For example, if you’re standing 20 feet away from me, and you tell me to throw you a ball, how is my arm able to generate almost the exact amount of power required to throw the ball 20 feet? How and where does this “calculation” happen?
In: Physics
When you throw a ball, your brain forms a memory of things like:
* What you were trying to achieve
* The object you were holding
* What the environment was like (wind, temperature) at the time
* How much force you used
* What type of body motion you used
* What it felt like
* Whether or not you achieved your result
We start to throw things from a very young age, so our bodies start forming these memories very early. If you watch an infant throw an object, you’ll observe that they are not very good at it. They can’t hit the broad side of a barn. The object often lands at their feet, or is launched straight up into the air, possibly landing on their head. Sometimes it lands behind them.
All of this goes into our memory. We take for granted just how much we’re able to recall. We think of memory in terms of facts, but the function of our memory extends well beyond simple facts.
Our brains don’t compute ballistics in the same way we might compute them with physics formulas. We recall the last time we tried something similar, then make adjustments that are an approximation based on past experience. The more numerous the memories, the more our brains have to draw from.
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