3-17-09

Kyle Karpinski Tuesday March 17, 2009 Physics

We started the class today by reviewing the demo from yesterday. The demo which consisted of people going on the balance board and holding weights in their hands. They would go slow if the weights were held outward, and get a lot faster if they were pulled inward. This proves that when something is puled in closer to the body, it moves faster, than when something is further away from the body We are continuing to learn the aspects about torque and linear/circular rotation. We then debated over 2 objects, a disk, and a wheel. Whether or not the disk or the wheel would fly down a surface at a different rate. They have the same mass, just one is full, with the energy all over the object, and the other is open, with the energy pushed towards the outside of the object The wheel won the contest, again proving that the energy closer toward the middle of the object will move faster.

We then saw the experiment done by the expert Julius Sumner MIller. He proved that when weight is centered, it rolls faster. He even took 2 disks and put one's weight toward the outside, and the others toward the center. They were the same mass and we released them down the ramp at the same speed. The disk with the weight towards the center clearly won.

We then watched a modern marvels show, where we saw the amazing feats of people in the circus. They show a see-saw like structure made of carbon fiber that once people jump on one end of it, ejects people off the other end over 20 feet into the air. They then do multiple flips, bringing their arms in close to make them spin faster, and extending their arms to slow them down before landing. We then go to the juggler, who actually juggled chainsaws in the air. They show how he speeds up his hands and the different heights he throws the objects so he can keep it going.

That continued out class of physics, we were given no homework, and told we would be taught more about torque tomorrow. Word Count: 369