanthanum, which in the real world is mainly used to make cigarette lighters "flints"

[Darth Fluffy 338]

On 2/9/2022 at 4:41 PM, mlooney said:

Well, it's used to start fires, it's a semiconductor and it's used in making sulfuric acid.  The semiconductor option is the most likely thing that could make it valuable.  Or it could be the mineral that you need for FTL drives.  While not pyrite, Traveller jump drives use Lanthanum, which in the real world is mainly used to make cigarette lighters "flints"

I had no idea it had any uses. It is actually quite useful and has a history, also some serious drawbacks in some environments.

[Darth Fluffy 338]

We see the ball intact in the last panel as it hits her, so it did not burst.

[ijuin 594]

1 hour ago, Darth Fluffy said:

I had no idea it had any uses. It is actually quite useful and has a history, also some serious drawbacks in some environments.

Pyrite has plenty of uses, but it’s common enough that it still costs less than the more than US$30 per gram price of gold.

[mlooney 3,594]

10 hours ago, ijuin said:

Pyrite has plenty of uses, but it’s common enough that it still costs less than the more than US$30 per gram price of gold.

Oh, yeah, unless some new use comes up, one that uses massive amounts of the stuff, it's not going to be worth more than gold.