Bang went the theory

We succeeded in scoring tickets for the 'bang goes the theory' live stage show. It's a show that makes science interesting, fun, loud and appealing for all age groups. The adolescents and the adults all quite excited. We were not disappointed. The presenters had a quirky fun style, with jokes for young and old, and there were some satisfying bangs. The whole 'theme' was, was rocket power better than human power, culminating in a man v rocket football kicking contest. They invited a dad shaped volunteer from the audience to kick a football into a net. Describing him as the pinnacle of human evolution, he just looked like an ordinary Sheffield bloke in trackies and a football shirt to me. He did a good job of belting the ball unfortunately over the net. His second attempt was on goal, and the ball was traveling around 47 miles / hour. Pretty impressive. Less impressive was he lost all his change out of his pocket, and him and the presenters were scrabbling around on stage to retrieve it!  Then came the rocket powered football boot. A rocket was if ignited at the end of a tunnel, it whizzed along the tunnel, propelling a boot mounted strategically on a block, which rammed into the ball. The ball, on target, flew into the back of the net, whilst the city hall gradually filled up with smoke. All very dramatic. But, rocket power was not victorious, only 36 miles / hour. 

I learnt you can kick a ball faster than a rocket can because only a fraction of rocket power can be transformed into energy, and if you intend to volunteer to kick a ball on stage in front of hundreds of people, wear suitable trousers.