Dot Physics

Here is the deal. Why would you put a lot of effort into explaining something wrong? I just don’t get it. Wouldn’t it be easier and better to just not say anything? The particular show I am ranting about is the 2008 Punkin Chunkin on Discovery (I think). Fairly ok [...]

Sometimes it is difficult to come up with new labs. Ideally, a lab should show use some of the basic physics principles as well as have something the students can measure. What to do with circular motion? I don’t know how I forgot this, but here is a lab I used to [...]

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 [...]

Thanks to reader Cleon for notifying me of this video on youtube. Check it out.

First, some notes.

I am sure you noticed that the aspect ratio is incorrect (at least that was the first thing I noticed). The boys must have made a 16:9 video, but then uploaded it to youtube as a 4:3. [...]

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:

I have been wanting to look at this whole curved bullet thing, but I wasn’t sure how to approach it. In case you are familiar with the myth, this is from the movie WANTED (which I did not see). Apparently, some people learn how to make bullets curve by moving their gun. Here is a shot of a bullet curving in front of someone.

In thinking about centripetal forces, I realized that I could come up with a situation in which the centrifugal force is the centripetal force. This is great. I can end all the confusion between centrifugal and centripetal by making a case where they are the same. So, here is the situation:

The most recent problem I noticed (I don’t usually watch the shows, so I have no idea how many errors there are) was in the episode where some kids were trying to design a roller coaster. The kids wanted to make the car do a loop. At first, they did not start off the car at a high enough position and it didn’t make it through. The next time it started higher and DID make it around the loop. Your comment was something along the lines of: “Gravity gave it energy and inertia kept it going through the loop”

One of my favorite podcasts to listen to while driving or mowing the lawn is Buzz Out Loud. Buzz Out Loud (BOL) is basically just a tech-based podcast, but very entertaining. Anyway, as part of my attention seeking disorder, I try to get mentioned on the show. I succeeded once when I [...]