Monday, October 30, 2006

The Physics of Pole Dancing


Unlike you, I did not sleep through my physics classes either in high school or college, where I was (bizarrely, considering my life trajectory) a Dean's List student in physics and math. Luckily, I discovered that I could in fact major in movies, which allowed me to eat popcorn, drink beer and get laid.

Still, I think I am carrying the torch for physics...so in an effort to spread the gospel, I offer you Popular Science's excellent analysis of the force vectors affecting a crashing pole dancer. Go see the video here, then ponder this:
She now has a sizeable amount of angular momentum moving counterclockwise around the pole, and this can be halted only by an external force...
If they had had this kind of analysis when I was in college, I might have stayed in physics, discovered commercially feasible cold fusion, bought Bill Gates' house and started my own rock band with Steven King, George Smoot*, John C. Mather*, Angelina Jolie and that nerdy guy on NUMB3RS.

(*Winners of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics for — and let me get this exactly right — "their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation." Anybody who can discover that can rock!)

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:59 PM

    this might make a better case study

    http://www.videosift.com/story.php?id=18858

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous5:21 PM

    God bless the pole dancers!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous2:11 PM

    I don't know why, but all the women who made this type of video have this complex, looks like the Cheap Viagra is not enought, they always look for a pole.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This can't work in fact, that is exactly what I consider.

    ReplyDelete
  5. No doubt, the chap is totally fair.

    ReplyDelete