Rubes by Leigh Rubin for March 05, 2022

“The pimentum in an olive remains unchanged unless acted on by an outside force.” That’s why we use “p” for momentum, according to a bad joke physicists tell at parties.

That’s probably why we’re not invited to many parties.

I don’t give a fig, Newton.

The one thing that struck me as really weird about the universe is the constant motion. Nothing is ever really at rest. Zoom out or in and it’s in motion. Yet a rock can remain a rock for billions of years.

“And a bowling ball in motion will remain in motion …

On your next turn, let’s try for a little more transfer of momentum – from ball to pins.

When I bowl, my mind is always in the gutter. Because it’s following the progress of the ball I just rolled.

How about some pin action …

… with an “equal” “reaction” in your score?

Newton’s flaw of motion

And so will athletic skills which are never honed.

Just be happy it didn’t fall out of a tree where you were sitting

Excuses, excuses, excuses…

Isaac realizes the gravity of his score.

To avoid having his work interrupted by his cat wanting to leave and re-enter his house it is said Newton invented the swinging cat door. He is also rumoured to have discovered Calculus. As Warden, and later Master, of The Royal Mint he did great work in the reduction of counterfeiting money, particularly coins. And just to make sure he could also torment middle school Algebra students he gave them the binomial theorem. In elementary algebra, the binomial theorem (or binomial expansion) describes the algebraic expansion of powers of a binomial. According to the theorem, it is possible to expand the polynomial (x + y)n into a sum involving terms of the form axbyc, where the exponents b and c are nonnegative integers with b + c = n, and the coefficient a of each term is a specific positive integer depending on n and b. For example, for n = 4,

(x+y)^{4}=x^{4}+4x^{3}y+6x^{2}y^{2}+4xy^{3}+y^{4}.

A bowling ball will continue in the direction of the motion.