The Physics of Football

Ponca City, We Love You writes "There will be a program on applied physics and real time strategy that you might want to watch on television today. Conservation of momentum during elastic and inelastic collisions is one aspect on which to focus as players tackle their opponents. It is of critical importance that the Patriots bring down New York's huge and powerful running back, 6-foot-4, 265-pound Brandon Jacobs. An average-size NFL defensive back's mass combined with his speed — on average, 4.56 seconds for the 40-yard dash — can produce up to 1600 pounds of tackling force. A tackle with half a ton of force may sound like a crippling blow, but the body can handle twice that amount because the player's equipment spreads out the incoming energy, lessening its severity." Nanotech specialists from Cornell have developed their own take on the "physics" of the Super Bowl by creating the world's smallest trophy, which will be awarded today to a contestant who best explains an aspect of football physics. Just some food for thought while you watch the game on your brand new HD television, though you'd better not be watching it in a church.

Apparently theres a game on today

[Anonymous Coward]

I cant wait till its over so everyone will shut up about it.

Re:Wrong title

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd like to point out that slashdot is also American. This is why we have things like the "American Politics" section.

Re:Wrong title

[PietjeJantje]

That's true. Regarding Slashdot, if your target audience is national, "football" is ok..on the other hand if your target audience is international use "American Football", unless you want to communicate you're ignorant of the biggest sport on earth named with the same sequence of letters, and serve your percentage of international viewers a title which means something different to them.

Re:Wrong title

[Anonymous Coward]

If you can't even tell a language and a dialect apart (and you obviously can't, given that you refer to US-American English as both), you really shouldn't talk about linguistics. Shut your trap and don't embarass yourself.

Re:Wrong title

[KeensMustard]

Have you been in a coma for 40 years? If so, that would explain your basic lack of understanding of the world you live in and share with others.

I find it amusing that the rest of the world sucks up as much American culture as possible, from our music,

In my CD stacker: Coldplay, Dire Straits, Bjork, REM, Midnight Oil, Crowded House. I think maybe REM is American.

movies

Curious thing. I checked my DVD collection. Maybe 1/3 American. 1/3 not. 1/3 a mix of American and others. Much of what is ostensibly American, turns out to be a mix of a number of cultural influences and participation.

and television shows

Couldn't really get a representative sample because I don't watch much TV (although Top Gear is a must watch, along with Mythbusters).

to going in droves to our crappy McDonald's that are popping up all over the world (hint: McDonald's sucks. Stop going).

Actually I quite enjoy an occasional visit to McDonalds - I like the thai chicken wrap if it is lunchtime and the espresso is passing grade (good considering how much training the barrista must get) if it is just a short break. Like most people I generally end up at McDonalds because they have outlets on the roads I travel. Notably McDonalds tries to approximate the foods we like to eat - we influence McDonalds, McDonalds doesn't influence us. Hardly the burgeoning frontier of American culture.

But then they get all prissy when we call football football. We call your football soccer, but we call our football football. It's the way we do things over here. If you don't like the names we use for sport, fine. But don't get all in a huff over it.

But "we" in this case is the audience and members of /. And We call any number of games football, just like We mostly use metric and not the exaggerated length of the foot of King James II as a unit of measure. For reasons of clarity then, it is necessary to qualify the language used to suit the international audience on this site.