In a small hut located on a frozen Danish canal, we find three cats. Two of them we know well, they’re our intrepid feline travelers Henri and Cassie. The third cat is Henri’s good friend Daisy, the owner of the hut where they’re ice fishing.
Suddenly Cassie lets out an excited, “I’ve got one!” as her line goes taunt.
“Reel it in nice and slow,” advises Daisy, “otherwise the line might break.”
“Okay,” squeals the young kitten with delight.
It takes nearly five minutes, but at last a large wiggling fish emerges from the cold water.
Henri smiles, “that’s quite a fish Cassie. It’s almost as big as you.”
“Let’s see how much it weighs,” offers Daisy holding up what looks like a wide ruler with a hook attached at the bottom. Attaching the fish to it, she holds it up and reads, “five pounds.”
“Wow!” exclaims Cassie. “I don’t even think I can eat that much fish.” Pointing at the device Daisy used, she continues, “I’ve never seen a scale like that.”
“This is a spring scale,” explains Daisy.
“How’s it work?” asks Cassie before she can stop herself. Cringing slightly, she awaits Henri’s usual cry of “Physics!”
However, Cassie is pleasantly surprised when Henri leans back and closes her eyes. “You know,” she says, “that scale reminds me of a story.”
“A Dynamics Cat story?” calls out Cassie excitedly.
Henri nods.
“Dynamics Cat?” wonders Daisy.
“Only the greatest super hero ever,” answers Cassie.
Motioning for silence Henri begins, “it begins with Dynamics Cat flying above Newtonville …”
[https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/a7fca0a8-d609-42a7-9836-1679fed1b384/Dynamics-Cat-3-Front.gif/:/rs=w:1280]
Dynamics Cat, that defender of force and motion, flies high above Newtonville, watching for any threats against its citizens. Suddenly, his keen eyesight spies a familiar shape.
“Egads!” cries our hero, “it’s my arch nemesis Mr. Inertia.”
Streaking downward, Dynamics Cat lands ten feet away from Mr. Inertia who’s sitting on a bus stop bench.
Looking up, he gives a half-hearted smile. “Oh hey, Dynamics Cat. Good to see you again.”
“Dynamics Cat,” comes a boy’s cry as Billy Harper rushes over.
“You shouldn’t be here Billy,” scolds Dynamics Cat, “it’s not safe.”
Mr. Inertia lifts his head. “Don’t worry, I’m not here to cause any trouble.”
“You’ve said that before.”
“Well this time I mean it. I’m too upset.”
“Why are you upset?” asks Billy.
Slowing turning his head, Mr. Inertia looks sadly at Billy. “Because my boss is mad at me.”
Dynamics Cat doesn’t seem convinced. “You expect me to believe that you have a boss.”
“Sure. I think you would’ve realized by now that I’m not exactly self-motivated.”
Our hero nods. "Good point. So why’s your boss mad at you?”
“Because you won’t let me defeat you,” answers Mr. Inertia gloomily. “He did offer me one more chance though.”
Dynamics Cat takes a step towards Mr. Inertia. “I’m sorry, but I’m not about to let you defeat me.”
“Oh my boss gave up on that idea. Said I was too incompetent. He’s probably right.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Then why are you here?”
“I’ll answer that,” comes a man’s voice from behind them.
Turning around, they see a man dressed in a waistcoat, ruffled shirt, breeches, and a large hat. Doffing his hat, he gives a deep bow. “I am your humble servant, Professor Hooke.”
“Are you a pirate?” cries Billy.
The professor gives the boy a contemptuous glare. “No young man. I am dressed in the same manner as my illustrious ancestor Robert Hooke.”
Billy looks up at Dynamics Cat and whispers, “who’s Robert Hooke?”
“He’s a famous English scientist who was a contemporary of Isaac Newton,” lectures Dynamics Cat. “Although his work covered many areas, he’s most well-known for discovering that the force in a spring i linearly related to how much it is deformed. That’s known as Hooke’s Law.”
Professor Hooke bows once again. “Well said Dynamics Cat, but your description neglected one important point: Isaac Newton’s despicable behavior towards my ancestor.”
“I’ll concede to your expertise on the subject,” responds our hero with a slight bow of his own. “Now if you would give your promised answer.”
Professor Hooke chuckles slightly. “I thought you’d have figured it out yourself. Why to lure you here of course.” His chuckling turns into laughter. “After all, don’t they say that if you want something done right, do it yourself?”
Instantly, Dynamics Cat leaps towards Professor Hooke, but only travels a few feet before being pulled back to where he’d started. “What’s going on?” he cries out in surprise.
Professor Hooke pulls a small box from the folds of his coat. “I merely took the precaution of activating my Springtomic Field. Anything within the field acts as if it’s attached to a super-stiff spring.”
“You fiend!” cries Dynamics Cat. “You won’t win that easily.” With a mighty leap he shoots upward, but is quickly pulled back to the ground with a crash.”
Cruel laughter fills the ensuing silence. “You can’t break Hooke’s Law,” gloats the professor. “The harder you try to resist, the greater the force holding you in place. You’re only fighting against yourself.”
“That’s pretty good Professor Hooke,” comments Mr. Inertia. “Looks like I finally did something right.”
Professor Hooke gives him a condescending look, “yes, finally.”
Dynamics Cat looks down at Billy who’s struggling to move.
“Let Billy go,” demands Dynamics Cat. “Surely he’s no threat to you.”
Professor Hooke glares at the boy. “Not yet. He needs to learn a lesson about respecting his elders. Calling me a pirate, indeed.”
Dynamics Cat’s mind races, looking for a way to escape. “Keep the professor talking,” he whispers to Billy.
“Why are you doing this?” calls out Billy.
“To restore my family’s honor,” answers Professor Hooke. “Isaac Newton condemned by family to obscurity and ridicule by stealing the accomplishments that rightly belonged to my ancestor. But I will set things right. The name of Isaac Newton will be erased and replaced with that of Robert Hooke.”
“You’re mad!” cries Dynamics Cat. “No one will ever give in to such a demand.”
“With you out of the way Dynamics Cat, I will soon have enough satellites in orbit to encase the entire world in my Springtomic Field,” laughs Professor Hooke. “I suspect people will quickly agree to my request.”
Giving a final bow, Professor Hooke turns to go.
Suddenly, Dynamics Cat begins spinning, almost instantly disappearing into the ground.
Professor Hooke whirls around at the sound. “What …” he begins to cry, but careens into the air as Dynamic Cat emerges from the ground beneath him. With a mighty paw, our hero snatches the box from the professor’s hand and crushes it. With the other, he grabs the back of the professor’s coat to keep him from plummeting to the ground.
“But how?” cries a very surprised Professor Hooke.
“Quite simple,” explains Dynamics Cat. “By spinning, I never actually moved from where I was standing. Guessing your field would not extend underground, I used my angular momentum to tunnel downward escaping its effect.”
Struggling to free himself, the irate professor lets out a scream. “Curse you, Dynamics Cat!”
With a smile, our hero replies, “you’ll have plenty of time for that in the Newtonville jail.”
“Looks like I’m out of a job,” moans Mr. Inertia.
A menacing gleam fills the evil professor’s eyes. “Not quite yet,” he calls out. “Increase the little brat’s inertia!”
With a cry, Billy Harper falls to the ground.
“Billy!” exclaims the hero of acceleration.
Fighting to breathe, Billy gasps, “Don’t worry about me …” but is unable to finish.
“Well Dynamics Cat,” crows Professor Hooke, “the only way to help your friend is to get rid of Mr. Inertia. Unfortunately, you can’t do while holding onto me.”
With blinding speed, Dynamics Cat grabs a nearby light pole and wraps it tightly around the professor. “This should hold you,” he mutters angrily.
In a flash, the cat of speed is upon Mr. Inertia and in a single motion heaves him skyward. He rushes over to Billy.
“Are you okay?”
He nods and between coughs asks, “but what about Professor Hooke?”
Dynamics Cat gives a slight laugh, “he’s well taken care of.” Turning to point at the light pole, he leaps to his feet as he finds it deformed and empty. “Ye gods!” cries our hero, “he’s gone!”
“But how could he have escaped?”
“He must have used some sort of device to free himself,” suggests Dynamics Cat. “However, one thing is certain, we haven’t seen the last of Professor Hooke.”
Henri leans back contently as she finishes her story.
“It sure looked like Professor Hooke had won,” exclaims Cassie, “but Dynamics Cat was too smart for him.”
“Quite an entertaining story,” adds Daisy.
With a twinkle in her eye, Henri wonders, “so Cassie, do you know how that scale works now?”
The little kitten did her best not to roll her eyes, “does it have to do with that Hooke’s Law mentioned in the story?”
“Exactly,” answered Henri picking up the scale. “According to Hooke’s Law, the amount a spring deflects is linearly related to how much force is applied.”
Holding up the scale, she pointed at the numbers. “See each number on the scale is about one inch apart, so putting one pound moves the spring one inch and two pounds makes it move two inches. Thus, what we call the stiffness of the spring is one pound per inch since it takes one pound to move it an inch.”
Cassie looked over at her fish. “So because my fish weighed five pounds, it made the spring move five inches so it pointed at the five.”
“Quite right,” agreed Daisy. “And a fine five pound fish it is too. Let me get the stove going and we’ll soon have the finest meal of fish you’ve ever tasted.”
After their first bite, Henri and Cassie couldn’t help but most heartily agreed.