Dot Physics

Maybe this is a little old (in internet age), but it is a great example. Here is the Loop-the-loop stunt from the show Fifth Gear.

I like this. First, it is a bold stunt. But also, there is some good physics here. Though, most importantly, the Fifth Gear producers were kind enough [...]

It’s odd, I have used centripetal acceleration quite often, but I never derived the expression that I use. To get to the point, the magnitude of the acceleration of an object moving in a circle is:

Cats can be entertaining – especially when they are someone else’s cat and that someone made a video. Really, this post is about analyzing video with Logger Pro (in a tutorial type fashion). I just happens that I chose this cat video to analyze.

A couple of commenters expressed concern over the use of centrifugal force after my rant on the use of the word force. So, what is the deal with these two terms? Are they ok to use? Are they real forces?

In this post, I am going to talk about real and not real forces as well as the fake centrifugal force (if you don’t like the word “fake” you could replace that with “fictitious”)

First, an example: suppose you are in a car at rest and press the gas pedal all the way down causing the [...]