Thursday, May 08, 2008

Physics Lesson

I actually started this post way back in mid-March (after Darren’s mom fell but before it morphed into something completely different). C had a friend’s birthday party to attend, and it was being held at the roller skating rink in [nearby big city which is scarier to me than NYC]. Anyway, being good parents we took C to her friend’s birthday party.

And, seeing as in 7th and 8th grade I did a fair share of roller skating (and C having not done much, if any), I thought, what the heck, I can get out there and show her how its done. Ha. I get my roller skates (can you believe they now ask if you want roller blades or the traditional four wheel skates?) and manage to get them on my fat feet (yes, they are), and proceed to prove every single one of Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of gravity:

1. An object in motion remains in motion unless acted upon by an equal and opposite force

The object would be me, trying to roller skate (the motion). The equal and opposite force? That would be the floor.

2. Fnet = m * a
Force = mass times acceleration

Now, I’m not going to go through the actual, mathematical equations here (simply because I refuse to reveal my mass on the internet)…but let’s just leave this as…Force = A LOT!!!

3. for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction

The action (or lack thereof) would be the roller skating. The equal and opposite reaction would be the bruises (ohhh purple!! Green!! Pink!! So pretty!) from the force of my body meeting the floor. Who knew two objects couldn’t occupy the same space?

In addition to the lesson in physics as outlined above, I also learned that forty isn’t nearly as fearless as fourteen. Wow. Somehow the little momentum gained by attempting to roller skate felt too fast. There were visions of broken limbs and emergency rooms dancing in my head.

And when did they start playing what passes for music these days that loud? Goodness I sound like I should be sitting in some fussy room with a cup of tea and a cat on my lap!

In other news, nine (9) days until vacation!! I can’t promise I’ll post more (since there’s a business trip before then as well) but I will be back with vacation pictures!!

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