

He said force, not kinetic energy. They’re probably treating the acceleration term in F=ma as proportional velocity, which strikes me as naive, but it makes the math easier and it’s correct if the error bars are big enough… Functionally you’re comparing momentum at that point, but I imagine you can find some American truck built to evade CAFE standards that has a 4-1/3:1 weight ratio with some version of the Civic.
There’s lots of talk about the kids who didn’t wait 5 minutes, but I also find it interesting to read about the kids who did delay gratification. It’s not that they were superior specimens, or junior ascetics, or reborn Buddhist monks. They were as tempted as the rest.
They mostly avoided temptation by coming up with games to distract themselves. It’s something creative and it can both be learned and improved like a skill. It reminds me of the people who compete in memory games. It’s not a super normal talent, it’s games people can practice.
It does raise a question why kids who could do this were more academically successful later, and if kids who are taught this will have similar success later. Important questions that should be considered carefully.