Has anybody out there even used physics or math to win over any court cases?

[wireless]

@Shade

Out of curiousity, what was the original defense going to be?

Really boring story (I told you it was likely going to put the judge to sleep!):
I had made what might be called an illegal “double right.” In other words, the farmost right lane was a right turn lane. I was in the next lane over which was a “straight through” lane. The vast bulk of traffic turned right at this point. I had tried to get over into the rightmost lane because I wanted to turn right, but traffic wouldn’t let me. Got beeped, etc. (I hadn’t gotten over earlier because I had recalled incorrectly that there were two right turn lanes - I hadn’t driven this route in 10 years - and it was too late by the time I realized my error.)

Anyway, I didn’t want to interrupt the flow of traffic behind me by stopping and waiting to get into the right turn lane, didn’t want to go straight because it was a road I didn’t know and looked kind of dangerous. So I turned right anyway from the secondmost right lane (into the secondmost right lane of the turned-into street so as not to impede the “proper” right turners).

So, my arguement was going to be that, while I had technically broken the law, given the circumstances I had made a decision that I thought was the safest option for all concerned. I know, I didn’t expect it to fly either, but thought it was worth a shot. And, in a way, it was!

Aren’t you glad you asked?

[Podkayne]

@CalMeacham

Well, there’s the famous case where Abraham Lincoln won a case by using an almanac to show that there was no moon on the night a witness claimed to have seen something by the light of it. It sounds like Presidential Legend, on the order of Washington’s tossing a dollar across the Potomac, but it’s apparently true. See the references in Richard Shenckman’s book. Apparently the issue is a little more complex than I’ve suggested – there was a lengthy and interesting article on this in Sky and Telescope , but I’ve forgotten the details…

My advisor once served as an expert witness in such a case. It wasn’t quite as dramatic; there was simply some question as to whether there was enough light for a witness to have seen the accused, and my advisor testified that the Moon was full on that date and up at that time. They asked him how he knew, and he said that he’d looked it up in the Astronomical Almanac. They asked him how he knew it was accurate, and he said he had never known it to be wrong on the subject of the phase and location of the Moon, and that the tables were calculated from the same algorithms used in the Apollo missions. And that was that.

[Shade]

@Mathochist

The claim about average speed between two points is the precondition for invoking the MVT. Since the average speed is zero, there must be a point in between where the actual speed is zero. I’m not sure how the Intermediate-Value theorem would apply any more directly than the MVT, though. In fact, he did implicitly invoke it to show that he passed through the same point again after rolling back a bit.

:smack: That’ll teach me to read quickly. You’re quite right.

The point I thought he was making was that the average speed was zero. ie. a stop.

[nocturnal_tick]

Back to the OP:

My no-longer maths teacher, while teaching us about conservation of momentum and oblique impacts told us how he was involved in a traffic accident in a box junction, I think where a car collided with him yet he was going to be charged with dangerous driving. Several diagrams later he explained how it would be impossible for the cars to be in their respective positions unless his car was stationary. The charges were dropped.

You always wonder when that day will come when maths saves the day.