In class on wednesday, we got the opportunity to ride on a hovercraft. Riding on a hovercraft feels much different than riding on a plane or a boat. The hovercraft is uncontrollable, no forces are acting on it but the person pushing you across the gym. Basically, you are literally just floating without any control of your direction. Riding on, for example, a sled, is much different than riding on a hovercraft because in a sled you have control of how fast you are going or the general direction that you want to glide down the hill. In a hovercraft, you really are able to understand the feeling of being an object in motion staying in motion. A sled stops at the bottom of the hill because you were the force that caused it to go down in the first place. A hovercraft never stops unless another person or force causes it to.
I learned that the more mass one person has the harder it will be to be the force that stops them. I also learned that because of the pull of gravity and a thing called support force, an object has the ability to be moving with a net force of zero. The last thing I learned was that an object can be in equilibrium when the forces are positive and negative and equal causing it to have a net force of zero.
Acceleration, based on this lab, seems to depend on the amount of force an object is given and also its mass. The bigger the person on the hovercraft, the harder one had to push to make them go the same speed as a smaller person.
I would expect to have constant velocity when I pushed off on ice skates and glided there down the ice. Or, as we discussed in class, when I am skydiving and I reach a certain speed and then the support force matches the pull of gravity; causing me to fall at a constant rate.
Some members where harder to stop than others because some members had more mass than others. The more mass, the more force was needed to stop them.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Triple Axel: Inertia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=fvwp&v=yN9NyevGir8
In this video, a girl is doing a figure skating trick called a triple axel. In the first few seconds of the video, she is gliding on ice at a constant speed because she caused herself to go that speed and the law of inertia states that an object in motion stays in motion and due to the lack of friction between the ice and the skates she stays in constant motion.
In this video, a girl is doing a figure skating trick called a triple axel. In the first few seconds of the video, she is gliding on ice at a constant speed because she caused herself to go that speed and the law of inertia states that an object in motion stays in motion and due to the lack of friction between the ice and the skates she stays in constant motion.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
How is Ice Skating science?
In physics this year, I expect to learn why things are the way they are. For example, as we discussed in class today, why we have seat belts, why air bags keep us safe, how credit cards work, the secrets to winning a game of tug of war, why an ice skater's speed increases when they pull their arms closer to their chest, and many other things of this nature.
A question that is often asked by students is why we are learning the material we are given. Well, I think that studying physics is important because, personally, I like to know the reason behind things. We all know about the law of gravity, but I don't think that I know anyone that knows why gravity is a law. Aside from learning the reasoning behind things, learning physics is important because we see and use physics everyday of our lives. For example; the lights turning green at stop lights when you are waiting to turn left, or sticking our feet in the sand until the tide touches our toes, and even the gift of sight. Another reason that learning physics is important is because knowing that all of these everyday things are caused by physics can allow us to create even more things that are useful in our everyday life. Seat belts, stop lights, baseball, tug of war, and ice skating were all, most likely, figured out and some even created by physicist. With more knowledge we can create and give a reason behind the unknown.
When I signed up for the class physics, I realized I didn't know much about the course material. The questions I have about the class physics are as follows; How can you define physics? How were the things we are going to learn in physics discovered? Can more of ice skating, not just pulling your arms to your body in a spin, be applied to physics? And, what kind of things are we going to do to help us to learn how physics applies to everyday life?
The goals I have for myself in physics this year are as follows:
1.) To earn at least a 90 percent in the overall class average.
2.) To learn more about how physics applies to everyday life.
3.) To understand all the concepts that are introduced.
4.) To improve how to write about science.
A question that is often asked by students is why we are learning the material we are given. Well, I think that studying physics is important because, personally, I like to know the reason behind things. We all know about the law of gravity, but I don't think that I know anyone that knows why gravity is a law. Aside from learning the reasoning behind things, learning physics is important because we see and use physics everyday of our lives. For example; the lights turning green at stop lights when you are waiting to turn left, or sticking our feet in the sand until the tide touches our toes, and even the gift of sight. Another reason that learning physics is important is because knowing that all of these everyday things are caused by physics can allow us to create even more things that are useful in our everyday life. Seat belts, stop lights, baseball, tug of war, and ice skating were all, most likely, figured out and some even created by physicist. With more knowledge we can create and give a reason behind the unknown.
When I signed up for the class physics, I realized I didn't know much about the course material. The questions I have about the class physics are as follows; How can you define physics? How were the things we are going to learn in physics discovered? Can more of ice skating, not just pulling your arms to your body in a spin, be applied to physics? And, what kind of things are we going to do to help us to learn how physics applies to everyday life?
The goals I have for myself in physics this year are as follows:
1.) To earn at least a 90 percent in the overall class average.
2.) To learn more about how physics applies to everyday life.
3.) To understand all the concepts that are introduced.
4.) To improve how to write about science.
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