Well, if the last ball hits the prisoner, the collision is very much inelastic, so that ball returns with much less energy than it started with, and the next time it probably doesn’t make it back to the prisoner…
Now, for real torture, you just miss and then after he’s relaxed, thinking he’s not going to get hit, give the ball a little shove… so that it just barely touches….
and so on…
Oh, yeah, and paint a smiley face (or any face) on that last one…
Well, if the last ball hits the prisoner, the collision is very much inelastic, so that ball returns with much less energy than it started with, and the next time it probably doesn’t make it back to the prisoner…
Now, for real torture, you just miss and then after he’s relaxed, thinking he’s not going to get hit, give the ball a little shove… so that it just barely touches….
and so on…
Oh, yeah, and paint a smiley face (or any face) on that last one…