/lit/ - Literature

>>21641138

Feel free to request more. I'm saying this to you and to anyone who's interested in seeing more aphorisms.

Here's another one:


§1068. Force versus power and the purpose of philosophy

What's the difference between force and power? Laymen and even philosophers use these terms interchangeably, and I've probably been guilty of this in places where it doesn't matter (usually for literally purposes, to avoid repetition and make the text sound better), but ultimately it matters philosophically, not only in physics, and a lot, so we should clarify it. Have you seen those X-Men movies where Professor X stops time? He can still move around and do whatever he wants, but everyone and everything else is paused. Now imagine a fight between a midget and a massive bodybuilder. Of course the bodybuilder can generate tremendous amounts of force, but what if the midget could pause time like Professor X? He could take his time finding a stool, setting it in front of the bodybuilder, then climbing up there and pushing a needle in the bodybuilder's eye, then unpause time and win the fight. He doesn't even need to pause time; as long as he can move extremely faster than the bodybuilder, he can win despite the force disparity. That's a demonstration of a tiny amount of force—whatever little it takes to push the needle in the bodybuilder's eye—overcoming a massive amount of force: the bodybuilder's. Power equals work divided by time, and since work is force times distance, power is essentially force over time, so you can generate huge amounts of power even from a little force, if you can do it QUICKLY, i.e. faster than your opponent/environment (and your environment is ALWAYS your opponent at the end of the day, which is why environmentalism is a decadent movement). In fitness circles this effect is called "explosiveness", and is the difference between the "strengthlifting" lifts like the bench press and deadlift, and the "explosive" lifts, like the Olympic lifts like the snatch and the clean and jerk. So a champion strengthlifter may be strong as an ox because he can generate massive forces, but a champion Olympic weightlifter is far more powerful because he can generate far more power, and these two related but distinct qualities are prized differently by different sports and types of physical activities: the faster-paced the sport or physical activity, the more that power and explosiveness matters. So a strong but slow friend of yours would be ideal to help you move house, but not to run a sprint or play a basketball game, and so on.