Xref: utzoo sci.electronics:6500 sci.physics:8484
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!ihlpl!knudsen
From: knudsen@ihlpl.ATT.COM (Knudsen)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics,sci.physics
Subject: Re: HV Cap Fun!
Summary: Simple physical analogy
Keywords: capacitor,energy,paradox
Message-ID: <10765@ihlpl.ATT.COM>
Date: 7 Jun 89 18:28:50 GMT
References: <4924@m2c.M2C.ORG> <3806@mit-amt> <20772@quacky.mips.COM> <10570@ihlpb.ATT.COM>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 22

A simple mechanical analogy:  Imagine a silly-putty meteor
weighing 1 kg going 100 m/s.  It has kinetic energy 0.5 m v**2
or 5000 joules.  It has momentum mv = 100 kgm/s.

It collides head-on with an identical stationary meteor, and the
two stick together (perectly in-elastic collision).
To conserve momentum, the conglomerated 2 kg meteor now moves
at half the original speed, or 50 m/s.
The kinetic energy of the pair has dropped to 2500 J.

Half the original kinetic energy was dissipated inside the bodies
of the meteors, as frictional vibration and ultimately heat
(funny how everything ends up as heat, but you knew that).

Rubber meteors would be more fun.  Likewise, try connecting
the two caps not thru a shorting wire but an inductor.
Like slipping a stiff coil spring between the meteors before they
collide, and they're covered with flypaper glue...
-- 
Mike Knudsen  Bell Labs(AT&T)   att!ihlpl!knudsen  knudsen@ihlpl.att.com
  Round and round the while() loop goes;
  "Whether it stops," Turing says, "no one knows!"