Painful physics lessons (pts 1 & 2)
Chapter 1: Momentum
In the 1980s, aged about 11, and I'm visiting my dad's business partner's house with my dad, I mooch out into their back garden to play his kids and their newly bought mini-motorbike (this is in a village, so the back garden was huge). The eldest son (whose bike it was) asks me if I want a go. "OK" I say and climb on. "Right, to make it go, you twist this backwards" he says. "Like this..?" I reply and never hear how to make it stop as I am now hurtling away from him at pace, heading straight for a fence, unable to stop or turn away I do what the laws of physics demand and demonstrate perfectly the concepts of momentum and inertia (and then gravity) as I hit the fence, go over the handlebars and land in a heap on the other side.

Chapter 2: Levers & Fulcrums
Later, aged about 13, I'm trying to move a tennis ball as far and as fast as I can (without actually throwing it), and I notice that the garden hoe appears to be an ideal cradle for a tennis ball. A few practice throws proves the concept and so I set about creating my amazing garden hoe/tennisball catapult. Fulcrums & levers is what it's all about, I have the lever, and a conveniently place pile of stones provides the fulcrum. With it all set up, all I need is a way of supplying a sharp input of force, that'll be GL jumping on the handle of the hoe. What could go wrong? I jumped, I felt a whack in the face, and doubled up in laughter. Only when one of my mates said "there's blood" did I start worrying about the hole in my forehead the hoe had made, and getting myself rushed to A&E for stitches. To this day I can't forget that physics lesson, as I can still see the scar every time I look in a mirror.

Sometimes I think I must have some cat ancestry, as alongside surviving the above acts of stupidity, I've walked into countless lampposts, been run over and been gassed with chlorine gas, and have yet (touch wood) to even break a bone.

GL
(GoodLord doesn't have time for sigs., Wed 27 Jan 2010, 8:46, Reply)