why is it easier to swat a fly with an object rather than our own hands?
In: Engineering
For the same reason you strike with a point far away from the handle with just about every tool or weapon used to hit stuff (hammer, axe, baseball bat, sword), the end moves a lot faster than your hand, and hits harder. (although in this case we only really care about the speed)
If the rotation speed is constant, the tip of a longer object rotating around a fixed point will move faster than that of a shorter one. (Since the circle it has to traverse is longer.)
A combination of similar effects is why the tip of a whip can break the sound barrier even though your arm isn’t moving anywhere that fast.
To put it in slightly more physics-y terms, you move the end of whatever long thing you’re holding that’s close to your hand pretty slowly at a heavy mechanical disadvantage, and in exchange the far end moves really fast.
It’s kind of like pushing on the short arm of a lever, it’s hard but if you *can* move it, the other end will move very far quickly.
(and in reverse, it’s why it’s very hard to hold a stick steady if someone was free to push on the far end)
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