Isn't it amazing what we can see today, when almost everyone is empowered with a cellphone camera, plus an internet connection, (enabling them to share what otherwise only they alone would have witnessed)! https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10203679887478333 This footage is from Iraq, (but I'm not sure of which area)...
I think it can be explained by the branch of physics known as fluid dynamics. But since I often slept through those classes when I was a student, I can't give any detailed answers for it now... However, the basic explanation is that if enough energy is applied to a bunch of small objects (which when combined add up to a huge mass) - Than they can under some conditions start to behave exactly like a fluid would. So if this theory holds true, then I guess we would see similar sights on the surface of the Moon too, where there is no air, or water in liquid form... I think this is also how landslides occur, as what we assume to be solid side of a hill, (which actually is just tiny pebbles and rock held together by other pebbles and rock, compacting on each other by the downward force of gravity) - So when a new force is applied from another direction, like perpendicular to the normal force of gravity, (which can be caused by an Earthquake). Then I guess that is how we get landslides, when what we otherwise think of as a solid mass, starts to run down as if it was a liquid. Avalanches too I guess would follow the same principle. As only one external force is needed to shake loose the tightly held together bunch of small objects, after which (once the flow gets going) everything starts to behave like a fluid, even when there is actually no liquid water content in it!
WOW. I have heard of that happening but have never seen it. I only took Physics in high school and didn't understand a word of what the teacher was saying.
S-H, the videos you posted are amazing! Living where I have, I have seen small snow avalanches and have seen the result of large ones. Not something I want to be involved in.
Actually Toni, (and apologies in advance as this can get a bit off topic), but Physics is one of the easiest subjects to grasp - However, it all greatly depends on the type of teacher... So if he or she is willing to go into depth and give real world examples alongside individual topics. Then Physics becomes very easy to understand. But realistically speaking, (as the saying goes), those who can, do; while those who can't, teach... Or to look at it in another way, the key to making delicious food, is to keep everything simple. However we see so many people (for really no reason) going out of their way to add a huge degree of complexity in the preparation of food. End result is that everyone at the dinner table starts to frown. Still many fail to see that simplicity is the key, so I guess teaching is very similar to it in this way. All children are actually born to be scientists, according to this study anyway: http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-10/all-kids-are-junior-scientists However, convention schooling somehow beats out this trait from about 99% of students - But the 1% which remain, those are the stubborn ones, the troublemakers, the ones who refuse to be dictated to, who always question authority, and have a deeply rooted contempt for the chain of command. A lot like this guy, (see picture below). Oh yes, he too at one time didn't understand physics. In fact, he was thrown out of school at an early age, simply because he was dyslexic in childhood...
One of my favorite people to listen to lectures from is Neil DeGrasse Tyson, he makes it so much easier to understand and his version of Cosmos was really good, even though I still think Carl Sagan was sometimes easier to understand. My oldest daughter teaches 6th and 7th grade science and Einstein is her idol. She was terrible in science in school but found her calling when she got the job where she is now, they needed a science teacher (she had been teaching math before) so her first year was spent learning each night and weekend what she would be teaching the next few days. Now she is the best science teacher they have ever had and has been nominated for the Texas Medical Association Science Teaching Award. My physics teacher was a football coach too and didn't really care much about physics. The second semester we had a student teacher and instead of staying the classroom to help, we didn't see him again until the finals. Almost everyone of us failed, including the class Valedictorian, so the course grade was the same grade we received for the first semester, which meant I scraped by with a C- but at least I passed and got to graduate.
Yes, Neil DeGrasse Tyson is very good indeed, and so was Carl Sagan (without question) - In fact both these men can be credited for inspiring a whole generation of their time! However, my childhood favorite, from whom I took all my inspiration, was Nikola Tesla, physicist, inventor, and visionary...
