Friday, May 27, 2016

I Don't Want To Get Stepped On



Would giants appear to move quickly or slowly?  Discuss  


How can this possibly be relevant to anything?  


It's not, but it's something that has gone through my mind every now and again.  Especially when I see people running away from giants. 


Does that happen often? 


In movies and TV, yes.  

So, here's the thing.  You see it all the time.  Some movie or TV show, usually a cartoon, you see our hero running away from a giant.  The giant is huge and powerful, yes.  But, they're always remarkably slow.  You don't think about it, but it makes sense that moving something that huge would require a lot of effort, and wouldn't happen very quickly.  So, when our hero darts nimbly to the side and runs through the giants legs, making the giant look silly, you don't give it a second thought.  

However...

Picture yourself as an ant.  Now, look up at a human.  They would appear to be an impossibly large giant, hundreds of feet tall (to scale), with nearly unlimited power.  But, would they be moving slowly?  

If I want to step on an ant, there's roughly nothing that ant can do about it.  If I was a cartoon giant, the little ant would just run to the side as my foot was falling towards him, being able to escape by just reacting more quickly than I could due to my extreme size.  But, I'm not a cartoon giant, and my foot would seem to be moving impossibly fast to an ant, crushing the poor little guy with extreme prejudice before he can blink an eye.  Do ants have eyelids?  Probably not.  You get the idea.  

So, which is it?  And if there were real giants, would you be able to escape?  

Fortunately, you'll have plenty of time to think these things over, as I'm going to be away on business next week, so you're not going to see any updates here.  I know you're all sad, but I'll have an entire week's worth of stories, random thoughts, oxford commas, and witty observations to share with you when I get back.  Until then, please enjoy Youtube or something.  


Jeremy Is In The Office will be Out Of The Office starting Friday, May 27th, returning on monday, June 6th with all new adventures.  Everyone enjoy your Memorial Day and we'll see you when we get back from Europe. 

1 comment:

S said...

Interesting questions and viewpoints on them.