Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Rebirth



The Wood Apple, otherwise known as Vilambazham in Tamil is a fruit that is round to oval, 2 to 5 in (5-12.5 cm) wide, with a hard, woody, grayish-white, scurfy rind about 1/4 in (6 mm) thick.

To put things into perspective, this thing disguised as a fruit is as hard as a hockey ball. But wait, no one knows how hard the ball of our national game is. Proud to be Indian. Anyway, it's as hard as... um... a hockey ball people, come on! Point I'm trying to make is, it can hurt quite a bit, if it hits you at a decent speed. Now, assume this thing fell from a tree from a stationary position. (yes, it got detached from it's branch, or whatever)

Height of tree(h) = 12 feet
Initial velocity (u) = 0 feet/second
Acceleration due to gravity(g) = 32 feet/sec^2

Hence, by the fomula v^2 = u^2 + 2gh, we get, final velocity of the falling fruit as approximately 28 feet/sec. At that speed, a hockey ball hitting your head, can leave a good sized lump. And wipe away a few memory cells here and there. You know, you'll know your name starts with A and ends with D but the letters in between would've been erased. A wood apple hitting you right at the top of your head, at that same speed, in a cycle parking lot, with no one else around, could make you unconscious. In which state you would stay for a while cos no one's around. And therefore eventually, you MIGHT have put your mortality to test.

The Wood Apple missed me by 2 inches. I brought it along with me. Newton's apple taught him gravity. The Wood Apple taught me the gravity of life.

Feeling line, I know :)

6 comments:

Prashanth said...

pazham nazhuvi thalayele vizhundhadhu or rather tharayil but close enough...

CB said...

Ushoo! Close!

Ducky said...

Prashanth,
Aamam, tharaile vizhundhu. Ball nazhuvi paal le vizhugura madhiri :)

CB,
Ya man, worhip me, for I'm the undead :)

AG said...

:D :D :D :D

Shazz said...

so is it true what they say about your life flashing before your eyes, or did the moment pass by the time you were done with all those calculations?? :)

Ducky said...

Anirudh,
The life, the universe and everything else flashed by :)