5 replies to this topic

[sofiaweb]

I know the basics of how pain works. I know the basics of the nervous system. I had a question, however, that hopefully somebody here can answer. Is there anyway to calculate pain relative to something else?

For instance, which would probably hurt more: dropping a 5kg weight on your foot from 3 meters or dropping a 7kg weight from 2 meters on your foot. The 5kg weight will have more velocity on impact but the 7kg weight is heavier... I know that there are many factors (where the weight lands exactly, angle of weight (any sharp sections), etc.), but I am assuming that everything is the same except the mass and height.

This is obviously something that I do not want to test (although maybe some masochist will test it out someday...), so I am hoping that there is a way to calculate this out...

[Mordent]

Ignoring the concept of pain for a moment, the question you have is essentially which of the two masses would impact harder, if you will. Given that the masses don't bounce, stop in the same time, and that all of their kinetic energy is transferred to the foot, a bit of basic physics (Force = Mass * Acceleration, and a couple others) can give you your answer on which one would physically cause the most damage.

How this affects how much it hurts is an entirely different matter, but given a bit of common sense I'd say that the one that impacted hardest would hurt more.

If you need a bit more detail on the calcuations, just ask. I'm sure there are more than enough mechanics/physics students on here (me included) to help answer.

Edited by Mordent, 27 July 2009 - 02:46 PM.

[s243a]

I'm sure we can get some idea by measuring how much each area of the brain is stimulated.

[gisellebebegirl]

Yes, the force can be used to judge which would hurt more.
It would also depend on the angle of impact.
Anatomically, that is.. depending on where exactly something hits, there could be more or less damage internally.

[s243a]

gisellebebegirl, on Aug 8 2009, 04:48 AM, said:

Yes, the force can be used to judge which would hurt more.
It would also depend on the angle of impact.
Anatomically, that is.. depending on where exactly something hits, there could be more or less damage internally.

Pain and damage are two different things because with damage your body may go into shock and you won't feel any pain.

[anwiii]

i don't think you can calculate pain OR damage. only estimate. damage would have factors like bone structure....while pain would have factors like tolerance. i don't think there is a way to factor in any specific data for those things when comparing one person to another. even if there was a test done on one subject, how would you know how much pain that person can tolerate(more tolerance=less pain) or bone structure an other factures that would influence tolerance.