Love. Comets. Physics.

Love and physics, when heard for the first time, sounded like combining oil and water, as
these two liquids are immiscible with each other to form a heterogeneous mixture. Like love
and physics, completely combining and mixing the two would be unfeasible. Love and
physics are two distinct disparate entities, where the latter was meant to be grounded on
prediction, vividly describing the physical world, how it works and how it will behave.
Moreover, it was created and developed precisely for the definition of the most measurable
and fundamental quantities ever depicted in the universe such as accuracy, precision
physical quantities in the nature and science of physics; time, speed, velocity, free fall,
vectors, acceleration in kinematics; work and energy to the more complex measurements
such as vector operations and projectile motion in two-dimensional kinematics; Newton’s
tension, normal, DRGA, friction, and from the first to the third law; as well as uniform circular
motion and gravitation. Additionally, visual representations such as diagrams, charts, words,
models, equations can all be used to convey relationships in particular techniques and
methods more than humans can describe. Physics was made to be simple, systematic, and
predicted.

Contrastingly, love is a human emotion—vulnerable, complex, chaotic. Like the famous

adage--“love works in mysterious ways”, love, apart from being seen in the biological,
particularly the chemical perspective, and although love has provided the means to
perpetuate all of humanity, it indeed remained ludicrous and amusing as it has ever been.

“Kimi No Nawa” (Your Name), a Japanese film released on August 26, 2016 directed by
Makoto Shinkai. It tells the story about a comet's shards scattering over the sky as one of it
breaks off and heads straight for Itomori, a small town in northern Japan. Soon, everyone
will be wiped out—including the people that live in it. In spite of the fact that they have never
met and live thousands of miles apart, the two main characters Mitsuha and Taki, have
found a way to connect through this cosmic event that has captivated Japan—and
apparently the universe.

Humans have been looking to the skies for signs of the future since the dawn of time. As we
have evolved to become more impatient in our attempts to foresee the future, we have
employed the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars for prognostication. And so have
comets. Apart from playing their role as one of the mysterious entities floating in the vast
universe, these are stunning, scintillating, and have the potential to deliver both life and
death to Earth.

But when we even commence on perceiving things apart from the conventional, things start
to fall into place under the in-depth reign of physics.

Unlike meteorites, comets evaporate. Because of the gas that comes out as they approach
the sun, comets lose mass. In the context of its composition, these are very consistent,
consisting largely of water and carbon dioxide ices, with some dust thrown in making the
temperatures of near 30 K are compatible with the production of this material. Eventually,
they'll disappear completely as they shrink over time. How comets work can be embodied
within these four different concepts of physics: Newton’s law of motion, uniform circular
motion and gravitation, kinematics, two dimensional kinematics, and gravity.

Kepler's First and Third principles of circular orbit are both proved by calculating the
gravitational force on an object in a circular orbit, multiplying the mass by the centripetal
acceleration. When used in Newtonian mechanics, this equation "proves" that a circular orbit
is the solution to the equations of Newton’s laws and law of gravitation. It's not that
fascinating, but any radial force law we could come up with would provide the same circular
result. Any given force law can cause the same radial acceleration for any given particle in
any given direction of uniform circular motion.

When we talk about kinematics, we study the motion of points, objects, as well as the group
it comprises. However, the cause of its motion is not addressed.

In two dimensional kinematics, the comet might have encountered drag forces which both
slow down and/or sliced the mass. A deflection of actual projectiles appears to be occurring
because of the Earth's rotation out beneath its free-flight trajectory.

Lastly in the context of gravity, comets are occasionally pushed by gravity into orbits hence
bringing these nearer the Sun’s exterior. In many circumstances, their appearance is
foreseeable due to previous encounters.

Shoemaker-Levy 9, a comet that collided with Jupiter in the 1990s, served as a precedent
for the Tiamat comet fragmentation. Further into details, the comet was broken into tiny
pieces by Jupiter's powerful gravitational pull before impact. As a result, comet
fragmentation multiplied by gravity has been observed long before. Now, there lie scientific
evidence that proves the possibility of the comets reaching earth, in addition to the larger
masses of comets falling on land surface. In the context of physics, comets move at an
orbital velocity indicating its high speed motion. However, the impactor that caused
significant damage in the movie would be far smaller than expected. Rather, a 20 kilotons
similar that of the Hiroshima bombing would be adequate to clear one whole town, not by a
chunk of a comet as portrayed in the movie.

Also, when one says "near miss" with a celestial body, this equates to the "inside the orbit of
the Moon," which is to say hundreds of miles. Another questionable instance lies on the
displacement of the comet backwards its route. As is in the movie, the trajectory and time it
took to reach Earth were undoubtedly bizarre. Furthermore, the comet was split into two
large masses and was able to do a full orbit consequently causing massive destruction to
Itomori. Would there still be enough time to gather information and take action for
evacuation? Theoretically yes, and to answer this involves using logic, common sense,
intuition, math, science, and experience. However, the anime was meant for entertainment
and physics is one of the many aspects of science that shares interesting and overlapping
concepts seen in reality.

Comparable to the two main characters in the film, the connection that has surfaced and
resurfaced proved that there exists an unfathomable array of possibilities the world is yet to
discover. Physics provides us a way that is quantifiable and a language of a specific kind of
lens of the universe.

And without having to see the imperfection of how our universe works, neither you nor I
would exist.
References

Brandt, J. C. (2014, January 1). Chapter 30 - Physics and Chemistry of Comets (T. Spohn,

D. Breuer, & T. V. Johnson, Eds.). ScienceDirect; Elsevier.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B978012415845000030X

Brown, R. (2013). Introductory Physics I Elementary Mechanics.

https://webhome.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/Class/intro_physics_1/intro_physics_1.pdf

Khan Academy. (2018). What is physics? Khan Academy.

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/one-dimensional-motion/introduction-

to-physics-tutorial/a/what-is-physics

Lumen. (2013). Basics of Kinematics | Boundless Physics. Lumenlearning.com.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-physics/chapter/basics-of-kinematics/

Sukarna, H. (2014). Fundamentals of Physics Textbook.pdf. In www.academia.edu. John

Wiley & Sons,Inc.

https://www.academia.edu/37776346/Fundamentals_of_Physics_Textbook_pdf