Excellent observation, Matthias.

Now that's one I'd certainly never heard!

As recent discoverer of the 'Anti-Ounce'....I now find myself contemplating what the average fart doesn't weigh.

The things you instigate, my friend.....







TS


P.S.  Just how many miles does an Elephant weigh?......indeed.....!   (Insert Rod Serling theme here)

Why are we evening talking about power? Power is change in energy over time, which would basically translate to how "hard" the stone is cast.

To keep the scientists like TS happy let's talk about energy.

How about finding some sort of table that shows how much energy is required to break certain objects? Granted, momentum might have more to do with it but that shouldn't matter. For instance, if 1/4" plywood can be penetrated with X amount of energy or momentum, you can just find how thick of that material a rock with a certain amount of energy. I'd be willing to bet 1/2" is about the limit...

Hey, maybe I am weird, but I find a kind of beauty in contemplating things like this:

We start with distance, and time.  Measure them in whatever units you like.

Velocity (how fast a thing is moving) is distance divided by time.

Acceleration (how fast a thing is changing its velocity) is velocity divided by time.

Momentum is mass times velocity; this is how hard it is to start or stop whatever you are trying to move.

Force is mass times acceleration; this is a measure of how hard something is pushing on something else.

Energy is force times distance; this is a measure of what you have stored up in (and maybe can get back out of) a moving object.

Those are the basic concepts that physicists and engineers work with.  It seems complicated because they have developed names for the concepts, and they use the names without explaining them because they all know the concepts behind the names.


OK, OK, yes, this is 'way off topic.  To get back to the original topic, I like Mgreenfield's O-SAST measure: the ratio of how far you can throw something with your bare arm, to how far you can throw it with a sling.  I'm glad that Slinger_Man_Dan suggested the same measure, earlier in this topic.

Sounding 'over-intellectual' regarding the sling, or a great many other deceptively simple exercises can be an easy task.  

Albeit, we want slingers among our ranks with enough intellect to keep from sullying our fine fraternity by keeping it 'too simple' as well.....

For example, simply showing an inner city child with no access to the countryside how to make and use a sling might prove irresponsible.....while explaining the physics of arcuate motion, dynamic leverage, and vector ratios might expand his or her mind, such inspiration perhaps serving to enable them to build their own castle in the countryside one day....slinging exotic ammo from it's parapets!

For instance, to those outside their circle, skate boarders referring to their various signature moves in highly expressive terminology....will carry a certain connotation of intellectualism.  Certainly, a fair degree of intellect must be employed to master and categorize many of those skills!

The best definition of the term, intellectual, that I have found, is:

"Given to activities or pursuits that require exercise of the intellect."


In my admittedly 'dorky' opinion,  by such definition, one might never become 'over-intellectual'.


However, there is certainly a difference between intellectualism and intellectualization.  The definition of the latter being:

"An unconscious means of protecting oneself from the emotional stress and anxiety associated with confronting painful personal fears or problems by excessive reasoning."


By such definition....we have all traded our turn at the wheel, often as the mood strikes.....



Imagine what it must have been like in the days of the tower of Babel.

Various groups compartmentalized each according to their trade.....each group preferring it's own company to that of others....eventually enough slang or specialized terminology would have them speaking each their own brand of 'dorkese'.....such that perhaps only the masters of each group were the few to have remained able to effectively cross communicate.  

And if these ones happened to be gathered for a high echelon strategy session, and a calamity took place......

Instant nation building.

I heard some guys talking 'Jive' once....It was certainly like another language to me!  

Amazing how easy the simple act of seclusion or exclusion can dramatically effect language.

I have heard instances of English speaking people being stranded, or secluded for years and simply allowing their language to morph considerably into something else.

I think that 'dork speak' can have it's way of training the mind to prefer hyper exact descriptors to general speech such that 'over description' creeps in to the point that a kind of default, redundant, obligatory repetition sabotages effective communication. (lol)


I recollect a particular episode of Star Trek Next Generation....where Captain Picard was stranded on an unfamiliar planet.....and had to learn to communicate with people who spoke only in a strange kind of memorial phraseology.  It was a riot.  Each thought was structured from historical precedent....known events of similar nature....and spoken as short narratives generally appropo to a given situation.


For instance, imagine the eerie society in which the standard reply to someone ripping a big fart at a public gathering....being the hearty approbation:


"Techstuf has just broken every mast in the Doldrums!"



And with that I must take my leave.....








Peace,



TS

You have 'cracked' the code, my sling brother, you are now presented access to the very secret you've kept from yourself, lo these many years.....


http://shop.thesecret.tv/Shops/Vividas_Offer.php


Chaka, brother.  


Chaka when the walls fell.  (sniff)



TS

PSI - pounds per square inch. The pressure that 1 lb exerts on a one inch square patch of anything. It is a measurement of pressure - and not really much use for slinging. How fast does your car go in PSI? Impossible to say.

A fire hose is rated in PSI because that is what it has to handle to avoid bursting. 200 PSI is the amount of pressure that you would get if you attached you hose to a water tower that was 460 feet high - the pressure is caused by the weight of the water above the outlet of the hose.

Dale is right about the elegance of the physics behind our everyday units. One of the main tools you learn in school is

dimensional analysis

- looking at a problem first in terms of the units, the numbers being secondary.

Since we are trying to describe energy, the only way through this is to learn, or learn to describe things in energy units. Joules and foot pounds are the same thing - take a look at my post up thread talking about dropping things... Because we mostly throw things that are about the same size, distance is easier for most people to grasp. Well I tell someone I can throw a golfball further than they can drive it using a fancy titanium-carbon club (I don't know many *really* good golfers) that gets something across. Or that the average practiced slinger can almost double the longest ever home run hit.

Matthias

TechStuff with sails unfurled!