Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Swerve to Avoid Collision

It turns out that the game of chicken has some deep philosophical connotations, and that Wikipedia proves itself yet again as my one-and-only source of knowledge-absorption outside of these textbooks.

The idea of playing Chicken is even more fascinating now that Physics has armed me with The Numbers. Indeed, I am bristling with equations that tell me exactly when and how energy is transfered between colliding objects. I won't take the time to expound on it, but let's just say the results are 'bad' in most head-on collisions.

Back to Chicken. There are four possible outcomes: both cars swerve out of the way, Car X swerves, Car Y swerves, or neither car swerves and they collide. Swerving results in the best-case scenario for both parties, though the 'swervee' loses face and is branded the Chicken.

The game of chicken can be used in a variety of other different applications. Here are a few:

  • Two people walking toward each other on a narrow sidewalk
  • Two flocks of geese, one flying south for the winter, the other flying north for the summer
  • A cat and a ball of yarn
  • Knights jousting on horses
  • Two rams ramming
  • Airplane vs. Mountain
And here's me driving without airbags...

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