8/10/2019 Slapping Someone Into Next Week

1/2

Journal of Interdisciplinary Science Topics

Slapping Someone Into Next Week

James Pierce, Jon Cogle, Jake CoxThe Centre for Interdisciplinary Science, University of Leicester

01/02/2013

AbstractThis paper exams the science behind the phrase Slapping someone into next week and provides an estimate ofthe conditions necessary and feasibility of performing such an act.

IntroductionThe threat of slapping someone into next week iswell used in popular culture in both film andtelevision. Used as a way of threatening someonewith a strike of such force as to bend the laws ofPhysics. However we investigate whether such a featof strength could be possible and what conditionswould be needed.

We provide an answer to this problem byconsidering Einsteins theory of special relativity.One of the postulates of this theory is that the lawswhich govern physical systems are measured andperceived equally for two systems at rest relative toeach other 1. When two systems are moving atdifferent velocities to each other, they observedifferences in measurements between themselvesand the other system.

This postulate can be applied to our problem, if weconsider the attacker and the victim as our twosystems, the attacker needs to impart such avelocity to the victim that they experience one weekof time relative to the attacker. The differencebetween the observed passage of time for bothpeople is known as a Lorentz Transformation 2.

TheoryThere are various steps in the calculations to solvethis problem, the main two which concern theLorentz Transformations are to find the ratiobetween the two observed time changes and todetermine at what the victim would have to bemoving relative to the attacker. The ratio of themeasured times is known as the Gamma Factor andis given by 3:

Once we have this value we find the relative velocityv which would cause this gamma factor. This isfound using 3:

Finding the necessary force required to accelerate aperson to that speed is found by first finding theacceleration caused by this velocity:

Rearranged assuming initial velocity of 0 :

This value for a is then put into Newtons second law

to find the force imparted onto the victim:

These equations are then run back to find thevelocity that the hand must be travelling in order tocreate such a force.

A number of reasonable assumptions are made toprovide an answer to the question:

The victim experiences 6.0510 5seconds (1

week) to the attackers 1 second.

8/10/2019 Slapping Someone Into Next Week

2/2

Slapped into next week, February 1 st 2013

Both people weigh 80kg and the attackershand weighs 500g.

That the victims body is resistant to theenormous forces and accelerations involved.

Conclusion From the values we assumed, we found that thevictim would have to be travelling at 99.9% thespeed of light. In order to convey that kind of speedto them, the attackers hand would have to betravelling in the order of hundreds of times thespeed of light, 5.3110 10ms -1 to be precise. Thisvalue is clearly beyond the realms of possibility as

the speed of light is considered a universal speedlimit.

Realistically, assuming even the fastest punch wereto land, the victim is unlikely to travel through any

real difference in time in relation to the attacker. Were-calculated the time difference with a morerealistic striking velocity of 10ms -1. Applying thisrealistic value, the difference in time is in the orderof 10 -18 - 10 -21 seconds. This report would thereforesuggest a more apt and accurate phrase, followingreal world calculations to be, Im going to slap youinto the next femto second .

References[1] http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/www/ [2] http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/relativ/ltrans.html [3] Tipler, P.A. & Mosca, G. (2008) Physics For Scientists and Engineers, 6 th Ed. Freeman

http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/www/http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/www/http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/www/http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/relativ/ltrans.htmlhttp://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/relativ/ltrans.htmlhttp://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/relativ/ltrans.htmlhttp://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/relativ/ltrans.htmlhttp://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/www/