If I drive my car through a corner slowly I’ll be fine. If I go fast, the car will skid off the road. All the materials are the same, the execution is the same. The only difference is over what amount of time this happens? The example is not important, the same goes for pretty much anything. Filling a bottle, ripping a sheet of paper..
I understand this from a intuitive perspective, but I wonder if someone can explain why time matters in physics in a simple way. What is the fundamental difference between doing something fast vs. slow.
I’m sure this is a silly question if you know some thermal dynamics or special relativity, but remember, I’m only 5!
In: Physics
Energy matters more than time. So if I want to move from where I am to a mile down the road, I can walk. It will take maybe 15 minutes, but I won’t be very tired. I could run, and get there sooner, but I’ll probably be out of breath. Or if I wanted to get there even faster, I could strap a rocket on my back and Wile E. Coyote my way over there, but then all that energy has to go somewhere, and my landing won’t be pleasant. The same thing has happened (traveling down the road), but the energy used is way different. All that energy has to come from somewhere, and has to end up somewhere, because it can’t be destroyed.
So back to your example of going around a turn. The actual turning takes some amount of energy. If we use just enough energy, we’ll make the turn and go on our merry way. If we use too much (by going too fast), all that extra energy has to go somewhere. It ends up going into momentum (which makes things keep going in one direction) and skidding tires and bad times.
It’s not the time, it’s the energy.
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