Physicist Uses Expertise to Beat Traffic Ticket
A Southern California physicist has used his deep understanding of physics to beat a $400 traffic ticket.
Dmitri Krioukov, who teaches physics at the University of California at San Diego, wrote a four-page paper to the judge explaining how the ticket he had been given defied the laws of physics, NBC San Diego reports.
Krioukov had been ticketed for failing to completely stop at a stop sign. Using his knowledge of linear and angular motion, he explained in his paper how what the officer who ticketed him saw would be easily confused by the angle of speed of this hypothetical object that failed to stop at the stop sign, Krioukov told the station. “And therefore, what he saw did not properly reflect reality,” he said.
It worked. The ticket was dismissed.
Krioukov warns others who would try the same defense that it took a “perfect combination of events” for his argument to legitimately hold up in court.
