I have posted the top 12 of the Gaia artwork contest:
Update [3 September 2018]: I added a caption to the last panel so that it’s easier to understand what is going on.
- Zoey: Ha ha! Match point!
- Zoey: ?
- Sandra: ?
- Sign: Fate Alteration Engine
- Fortuna: John, what are you doing there?
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Oh my, God. He literally has nothing better to do than to use the powers of the universe to mess up a simple tennis match.
I don’t think that’s actually dynamically possible. Well, maybe with the right spin on the ball it could work…
So will the next strip be on Monday or Thursday?
@Novil
So will the next strip be on Monday or Thursday?
Brett Bellmore wrote:
It is possible because net is not stationary and can bend…
Chillwinston89 wrote:
Yeah
Wednesday.
@Novil
And then?
Sorry if I’m annoying you😕
@ Brett Bellmore:
@ Trimutius:
The ball’s momentum is in the direction the direction of Sandra so having bounced off of the net it would continue in that direction albeit with some upward momentum gained as a result of the collision with the net. Of course, this is not the case and all its horizontal momentum is clearly transfered into the sideways direction implying that the net implied some ridiculous force on the ball which it would not be able to do irl. Although, this Fate Alteration Machine is most likely magical so we can safely assume that all that goes out the window…
As an aside, I would have died of laughter if they were still wearing burqas 😉
It’s like that Voyager episode where 7of9 keeps traveling through time to prevent Voyager from blowing up. At one point the crew is playing table tennis (as you do when lost on the other side of the galaxy) and the ball suddenly stops in midair due to a major conflagration of technobabble.
Guess I’m a bit slow. Who’s john and why is the strip posted 2 days early?
@ Mortar:
It’s John J. God, aka God for his friends 🙂
You can recognise him from the triangle on his head.
@ Mortar:
I’m guessing John is the new God of Humans who took over after Thomas J. died. But it’s been a while and I’m not good with names.
But that still leaves the question of who the woman is.
Never mind, just saw the tags. And “Escaflowne” is the first thing I thought after I read this strip. 🙂
And the bikinis are back…whatever.
But where are the peanuts??
Hol-up, are Sandra and Zoey naked on that little TV screen in the last panel?!
Huh. Didn’t see that coming.
Bri@ Brijeka Vervix:
It’s just a small screen. Nobody is naked.
Wonder on whose behalf the divine intervention is.
tofei wrote:
Rejoice in every good thing.
Oh jeez that Escaflowne reference XD
Should have been Isaac Newton or some catgirls to REAALLY hammer home the joke, but well played none the less.
This isn’t the first time that lever has been pulled in this match…
It’s a good thing this is a print comic. I would be righteously sick if the characters had voices like the anime characters in, say, Vision of Escaflowne.
@ MidoriLuna:
I just want Woo’s secret to come out
Is that too much to ask?
Brijeka Vervix wrote:
it is ping pong ball we are talking about… it is very lite… so force needed is not as insane as you might think… direction of the force is ridiculous though a little bit… it is possible though if ball is spinning due to gyroscopic effect…
Christian Dauz wrote:
Yes.
Trimutius wrote:
That would actually be due to the Magnus Effect wherein the ‘no slip condition’ between the ball’s surface and the air means that air is pulled around to one side of a spinning ball causing a pressure differential and thus generating a force that pushes the ball in whatever direction (a gyroscope would just keep the ball oriented in the same direction as it completes the turn) however this would generate a parabolic flight path rather than the abrupt turn observed in the ball upon hitting the net.
For such a turn to occur, it would need to hit a surface which would generate a reaction force upon the ball in such a fashion that all its remaining horizontal momentum is parallel to the net. Of course, there is no such surface nor any kink in the net which could cause this. Thus the only possibilities are magic or someone turned on a powerful leaf blower angled in the correct direction right as the ball hit the net and given the ball’s diminutive mass, it is unlikely to be this since the ball would go flying off rather than lazily bouncing along the net!
Brijeka Vervix wrote:
Hey I know what I’m saying… Magnus effect is unlikely to be this strong… I mean exactly Gyroscopic effect where when the ball touches the net there will be gyroscopic effect involved for a short while as well. Though I suppose it will be composition of Magnus and gyroscopic effect. So first Magnus effect will bring trajectory of the ball closer to parallel to the net, and then during the touch between the ball and the net gyroscopic effect can finish the deal.
And you say “there is no such surface” while not realizing that net itself IS such surface…
It is indeed unlikely for ball to land on the net a few times in a row indeed…
Trimutius wrote:
It isn’t and that’s why I’m proposing magic (or a leaf blower). The gyroscopic effect won’t cause an abrupt change in momentum either. It will only keep the ball oriented in the same plane.
Trimutius wrote:
The net is oriented in such a fashion that any reaction force it exudes on the ball will be some combination of upwards or back towards Zoey. Not sideways.
It is possible that friction between a sideways spinning ball and the net could cause sideways motion in the ball upon striking the net but this isn’t related to the gyroscopic effect
Hm. This god *does* owe Sandra, indirectly, for her role in his ascension (aka the death of the previous human god)
I’m with Mortar — I figured out who John is, thanks to the miracle of tags, but my google-fu fails me in finding any connection that would explain why the comic is two days early. Would someone be so kind as to explain so Novil doesn’t need to?
This god seems to be a massive improvement despite the shaky early start. Thomas J. God wanted to create tragedies by inflicting premature deaths. John J. God seems to mess with people in a so far harmless way. I take a trickster god over a homicidal one any day.
@ Brijeka Vervix:
Rather than try to pin the ball’s non-vertical changes in momentum to outside forces…
It’s clear: Zoey put some tricky spin on the ball, knowing Sandra wouldn’t be in the correct position for the bounce. Unfortunately for her, her aim was a bit low as a result of such a tricky shot, and the ball hit the net just below the top, on her own side.
“Ah, that may account for the first repeat bounce on the net, but the first impact against the net would cause the ball to spin in a different direction, and that spin would cause it to fall toward Sandra’s side after second impact.” So close, but the net is clearly vibrating! The second impact with the net must be at just the right mode that…
okay, yeah, magic lever that breaks classical mechanics. Just don’t let Schrödinger know about it, okay?
i literally forgot about this comic after i had to wipe my computer. i remembered because of fire and i got onto reading. Congrats on that thousand!!!
@ Brijeka Vervix:
So how’s the lawsuit going ? You decide to sue Novil for last strip right ? Or did you reach settlement already ?
@ PS2kid:
I did not decide to sue Novil. Are you mocking me?
Brijeka Vervix wrote:
No there will be gyroscopic effect. Because gyroscopic effect doesn’t need an actual gyroscope to appear. you just need to have a spinning object and when force is exerted on it center of mass accelerates in direction different from direction where to which force is working towards due to conservation of angular momentum. Basically conversation of angular momentum makes movements of spinning objects very weird in air it is demonstrated by Magnus effect, but even on striking the net conservation of angular momentum doesn’t go anywhere, so ball often goes weird direction after striking net or table.
Missed opportunity: should have called it ‘Uncanny Volley’
Can someone please explain the joke to those of us who haven’t seen Escaflowne?
Brijeka Vervix wrote:
My thought was that the first impact converted most of the forward momentum into vertical, so the ball continues forward, and lands on the center. It would still have some forward momentum at this point, though, and I initially thought it would have bounced a second time towards Sandra.
But on reflection, if it had a back spin which was angled a bit, the first two impacts could consume the forward component of the spin, so that it ended up after the landing on the middle with just side spin, and would start bouncing sideways.
It would be kind of inelegant if the fate manipulation engine actually violated physical laws, rather than just skewing odds to make unlikely things happen, so I was really looking for a physically possible way that could happen.
I added a caption to the last panel so that it’s easier to understand what is going on.
@ Trimutius:
Please explain the gyroscopic effect and why it would produce an abrupt change in momentum upon striking the net because everything I have read on the matter suggests that it will not play a part in this problem. And please phrase it in such a way so that I don’t have to spend too much time deciphering it.
@ Brett Bellmore:
I’m just enjoying the fact that we’re looking for realistic physics, in a world where gods exist, and raccoons can talk. Yep, that’s us.
MidoriLuna wrote:
I am embarrassed to admit, I did not think of Star Trek. I should get back to binging on it.
And maybe look up Escaflowne, because I only know it from name and, like many classics of Western literature/cinema/TV/whatever, I did not get to enjoy it in my humble Turkish public school.
Brijeka Vervix wrote:
It will not change momentum drastically, because there is only limited amount of work that net can exert onto ball during that time. That is why I mentioned that first part of it curving would be done by Magnus effect. We don’t know whether Zoey did backhand spin, forehand spin, and whether it was a topspin or backspin, comic just doesn’t show it. Also if you think about shape of the net at the edge it is actually circular so force can be exerted in any direction in plane perpendicular to the net. Due to conservation of angular momentum what will happen if axis of ball spinning is perpendicular to the force applied, the direction of acceleration of the center of mass of the ball would be perpendicular to both (that is the gist of gyroscopic effect). If those two are not perpendicular you need to do some vector math to determine direction, but it will be some weird direction which from naive perspective would be all over the place, including along the net.
But that acceleration will be there only for a short amount of time, so I’m not talking about drastic change, but if Magnus effect has diverted ball enough before hand it might happen.
Spin on the ping pong ball is pretty powerful technique… It is pretty easy to hit a ball in such a way that after hitting the table it will go sideways it is called longitudinal side spin… so in similar way you can do same while hitting the net.
@ tofei:
Yup. Whatever. I’ve stopped trying to make sense of it all. The author apparently has gotten bored with trying to drive the audience away, though.
@ Trimutius:
Dude… That has nothing to do with gyroscopes. Or rather, gyroscopes have nothing to do with that.
Changes in direction of the ball’s movement due to collision and spin is because of friction between the ball and the table. Not gyroscopes. Seriously, Google it. You won’t find anything relating gyroscopes to ping pong (you will find the Magnus Effect however). I don’t know how you say it in your first language but it isn’t ‘gyroscope’.
Change in direction due to collision with the net will be due to reaction forces and friction with spin.
Brijeka Vervix wrote:
Note to self : Internet is serious business. User named Brijeka Vervix has no sense of humor whatsoever and very sensitive and hostile.
All right then. Lesson learned.
Brijeka Vervix wrote:
Oh well I suppose my major was Gas Dynamics and not Mechanics… I actually got B in theoretical mechanics… I suppose that is why… I still don’t understand why all this effects that use the same Math are called different names… I suppose what I meant to say is that friction of the net might create torque which will cancel out forward movement of the ball.