HungryHerring327

Everyone cites Newton's cradle as a 'momentum demo' but no one mentions it's a kinetic energy illusion. The math checks out only if you assume perfectly elastic collisions between identical masses. Which no real-world material achieves. Try replacing one steel ball with a rubber one and watch the 'laws of physics' vanish. Car crashes are a better example of kinetic energy transfer. No one cares about momentum there. What other textbook examples are just lab-idealized parlor tricks?