Impact
No. 92, 1973
( Theoretical mechanics and the mechanics of continuous media)
India ink and pencil on paper, 30.5x43 cm.
Asteroids besiege a tranquil place, soaring through the atmosphere, plummeting downward. One crashes through a surface, shattering the smooth structure, upsetting what was an otherwise calm space. In physics, the mechanisms of powerful impacts create fascinating study, especially when we try to figure in all the types of motion, which usually lead to exotic solutions. One special case that spawns fascinating mathematics involves the collision of rotating balls, which leads to two observable effects. One is the law of reflection of ideal balls and the other is the rule of composition of angular velocity vectors. When a ball collides with a surface, cracks can form in the plane that will eventually cause it to shatter. In fact, the theory of how those cracks spread throughout the surface creates fascinating problems for mathematical modelling.
