This picture shows Gavin making a game out of saving the Earth. He just ran out of his stick of chapstick and knew he should throw it away. I caught him just as he was shooting it into the rubbish net. The empty chapstick container is a perfect example of a projectile. A projectile is anything dropped, shot, struck, or thrown under the influence of gravity where air resistance is nonexistant or negligable. A projectile's velocity can be separated into two parts, horizontal and vertical. Throughout the path of the chapstick container, its horizontal velocity does not change. Although the horizontal velocity remains constant, the vertical velocity of the chapstick container changes until it hits the base of the rubbish can, assuming its path is not obstructed by any other object. The vertical velocity of the chapstick is completely independent of the horizontal velocity and the other way around. If Gavin were to shoot the chapstick again with less force, missing the shot, the chapstick would hit the floor at the same time as it hits the bottom of the rubbish can.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Saving the Earth Can Be Fun
This picture shows Gavin making a game out of saving the Earth. He just ran out of his stick of chapstick and knew he should throw it away. I caught him just as he was shooting it into the rubbish net. The empty chapstick container is a perfect example of a projectile. A projectile is anything dropped, shot, struck, or thrown under the influence of gravity where air resistance is nonexistant or negligable. A projectile's velocity can be separated into two parts, horizontal and vertical. Throughout the path of the chapstick container, its horizontal velocity does not change. Although the horizontal velocity remains constant, the vertical velocity of the chapstick container changes until it hits the base of the rubbish can, assuming its path is not obstructed by any other object. The vertical velocity of the chapstick is completely independent of the horizontal velocity and the other way around. If Gavin were to shoot the chapstick again with less force, missing the shot, the chapstick would hit the floor at the same time as it hits the bottom of the rubbish can.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Physics on my Bike
Today is a lovely day for biking. I road around my neighborhood on my bike until I came to the end of the road. I decided to turn left around the corner and ride down another street. I approached the turn with negative acceleration even though I was moving forward because my rate of change in velocity was increasing as I slowed down. As I was turning, I was still accelerating even though I was moving at a constant speed because I was changing directions. Acceleration is change in velocity over change in time. My change in direction was changing my velocity because velocity is displacement over elapsed time. As a result, I was still accelerating as was rounding the corner. After I turned with constant speed and positive acceleration, my acceleration increased as I sped up out of the turn in a forward direction. After I circled around the block I had a negative acceleration coming to a stop in front of my house. My acceleration was negative because my change in rate velocity was decreasing as I came to a stop. Whenever I ride my bike I will always remember the day I realized I was accelerating as I turned down that street today.
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