As a visualization of liquid flow, I think it would be funny to have a large room into which many tennis balls are emptied. The tennis balls would represent the individual particles, which bounce and jostle against each other to produce the ultimate effect of the liquid. When everything has come to a rest, a large door on one side could be opened to drain the room in a comedic fashion.
Pipe flow is more poorly understood (and of interest to oil companies and other big concerns), but making a pipe-shaped room is a tad impractical, I think. Would be worth filming, though.
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A reader has written me suggesting that the Tennis Ball Room be deployed against political enemies. I think that my country, the United States, is not the kind of coutnry that does that kind of thing.
However, it does give me the idea of using it as a criminal punishment. Given a choice between fifteen years in prison, vs. having fifteen million tennis balls dropped on one's head, I can imagine a number of people chosing the tennis balls.
So our convict is placed into a room with many cameras. Suddenly, the ceiling opens, and a flurry of tennis balls goes bouncing everywhere. It's mildly painful but totally ridiculous.
After the mayhem is over, our convict is free, although he or she may wish a medical exam to make sure nothing was broken in the fracas.
Somehow, this seems doubtful too. This is a very unusual punishment, and depending on the velocity of the tennis balls at impact time, it may also be cruel. The United States constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, primarily on the grounds that it's a slippery slope to torture.
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