Eating is an agricultural act - Wendell Berry

Thursday, December 13, 2007

the physics of sneezing

i had a bad cold just days before the marriage.
bad sneezing attack.
with a sore back, each sneeze feels like a thor tandav (TT) down the spine.

after 2 days of TT, i was reeling with a rickety back with a mega sit down event to follow.

desperate times.
called for desperate measures, i had to resort to fluid dynamics (not the inebriating variety) for solace.

for simple fluid flow, Area x Velocity = constant (those who have used garden hoses will easily understand this equation).
so instead of the classic thin mouth opening stance, i adopted the wide cough stance. with instantaneous results.
as the velocity of the expunging air diminished dramatically, the resultant reaction (newton's third law) force diminished proportionally and hence converting from TT to throwball (sorry, could not resist).

mind you, it is not a visual/aural delight to be in proximity to anyone who adopts this new stance, but the adopter is awash with relief aplenty , aha...

1 comment:

Preeti Aghalayam aka kbpm said...

ok time to take back your engg degree... hand it over...