Say you have a magic hammer. You can change the mass of the hammer's head without changing its volume. The mass of the head can range anywhere from 1 pound to 10 pounds. Controlling the hammer's mass is mental and instant.
What is the most effective way to use this hammer?
Do you start swinging the hammer with 1 pound of mass, then increase it linearly until it connects at 10 pounds? Do you do the majority of the swing at 1 pound, then change to 10 pounds at the last possible instant before you connect? Or do you do something else that I haven't even thought of?
Do you not understand how force works? You swing with 1 pound to achieve maximum velocity then change the mass to 10 at the last possible moment. Assuming that resonance (i.e. autism) isn't an issue this will create the biggest impact.
Dylan Perez
You maximize momentum by maximizing both mass and velocity. Swinging faster at a low mass then instantly increasing the mass at the last possible second gets you that maximum momentum.
Connor Wood
Trips speak truth
Kayden King
>You can change mass >mass >not impulse You hammer slows to a crawl before impact and causes exactly the same damage as it would've if you left the mass as 1 pound.
Aaron Rodriguez
Is momentum conserved?
Ayden Diaz
Naw, it would slow down during the change of mass or even stop completely as there isn't enough energy moving it forward.
Charles Bailey
well, I've learned a lot about physics.
and also that i'm retarded.
Connor Gonzalez
Theoretically the absolute best moment to switch to max mass would be the moment after the hammer reaches the topmost position of its arc. Here's a kinda long explanation: When hitting with blunt weapons the damage caused is due to kinetic energy transferred from the weapon to the target, and kinetic energy equals ( mass * speed) / 2. Since in your theoretical story changing the mass doesn't affect speed, you wanna hit with max mass (10 kgs), and you are seeking to maximize speed. Speed is affected a) by you at the first half of the move (until the weapon gets above your head) and b) by gravity during the entire move, so you wanna keep the weight at the minimum for the first half (in order to minimize the loss of speed caused by gravity), and maximize it for the second half (so that gravity "pulls" harder). Maximizing the mass at the last moment before striking wouldn't be as effective, since end mass would be same but speed would be less, since gravity had a lesser effect (and thus caused higher speed) for the second half of the move.
Wyatt Wright
>( mass * speed) / 2. wrong;
kinetic energy = (mass)(velocity^2)/2
Colton Peterson
OP, you should read The Punisher 2099. He's got a club like the one you're describing. I'd post it but I have no wifi here.
Caleb Bennett
Fuck, of course, I messed up. Still proves my point though, even more so
Colton Powell
Actually, your point is still irrelevant; acceleration due to gravity is the same regardless of mass.
A small hammer will fall just as fast as a heavy hammer.
Brandon Howard
Fair enough, I stand corrected, serves me right for trying to argue physics high. In any case, is there any reason to maximize the mass of the hammer at the moment of the hit? Wouldn't my suggestion provide the same (although not better) result?
Juan Baker
It would, as that way you can get maximum speed at maximum mass, with some left over from swinging the light hammer up.
If you did it at the last second, the hammer would slow down a lot due to coservation of momentum.
You could probably optimize it so that you maintain more speed from the up-swing byt gradually increasing the wait as the movement vector diverges from the gravity vector, but for arguments sake you could increase it to 5 pounds at 45 degrees, and then 10 pounds at 90 degrees.
Leo Butler
I see, so you wanna optimize the mass increase to minimize the speed loss, i get it now. Thanks for the detailed explanation user
Lucas Allen
You are so fucking stupid, user. This better be bait. Anyway, here is a video. Watch it and feel ashamed of yourself. youtube.com/watch?v=5C5_dOEyAfk
Benjamin Watson
>If you did it at the last second, the hammer would slow down a lot due to coservation of momentum. Would it apply to magic though? It's not like it was a collision, the mass just appeared out of nowhere.
Justin Hall
I suppose you could model it as the matter spontaneously appearing and "colliding" (as well as sticking to) the hammer internally, spread out evenly across the entire volume.
Of course, this entire argument is nonsensical if the matter appears with the same relative velocity as the hammer, in which case local conservation of momentum isn't broken.
Jonathan Moore
Yep.
To increase mass while keeping the same velocity, you would need to increase momentum.
Wyatt Morgan
So the best use of it would be to faint attacks by suddenly slowing down and speeding up your hammer. Seems pretty cool to me.
