3 ms·
Yes, I do think the military usage is different than the physicist's usage. I don't think (or at least cannot find) a consistent, hard-and-fast definition, but
by karaterobot 3y ago
Yes, I do think the military usage is different than the physicist's usage. I don't think (or at least cannot find) a consistent, hard-and-fast definition, but it seems like they are using kinetic in this sense to mean something that goes boom, and looks cool, and is hard to deny when shown on television. One thing I'm fairly sure about is that they aren't thinking about physics when they use that phrase!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_military_action https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_military_action
- jameshart 3y agoMilitary usage of the words ‘force’, ‘momentum’, and ‘charge’ also don’t follow their classical physics definitions. Likewise military specialists look confused when mathematicians ask them whether ‘military operations’ are commutative.
- karaterobot 3y agoI remember describing something as hyperbolic (meaning ridiculously overstated) to a guy with a degree in some sort of fluid mechanics related thing, and he was like "I'm impressed you know that word, but that's a very specific term that doesn't mean what you think it means...", because it is a term he only knew from work. I had to show him a dictionary to prove that sometimes the same word can have different meanings. I'm sure this is an example of that.