Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The bullet and the bowling ball..

Consider the things we take for granted walking around this big rock of ours.  We are pretty confident in gravity, inertia, pressure. stuff like that.  We know when we jump in the air, we will return sooner rather than later.  The tyres will keep the car rims off the ground.  But how much do we really know?

Think about this..  A man holds a gun at shoulder height, pointing direct and straight at the horizon.   In his other hand, he holds a bowling ball again at shoulder height.  If he pulls the trigger at the exact same moment, which would hit the ground first.. the bullet or the bowling ball?

Well if you guessed the bowling ball, congratulations.  You are as dippy as the rest of us.  Unfortunately, the correct answer is that they both hit the ground at the same time.   (If you guessed that the bowling ball would fall on his foot, and make him forget the bullet, or he shot his mother-in-law, and made him forget the bowling ball.. well.. you're just not concentrating.)

The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.
Socrates

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