Why didn't I have a basketball scholarship?

One of the true joys of being a professor of physics is that it's my job to throw, smash, shoot, and otherwise have fun with things that, say, an English professor would never get to do.

Wednesday I was swinging a wooden ball tied to a piece of string (about 400 grams ~ 1 pound) around my head to demonstrate centripetal acceleration. I then realized, while whipping this around in front of the class, that the string I'd used was some old kite string I'd found in the lab. I quickly calculated that the likelihood of the string breaking and the ball flying through the air and smacking someone was high. Since we had also just calculated that it was moving about 6 m/s (~13 mph or so), I quickly stopped swinging it around. Later in Help Center, I couldn't resist playing with it again (spinning it vertically this time). Of course, the string broke! Fortunately it broke near the floor and it rolled harmlessly into the back of the room. Disaster averted!

Today I was talking about how gravity can act as a centripetal force. (Side note - centripetal means almost literally "center-seeking" - it's the force/acceleration that changes the direction of motion of an object.) Usually we talk about this in terms of orbits. But, I wanted to show them that we'd already talked about this earlier in the semester when we did projectile motion. In my zeal, I threw an eraser across the room. This is a big lecture hall. I was like 30 feet from the wall. Against the wall was a trash can. I just threw the eraser, aiming only enough to avoid hitting students (which I've nearly done this semester already). After throwing it I started talking again, but out of the corner of my eye I see I have just made a perfect swish into the trash can with the eraser!!!!! I actually got an ovation for it. Okay, it wasn't standing, but hey this is a physics lecture, you can't ask for too much! It was so clearly a miracle that I almost called it a day there. I probably couldn't do that again in a 100 years even if I tried.

I'm now going to be extra careful as I've clearly used up all the luck I was alotted in my life. I found and married Megan, and then I made a 30 foot shot with an eraser without trying.

Might as well close up shop - show's over. :-)