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Heavy Newspaper?
Place a ruler that is ok to break or a paint stick with less than half hanging off of the table.
Place a sheet of newspaper on top of the ruler and make sure to smooth it out nice and flat.
Give it a smack, it goes flying right?
Try giving it a chop, or smack now. What happens?
No Bracing with objects or No bracing with your other hand!!
That's Cheating.
The ruler perhaps broke in half, or paper ripped, but neverless a small newspaper sheet caused a huge difference.
The Science: Suction and Air Pressure: the air pressure pushes down on the newspaper causing the ruler to stay in place and creating suction of the paper to the table, letting you break it in half. Our atmosphere has mass, even light air has mass and pressure.
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