Mood:  caffeinated

Last night, while driving home from the MFA's firstfriday event with Jess, we got into a discussion of the devastation that a collision with speeding T car can impart to a  automobile, bike, person, etc. (Owing to the fact that while driving home, a T ran a red light, nearly broadsiding my car as I crossed Comm Ave.) Jess commented on momentum, and I said, "Yes, one-half MV squared." Jess responded, "Isn't momentum mass times velocity?" "No, I thought it was one-half MV squared," replied I, the former mechanical engineer.

After a quick search on Wikipedia, momentum is, indeed, mass multiplied by velocity. It's kinetic energy that's 1/2 mass times velocity squared. So, while we're both right - Jess on the definition of momentum, and me with the extra energy derived from motion that's imparted in a collision, I'm wondering if my basic confusion on this explains my test scores in dynamic systems...and, at the same time, reconfirms the wiseness of my decision to move out of mechanical engineering into marketing, then product management. A lot of lives have thus been saved. I'm pretty sure that everyone owes me a big, "Thanks for knowing enough to get your dumb ass out of that line of work before you designed any bridges or buildings that might have collapsed on us."

I'll be accepting contributions and drinks at your leisure.