Occam's Razor Post: Mon May 30, 2005 8:58 pm

Date: Mon May 30, 2005 8:58 pm Subject: Physics behind unthinkable feats

This article was exactly how the author likes his subject matter: attention grabbing and interesting.

The first feat - walking on a bed of glass - was more of a magician's trick than a physics explanation. They guy hammers the glass down and moves and pointy edges to the side. This seemed like more of an illusion than an explanation in physics.

The next feat - dipping fingers in molten lead - was very fascinating. now that's actually using physics and thermodynamics to perform an otherwise impossible act. very cool stuff. that would've certainly grabbed my attention in class. I would've actually payed attention to how it worked (my physics teacher sucked).

The third act - bed of nails and brick smashing - was cool too. This time, it was more of a combination of physics and illusion. Physics explains the bed of nails and the distribution of weight and pressure. But the author explains that he chooses easily broken bricks and has his wife smash them. This creates the illusion that she's actually providing all her strength to crush the "strong" bricks, while her husband rests safely between a bed of nails.

The last thing was picking up a piece of orange-hot spacecraft. This was more of a physics explanation. Newton's Law of Cooling would seem much more fascinating after watching this demonstration.

Then, I suppose physics can explain such optical illusions as making an elephant disappear. (Mirrors, misdirection, light rays from elephant blocked and replaced by something the mirror is reflecting). Isn't science great!