On Jan 1, 8:28 pm, Andrew Plotkin <erkyr...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Here, bealoid <sig...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > Two men on Mars. Mars has no terra-forming or atmosphere alterations,
so I
> > guess they're inside.
>
> > Man A (standing) hits, as hard as he can, Man B (sitting).
>
> > How does the low gravity affect the punch?
>
> Barely at all, I'd say.
>
> The force of hitting someone -- or resisting being hit -- depends
> mostly on how your feet are braced, and how your weight is balanced
> above them. (For a sitting person, even more so, because his butt and
> back are braced too.) If someone is balanced badly, you can literally
> knock him over with one finger. If he's set right, he can push back as
> hard as you can push.
>
> On Mars, you'd probably have a different form -- maybe slower, with
> more lead-in and follow-through. But the final power would be similar,
> because it's ultimately your inertia that's behind a punch.
>
> It'd be different if you were pu****ng a very heavy object (or a wall).
> In that case, you really are limited by floor friction; you set your
> feet to push as hard as you can without slipping. Friction is directly
> pro****tional to gravity. But a boxer doesn't fail by punching so hard
> that his feet slip backwards; that's just not the bound on his
> performance.
> SNIP:
A solid punch, as opposed to a jab, starts at the rear foot, gains
force through a torso twist and culminates with the arm muscles
stiffening to drive the fist into its target. In low gravity I think
some adjustment would be necessary.
Walt BJ
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