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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Naomi nodded, "I think so," she said, silently going over the information in her head to make sure.

"I'll break," Chad offered, "so you can see how you work the sticks to hit, too, yeah? If you want to take the...triangle thing...and line up the top ball with that little dot on the table?"

"Okay," Naomi nodded, preparing to take a mental note on how it worked.

"Now I line up the cue ball over here," Chad said, as he did just that, leaning over the table, "and as soon as you remove the...triangle thing," (he had to go find out what that was called), "I'll shoot."

"Right," Naomi said, moving to take the triangle object off the table, so Chad could start, she had no idea what it was called either even though she was sure Tom had mentioned it before.

Chad's earlier claim to not be so good might not be so obvious with his break, but the thing with the break was that it was all mostly his strength. He lined up his pool cue, carefully bending the long distance (for him) toward the table, before shooting the cue ball toward the other balls. They hit with a satisfying smack as the balls opened and spread across the table, ricocheting off each other and the bumpers. Finally, they settled to a slow, with one solid colour dropping into a corner pocket.

"See how that solid one went into the pocket?" he said. "That means I'm solids, and you're stripes."

Naomi nodded, "so I have to aim for the stripe coloured balls?" she asked, just to make sure.

Chad nodded. "Exactly. Usually, since I sunk a ball, I'd get to go first, but since it's your first time playing, you go ahead and go next."

There was a brief pause.

"Oh. Don't hit the black eight ball in, even on accident. That's an automatic loss."

Naomi nodded, "okay," she said, aiming the pool cue at the cue ball, when she struck it, it hit one of the stripe coloured balls but she hadn't used enough force to sink it.

"Hey, not too bad for a first shot," Chad offered encouragingly, before taking a moment to look over the table and shoot the cue ball to break up a cluster against a side.

"Thanks," Naomi smiled, focusing the cue ball on the ball that she had just hit, she used a bit more strength and managed to sink it that time.

Physics, Monday, Class #5, Period 4

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