Fun_People Archive
24 Jan
More bowling ball "evidence"

Date: Mon, 24 Jan 94 13:07:53 PST
To: Fun_People
Subject: More bowling ball "evidence"

 From: Chris LaFournaise
[ weninger 151 is a big physics lecture hall here at OSU... ]

 From: rAT <rat@instruction.CS.ORST.EDU>
 Subject: Re: more phun with physics humor

That reminds me of *my* freshman physics class.  One lecture, the prof 
had the bowling ball pendulum set up in Weniger 151.  The ceiling is 
about 30 feet tall.  He gave the ball a good push and went on to calmly 
lecture for a while about pendulums.  He turned his back to write on the 
bulletin board, and the entire class was treated to the sight of the 
bowling ball returning and smashing the overhead projector off of the table 
it was on.  It seems that the push wasn't quite straight, and the ball 
had been slowly oscillating in a wide ellipse, with the projector in the 
path of the eighth or ninth cycle.

Needless to say, he was quite surprised...  :^)

[Hmmm... maybe I was a little hasty in ruling out telekinesis... -psl]

© 1994 Peter Langston