The Breakdown: Defying Death at the Gym

Neat little gymnastics demonstration that you will never catch me attempting, because it looks like an engraved invitation to a serious injury. The physics is much less strenuous, being an exercise in conservation of linear and angular momentum. If you read through the comments you’ll find someone who insists the explanation is wrong, because kinetic energy isn’t conserved in inelastic collisions. But kinetic energy isn’t mentioned in the explanation, so file that under “W” for “WTF?” The same poster returns to dig his hole even deeper by insisting that momentum isn’t conserved, either. It’s scary if they are indeed a teacher of statics and dynamics.