Scientists discovers why the cowboy who draws first also dies
WHEN physicist Niels Bohr watched westerns, he noticed that the cowboy who drew his gun first and so had an advantage, was often the one shot.It's an interesting hypothesis - that the speed of action is less than the speed of reaction. What caught my eye was this little tidbit:
The Nobel laureate's favoured solution to his "gunslinger's paradox" has now been confirmed in part: people move faster when reacting than when they initiate the same actions.
"Apparently Bohr tested his theory in toy pistol fights with a colleague."
Man, imagine the grant proposal write-up on that one?
"We seek to characterize the rates of acquisition, presentation, and disposition of lead-based projectiles via rapidly-expanding gases in the presence of opposing factors."
Maybe this explains the scene in the remastered Star Wars why Han Solo doesn't shoot first...
That is all.
7 comments:
Man, imagine the grant proposal write-up on that one?
[snork]
I think there's a lot more to the story than the article suggests, though. All kinds of ways in which the second guy can get the advantage, even allowing for the fact that it's a movie and there's usually a dramatic reason that the second guy is supposed to win.
Heh.
Something tells me the real-life application of those unorthodox methods might be a bit limited.
Solo shot first.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1YbFnkZwZk
Close range work, that.
Uhh maybe because THAT'S RIGHT IT'S A MOVIE?
Somehow I suspect that reality isn't the same.
emdfl
Somehow, I suspect most of us were already aware of that little detail, emdfl.
Topically, though, that is quite an interesting study... A human's action time is X, but a human's reaction time is X-Y? I guess I can see that - attempting to compensate for knowing that you are already behind the curve, you try to move all that much faster. In any case, I am not going to argue (too much) with a guy who could hold his own with Einstein... :)
Reminds me of the great Gene Hackman scene from Unforgiven. "Fast?!? Fast was his problem!"
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