On Mon, 29 Nov 2004 10:45:14 -0500, J. Clarke wrote:

George wrote:

Oversimplification, I'll admit. The initial "hit" which I'm going to
presume will come from a tool, is the only one which doesn't necessarily
worry about incidence/reflection, etc. That's why it should be forced
down by cutting position.

And the theory I learned - non quantum - was that the energy of a
collision
divided equally on the hitter and hitee. How about that scientific for
scientific terminology!

That's strictly true only if the "hitter" and the "hittee" are identical.
In the case where the "hittee" is much more massive than the "hitter", if
the collision is perfectly elastic the hitter rebounds with nearly all of
its original energy.

Generally speaking a well-mounted lathe can be considered an immovable
object for the purpose of making a first approximation of the energy of a
rebounding object. Of course the collision is not generally perfectly
elastic, how far it deviates depends on what you're turning and what it
hits--a piece of balsa will generally deform a lot more than a piece of
lignum vitae. Unfortunately, that also means that in general the heavier
the wood, the more energy it's going to retain.

Elasticity? I'd rather do inductance calculations....

"Martin Rost" rostmartin @ hot mail . com wrote in message
...
George,
Theory is great, but there is a rotational component to the piece, so if
it
comes loose and contacts something it will tend to climb up it. Where
did Newton say anything about every hit takes half the hurt potential
away? There are elastic and inelastic collisions, in an inelastic
collision with one object moving and one anchored, there is a change in
direction of the
one object with minimal change is speed. As an example drop a golf ball
on
to a hard surface, it will bounce up more than half the height it was
dropped from.
Your suggestions for turning safely should be heeded none the less.
Martin

Have you seen "An Unfortunate Incident?" It may answer the question posed
in the subject of this thread. http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/incident.html