Frazz by Jef Mallett for May 18, 2012

It’s not going to be a leisurely, pleasant trip over the top. To keep the chains taut at the top of the arc, you’ll have to be swinging at a scary high rate of speed.

A concussion?

I tried this many times, loved it. Acceleration stops as you near apogee, then it’s all downhill.Since we can’t play “Crack the Whip” or “Red Rover”, what shall we do, being “old”?

LOL! I totally tried to see if I could swing around – a great childhood memory!

I thought of Mythbusters also, even with rockets it didn’t quite work.

I vividly recall swinging so high the chains lost tension and instead of the smooth glide down, I dropped several feet until the slack was gone. Thank goodness for a strong grip as more than once the seat went out from under me and it was only blessings and/or luck I didn’t break my back. Still, the comic gave me a big smile for the memory. Ahhh…the adrenaline addictions of youth.C

Think of the first four panels as consecutive frames on a filmstrip. The girl is trying to talk Frazz into pushing her hard enough so that she’ll swing all the way over the top and around (i.e., the first four panels aren’t really happening, they just represent her description of what she’d like to happen). His response is in the final panel.

You only need 2 G if you want full body weight tension over the top. Much less will do, 1.05 G would generate 5 lbs tension for a 100 lb kid…

Mythbusters left out one important thing. They forgot it was a child who goes over-the-top. They have stated in the past that “Buster” weighs 185 lbs., the size of an adult. I have seen several children accomplish the over-the-top swing. Granted, never with the smooth perfection of the one described above. As C Downs said, there’s always an abrupt drop after crossing the bar.

While that may be true, how much force would you have to shove her at the bottom of that to ensure 17 mph throughout the entire top arc? THAT’S the part that makes it scary…

surfstuff, Mstreselena, I bet they blew it up anyway, right?

@CDownsWhatever… I bawled like a 9-year old while they bandaged up my bloodied body. Matter of fact, I WAS 9 years old.

We DID have fun with the swings, didn’t we? there’s even fun that two adults can have. This reminds me I still want one of those. Maybe you can still google loveswing…

My brother used to do that swing really high and jump out thing… I could swing way up but was too chicken to jump out.

I owe Frazz, uh Jef, for another trip down memory lane. Reminded me of a vertical 8 in a T-bird. The fun/hard part was keeping the speed below 600 at the bottom of the pull out

If I feel like going head over heels like that, I will leave it to the pros and ride a roller coaster. That brings up a whole new set of fond memories. Very rarely included an upset stomach.

Does this comic strip remind anyone else of Calvin and Hobbes?

Ha—this one made me smile.

@IrishSnow35Here on this forum, we’ve often debated whether Calvin is a young Frazz, and whether Frazz is a grown Calvin.

It IS possible with two people STANDING face to face on the swing seat. When I was a little kid, the big kids would do this, pumping hard until the swing reached the necessary velocity to make a loop over the bar. Used to scare me to death just watching them do that.

@rgcviper

The style is very reminiscent to me of Watterson…but I must admit Frazz is far too laid-back to be a grown Calvin, unless Calvin either grew out of or got help for his insane hyperness.

However, it’s his hyperactive imagination that keeps us coming back to that crazy boy. x3