One of my pet peeves is when martial arts practitioners decide to add an air of scientific authority to their pronouncements by digging out some formulas they remember from high school physics: kinetic energy = mass x velocity squared, force = mass x acceleration, momentum = mass x velocity. 99 times out of 100, the conclusions they draw from throwing these formulas about are either trivial (more body weight behind a punch means it hits harder) or completely incorrect (F = MA means your punch needs to still be accelerating at the moment of impact).
That being the case, I was curious about how an actual physicist (Jason Thalken, PhD) who is also an experienced martial artist would approach the application of physics to martial arts in his book: Fight Like a Physicist. I was not disappointed.
Thalken's prose is clear and engaging. He simplifies concepts for ease of analysis, but doesn't oversimplify to the point of drawing misleading conclusions. I have a bit of college-level physics, so I was familiar with the formulas being applied, but I learned some new ways to think about the meaning of how they applied in a martial arts context. I think even someone with no physics background at all could probably follow his explanations pretty well.
Topics explored in the book include: center of mass, the difference between high-momentum and high-energy strikes, why force measurements (such as typically shown in those "Fight Science" videos) are generally misleading and not useful, application of levers and wedges, the effects and likely mechanisms of CTE, what protective gear is and isn't good for, how various "chi" demonstration tricks are performed, how to apply scientific skepticism to what you learn, and more.
Fight Like a Physicist is a short, entertaining read, but contains plenty of useful information even for an experienced martial artist. I strongly recommend it.
That being the case, I was curious about how an actual physicist (Jason Thalken, PhD) who is also an experienced martial artist would approach the application of physics to martial arts in his book: Fight Like a Physicist. I was not disappointed.
Thalken's prose is clear and engaging. He simplifies concepts for ease of analysis, but doesn't oversimplify to the point of drawing misleading conclusions. I have a bit of college-level physics, so I was familiar with the formulas being applied, but I learned some new ways to think about the meaning of how they applied in a martial arts context. I think even someone with no physics background at all could probably follow his explanations pretty well.
Topics explored in the book include: center of mass, the difference between high-momentum and high-energy strikes, why force measurements (such as typically shown in those "Fight Science" videos) are generally misleading and not useful, application of levers and wedges, the effects and likely mechanisms of CTE, what protective gear is and isn't good for, how various "chi" demonstration tricks are performed, how to apply scientific skepticism to what you learn, and more.
Fight Like a Physicist is a short, entertaining read, but contains plenty of useful information even for an experienced martial artist. I strongly recommend it.
(these smiley suck!Not one with horns?C'mon!) 
