The Game You Only Win Once

[Subdeacon Joe]

[Alpo]

I don't think 32 feet per second is fast enough.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

1 hour ago, Alpo said:

I don't think 32 feet per second is fast enough.

You don’t know math do ya? It’s 32 ft per second per second, but that’s the acceleration due to gravity at sea level. The velocity is totally different.

 

 

[Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L]

gonna glow in the night and in daylight, too

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

6 hours ago, Alpo said:

I don't think 32 feet per second is fast enough.

You really wanted to know about it didn’t you?  Well, regardless, it gets complicated.  First of all the easy part is the beginning calculus bit where we can just go to splatcalculator.com and give it the length of the fall.  That’s ok for a start, but only if it falls vertically which it doesn’t in which case you need to factor in the cosine of the angle, and if there is no rebound velocity (I.e., it starts from a dead stop) which is unlikely. There are more factors that can enter into the calculation, e.g., atmospheric drag, depending on the grade you’re looking for.

 

Oh, splatcalculator is metric, deal with it.

[Pat Riot]

The problem is the game has a chain. A heavy string or light rope would be better.    

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

1 minute ago, Pat Riot said:

The problem is the game has a chain. A heavy string or light rope would be better.    

Yeah, friction from the chain even becomes a research problem meriting a government grant.  

[Texas Joker]

8 hours ago, Alpo said:

I don't think 32 feet per second is fast enough.

It is possible to create a gravity fired fission reaction. More likely to fizzle than pop but it is possible

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

11 minutes ago, Texas Joker said:

It is possible to create a gravity fired fission reaction. More likely to fizzle than pop but it is possible

If components can be properly aligned, it could work. With only gravity as a propelling force, I think it would be critical long before optimal. Actual gun type weapons used black powder as a propellant and even then they were critical before optimal.

[Sedalia Dave]

On 6/16/2024 at 8:20 AM, Alpo said:

I don't think 32 feet per second is fast enough.

 

The ghosts of Harry K. Daghlian Jr, an un-named security Guard, and Louis Alexander Slotin would disagree. The Tickling the Dragons Tail experiments into the criticality of plutonium cost them their lives.

 

Both Daghlian and Slotin died while experimenting with criticality. The poor security was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  

 

Nuclear material will go critical under the right circumstances no velocity required.

[Three Foot Johnson]

Simple, easy to learn game - I could play it for the rest of my life.

[Subdeacon Joe]

18 hours ago, Texas Joker said:

It is possible to create a gravity fired fission reaction. More likely to fizzle than pop but it is possible

 

Even a "fizzle" could be a pretty impressive "pop."