Physicist claims victory over traffic ticket with physics paper

This article first ran in April and was one of the most popular stories from Motoramic in 2012. After it ran, the judge in the case said many of the physics arguments presented escaped her.

A physicist at the University of California San Diego used his knowledge of measuring bodies in motion to show in court why he couldn't be guilty of a ticket for failing to halt at a stop sign. The argument, now a four-page paper delving into the differences between angular and linear motion, supposedly got the physicist out of a $400 ticket. If you want to use this excuse, you'll have to learn a little math -- and some powers of persuasion.