Thu Aug 06, 2015 10:47 am
I saw the episode, but was very disappointed by the inaccuracy of the physics they were quoting.
They used the height of the swing as a direct indicator of kinetic energy, but ballistic pendulums measure momentum (if they'd even used the pendulum correctly, which they did not), so the result would have to be converted using the mass of the projectile .
I know the whole thing was supposed to be an eye-candy experiment (they could already have determined the rock's KE trivially, from its known mass and velocity), but that they perpetuated such a wildly inaccurate conclusion because of it annoys me.
Does that thing kinda look like a big cat to you?
Nice work 
