fandomhigh | Physics, Monday, Class #5, Period 4

Anyone who was paying attention might notice that Sam looked considerably more rested and relaxed this week. They'd probably also notice a few mini pool tables set up on the desks. "Good afternoon, and welcome to what I hope will be an informative class. Today we'll be discussing Isaac Newton's laws of motion, getting ever closer to our goal of exploring relativity after midterms, which I'm sure you're all waiting for with baited breath."

She was kidding, mostly.

"There are three basic laws of motion, according to Newton, who used them to describe the acceleration of massive particles. The first is that of inertia, which is basically that an object, once in motion, will stay in motion until acted upon by an outside force. Or, if you throw a baseball in a zero gravity and no friction situation, like in outer space, it will just keep going until the end of time, or until it hit something, whichever comes first. The second law gets more into computations of dynamics." She wrote several equations on the board. "They all boil down, basically, to F=ma, where F, or the force exerted upon an object, is equal to the product of the mass of the object, or M times the acceleration of the object, or A. Time can also be a factor, but we'll get into that later in the semester. The third law is also something you've probably heard before--for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

"Basically, if you transfer energy to an object at rest by hitting it, it will then move in another direction at a certain rate of speed, based upon such variables as your aim, point of contact, and the power used to hit it."

"We'll get into laws of planetary motion next week, so please read those handouts. For the rest of class, I'd like you to pair up with another student, and play a few games of pool. What works, what doesn't? Why doesn't it work? I'd like a one-page write-up of your experiences for next week. Does anyone have any questions?"

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Sokka had never played pool before. But he had incredible hand-eye coordination, at least when it came to throwing things, and how much harder could this be?

He headed up to the first person he saw who needed an opponent. "Okay," he said. "Go over the rules again, for me?"

"The rules?" Kevin looked momentarily perplexed, so not much different than how he looked normally. "Well, you take this thing here," he picked up the stick, "and you use it to knock this white ball, the, um, cue, into these other balls to try and get on into one of these pocket things."

He proceeded to demonstrate, easily sinking the four ball into a corner pocket.

"Right, but..." He shrugged. "Okay."

Sokka leaned over the table, using his cue as a straightedge to help him try and calculated various angles. He walked around the table like that, searching for the perfect shot, and then hit the cue ball awkwardly, causing a cascade that sank three balls.

Including the eight. Oops?

He beamed proudly. "Take THAT!!!"

"That's good," Kevin said. "But you sunk the eight ball, so you lost."

Oh. "That's another rule. Um, we'll rack the balls up here again, and I'll show you how to break and everything. You'll either be stripes or solids," he pointed out the different balls, "based on the first ball you sink. Oh, and don't knock the cue into a basket, that's called a scratch and even if you sink a ball on that turn, I get to shoot next and place the ball anywhere I want on this side of the table."

Sokka blinked at him. "Uh-huh. Yeeeeah. You're just making the rules up as you go along, aren't you?"

"No, seriously dude, this is how it's played. If I was making up the rules, I would have told you that every time you sink a ball, you have to take an article of clothing off." Seeing as how this kid was apparently going to be sinking a lot of balls.

"Tell you what," Sokka told him, "YOU can go ahead and do that. I'll keep my clothes ON, thank you very much. But we'll go with the other rules, sure. You start."

Kevin snickered, racked the balls, and broke. He didn't sink any balls. "That is what we call a bad break," he said, stepping back.

"Bad break for you, yeah," Sokka agreed. He spent a while lining up his shot again, but his hand slipped and he didn't get any balls in. "NO FAIR!" he shouted. "Do I get a re-do?"

"There are no re-dos," Kevin replied. He lined up an easy one and sunk his ball. "Solids!" he declared, already lining up the next shot.

"Wait wait wait wait wait!" Sokka protested. "Who said you get to go again???" He raised an eyebrow at Kevin. "You're not very good at explaining things."

"You go until you miss a shot," he explained as he took his shot and missed. He shrugged. "I'm a firm believer in the learn as you go approach. We don't have to count this game if you don't wanna. It can just be practice."

One at a time until you miss meant he didn't have to waste so much time trying to get more than one ball in with each shot.

He knocked in one stripe, and then another, trying a different grip on the cue each time just to try to figure out what worked best. Unfortunately, he missed the next shot and the cue ball dropped into the pocket. "...Ooops?"

"Scratch!" Kevin exclaimed as he retrieved the ball. "See, now I can line it up anywhere I want past this point," he indicated the spot on the table, "to make my next shot."

He tapped the cue, sending a ball into the side pocket. "Though, I have to say, one of the best parts of this game is watching another dude bend over the table to make his shot." He winked at Sokka and then promptly missed his next shot.

A little mind game never hurt.

Sokka stared at Kevin. A lot.

And then attempted to make the next shot without bending over at all.

Needless to say, it missed.

Kevin took his time lining up the next shot and made sure to bend over the table very slowly, flexing his butt cheeks a few times for emphasis. He missed the shot, but didn't really care.

"Oh, well. Looks like it's your turn again," he smirked.

Physics, Monday, Class #5, Period 4

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