• Question: What happens if an irresistible force hits and immovable object?

    Asked by AnnA to Jackie, Michele, Oliver, Yelong on 18 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Oliver Brown

      Oliver Brown answered on 18 Mar 2015:

      Equilibrium! So nothing much really — large imbalances of force are usually more fun(/dangerous)

    • Photo: Michele Faucci Giannelli

      Michele Faucci Giannelli answered on 18 Mar 2015:

      This is the typical ratios between infinities. You could ask the same question between zeros, a negligible force to hit an object with negligible static attrition.
      The answer is in the order of infinities or zeros and it is the reason we expand complex equations using Taylor to understand the behaviour in these extreme cases.
      So if the force to to infinity as X^2 and the static force is only order X, the object will move. If the opposite is true, the object will not move. If they are the same order, you look at the ratio of the number in front of the X and if it >1 it will move, otherwise it will not.

    • Photo: Jaclyn Bell

      Jaclyn Bell answered on 19 Mar 2015:

      Hmmmm mathematically this would be like multiplying infinity by zero… So nothing would happen, as Ollie has said 🙂

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