Posts Tagged ‘torque’
Was the moomwalk fake? No, not the Apollo landings. I am talking about Michael Jackson’s moonwalk. You got to admit, he had a big impact on a lot of stuff and this is my way to give him respect – physics.
Maybe you have seen this trick. Basically, you hold by supporting it with two fingers from the bottom. You then move your hand around to keep it balanced while the stick is vertical. It is really not as hard as it looks. Also, there are two things that can make your job easier. Use a longer stick, or add an extra mass at the end of the stick.
This is one of my favorite demos. Easy to do and doesn’t really require any equipment. The basic idea is that you support a meter stick horizontally with two fingers. Slide your fingers in and they will both meet at the center of mass. Here is a video.
What happens when you push a rotating CD in space off it’s center? You apply a torque, but it doesn’t behave the same way as it would if it were not already rotating. This is sort of complicated, but here is a go at the explanation.
This is something I have thought about for some time. It is also something I (as a father of 4) have a lot of experience with. The problem is these infant car carriers. In the car they are not a problem. The problem is out of the car. Not sure [...]
The fun part about exploring the physics of Fantastic Contraption is coming up with new setups to test ideas. Torque is not too difficult to set up. Here is what I did:
In this setup, I have a “turning ball” with a wood stick attached to the side. I increased the length of [...]
One of my students showed me this game, Fantastic Contraption. The basic idea is to use a couple of different “machine” parts to build something that will move an object into a target area. Not a bad game. But what do I do when I look at a game? I think [...]