Think about the scimitar. It's a curved blade, heavy on one side and very sharp. You have much more force going that way. And then you poke in the other direction. So not having the blade actually gives you an advantage because you have a strength of striking one direction.
What if the laws of physics were different? Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly answer grab bag questions with astrophysicist Charles Liu about alien heists, gravity, and space exploration.
NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://startalkmedia.com/show/cosmic-queries-alien-heist-scimitars-time-in-a-bottle-with-charles-liu/
Photo Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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